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GingerM
I'm going to be getting into senior sessions this school year. I'm really excited! I did 4 this school year and loved them. I don't currently have an indoor studio, and while it's nice to have, I don't think it's always necessary to have(and besides, I enjoy shooting at different locations... I get bored easily:)). Since I don't have the indoor studio to offer(yet!), I want to offer everything else that rocks!

What sort of things are worth offering? Any companies you recommend going with for certain products?

Folios?
Albums?
Frames?
Grad announcements? (Create your own, or buy a template elsewhere?)

There is a possiblity of booking anywhere between 10-75 seniors....so I need to be ready. That's obviously more than the 4 I did last year. How many can I handle? I do primarily weddings, but wouldn't mind doing fewer of those and more portrait sessions... but I have no idea how many is a "norm" to book... It's just ME doing the work. I don't currently have anyone to help me.


Any other advice you'd like to offer, I'm willing to listen to! Senior photographers around here are pretty secretive, because really, there aren't THAT many (in my opinion). They each seem to offer a unique service. Feel free to PM me too. I'll be doing some research, of course, but I always appreciate any advice from those of you willing to share. It would be silly of me not to ask those of you who know that area!



Thanks!
Lynn Squier
Most popular items with our seniors:

Wallet photos in a variety of poses

Press printed book: we used to get these from Asuka, but now we get the lay flat books from WHCC and they have already been popular.

Regular prints: mostly 8x10 and 5x7, occasionally as large as a 16x20. Usually for aunts, uncles and grandparents, which is why most want 8x10 or smaller.

Show-it slideshow for their facebook page: we just recently started providing this with our sessions. We have always blogged the slideshow, but never had it for their facebook page. This has already been a great marketing tool for us.

A la Carte pricing

Doing an in studio ordering session: most people opt for this, even though they don't have to. They really like getting suggestions on what sizes would work best for specific photos and being able to view the photos larger on our computer screen.



Not as popular:

Folios: I took them off our offerings this year. I have usually sold one or two each year, but it just doesn't seem worth it to me for so few sales. I don't stock the folios or mats and it wasn't really cost effective whenever I had to order them.

Printed proofs: ok, these actually have been somewhat popular, but we decided to offer them as an option to purchase for our 2009 seniors, but we are not printing them unless they purchase them. We used to proof with these, and they had the option to purchase them (some packages they were included with). It just got too expensive and a lot of them didn't opt to purchase, but they loved having them. This year we are putting their proofs online for two weeks. If they order in that two weeks, we will leave them up longer, if they don't order, we pull them down. So far we have only used this method with our ambassadors, so I don't know how well it will work. We also encourage people to come in and order, rather than just ordering online. This definitely increases the order.
GingerM
Do you mean A La Carte pricing for the additional items? Or for the sessions themselves?

Thanks for all your insights!
Mark T.
Lynn has it right there.

The absolute most popular item this year is the senior album. I do one from ACI with thick glossy pages that rocks. I also do a Mom's book, like it, but it's a clean design with one image per page at 20 pages. The collages are always popular, like this...

Wallets, prints, etc. I do collections, but will do al-a-carte if it fits better.
I do a 5x30 print with 6 or 8 images in it, a 8 or 10 x 20 with 3 matted images. Those sell pretty well.

Sessions range from studio to location to both to specialty sessions like the Nightscape or Hollywood Glamour with a MUA.

Most choose either the studio or the location/studio combo.
Sticky
We have a great Senior business, but low volume. We do one Senior/week, only on Tuesdays(w/ Wednesday being the rain date). This is b/c we also shoot one Portrait Session/wk, as well as one wedding/wk. Then we have space available for E-sessions.

We like being low volume with seniors. And I totally agree with Lynn in offering a la carte ordering, as opposed to packages. They pay a Senior session fee with a print credit included.

I am sure this is not the best way or the only way, but it seems to really work for us.

good luck and keep us updated on the happenings!


Alyssa Lang
I agree that a la carte is the best way to go. A lot of time the "main" studio in town that does the yearbook pictures makes you buy a package with a lot of crap they don't really want, just to get what they DO want, and I like to differentiate myself from that. That was my least favorite thing when I was a senior so I didn't want that to be my thing.
BillCawley
Hey Ginger, how ya doing?

You're right, you don't need an indoor studio, but IMO you do need some location lighting to be able to get amazing/dramatic portraits on location at various times of day.

Definitely do a viewing/sales appointment a week to 10 days after the session - place a high value on your ala-cart items and offer packages that bundle the 'cool stuff' together with some prints (heavy on the wallets). Our average viewing appointment sale this year is hovering right around $900. Every one includes a small album and most of them include a big canvas (20x30 or 16x24 from P2C).

Show the images on the biggest screen you possibly can. I spent about $2k on an LCD display and it's so worth it! Create a high end feeling to the location you use for 'the show'. I installed a commercial espresso machine and have yummy chocolates to go with them so I can 'treat' them while they're viewing the images.

Know your products and prices really well so you can make adjustments to the packages to meet their needs without disrupting you 'cost of sales'.

I've started having them pick their canvas and book images at the viewing and then giving a print credit $ amount that equals the prints in the package so they can order the prints online from home (I don't post them online until after the viewing). That way they spend a little less time at our office and don't feel as much pressure to make every decision at once.

Good luck! The senior market is a blast. smile.gif

~Bill

Melissa O
QUOTE(BillCawley @ June 5 2008, 08:34 AM) *
Hey Ginger, how ya doing?

You're right, you don't need an indoor studio, but IMO you do need some location lighting to be able to get amazing/dramatic portraits on location at various times of day.

Definitely do a viewing/sales appointment a week to 10 days after the session - place a high value on your ala-cart items and offer packages that bundle the 'cool stuff' together with some prints (heavy on the wallets). Our average viewing appointment sale this year is hovering right around $900. Every one includes a small album and most of them include a big canvas (20x30 or 16x24 from P2C).

Show the images on the biggest screen you possibly can. I spent about $2k on an LCD display and it's so worth it! Create a high end feeling to the location you use for 'the show'. I installed a commercial espresso machine and have yummy chocolates to go with them so I can 'treat' them while they're viewing the images.

Know your products and prices really well so you can make adjustments to the packages to meet their needs without disrupting you 'cost of sales'.

I've started having them pick their canvas and book images at the viewing and then giving a print credit $ amount that equals the prints in the package so they can order the prints online from home (I don't post them online until after the viewing). That way they spend a little less time at our office and don't feel as much pressure to make every decision at once.

Good luck! The senior market is a blast. smile.gif

~Bill


Hey I like this idea, I may try it on my next Senior. Do you do a sneak peak or slideshow before the viewing? It pains me when they can't make a decision and the ordering process goes on forever.

Mel
GingerM
I have some questions! (Thanks, everyone! I appreciate all of this advice SO much. Hey Bill, good to meet you in Vegas:)).


I guess I have a couple questions--if anyone has input on any of these!

1) Since I don't have a home studio, would it be ok to have people into my home to review their pics on my big TV? If so, I would of course consider putting up some frames and canvases of my work? And then make sure my house is always clean:)

2) These senior albums you are speaking of, do you have a favorite company?

3) Do you edit all of the best photos and then show those to them? Or, do you do basic editing (to say, 30-70 pics....??) and then have them select the poses they want? Do you put a limit on how many they select? I currently offer the CD of the images if they purchase *$ past their print credit, and it seems to have been a great incentive since they want it for facebook or grad announcements (and they still order past that...). However, that means that if I did not retouch every image from the session (or, say, the best 50 that I narrowed it down to), all those images would go on the CD. They don't look BAD, since I did basic editing to them, but is it ok that I give them my work that their skin is not perfect on? As of right now, I asked them what their faves were and did the skin touch-ups and further enhancement on those photos. I'm thinking if I leave it that open ("choose as many as you like for me to enhance") that's not going to work with doing lots of seniors. Suggestions about solutions about how many are touched up, and/or how many go onto a CD....? (or any other thoughts?). I am the type of person who likes to give printing permission with CDs, because I want my clients to have all of the images, since I like all the images!
(Sorry I'm so wordy! read2.gif Thanks for reading that novel...)
Lynn Squier
QUOTE(GingerM @ June 6 2008, 05:55 PM) *
I have some questions! (Thanks, everyone! I appreciate all of this advice SO much. Hey Bill, good to meet you in Vegas:)).
I guess I have a couple questions--if anyone has input on any of these!

1) Since I don't have a home studio, would it be ok to have people into my home to review their pics on my big TV? If so, I would of course consider putting up some frames and canvases of my work? And then make sure my house is always clean:)

2) These senior albums you are speaking of, do you have a favorite company?

3) Do you edit all of the best photos and then show those to them? Or, do you do basic editing (to say, 30-70 pics....??) and then have them select the poses they want? Do you put a limit on how many they select? I currently offer the CD of the images if they purchase *$ past their print credit, and it seems to have been a great incentive since they want it for facebook or grad announcements (and they still order past that...). However, that means that if I did not retouch every image from the session (or, say, the best 50 that I narrowed it down to), all those images would go on the CD. They don't look BAD, since I did basic editing to them, but is it ok that I give them my work that their skin is not perfect on? As of right now, I asked them what their faves were and did the skin touch-ups and further enhancement on those photos. I'm thinking if I leave it that open ("choose as many as you like for me to enhance") that's not going to work with doing lots of seniors. Suggestions about solutions about how many are touched up, and/or how many go onto a CD....? (or any other thoughts?). I am the type of person who likes to give printing permission with CDs, because I want my clients to have all of the images, since I like all the images!
(Sorry I'm so wordy! read2.gif Thanks for reading that novel...)


1. Our home studio is our living room and dining room. We do our proofing sessions in the dining room on days that we are not shooting. When we are shooting, part of our living room furniture is in our dining room, in order to make room to shoot. When we are proofing, we proof at our dining room table. We proof on a moniter, very simple setup, nothing fancy.

2. For our senior books, we do press printed coffee table books. We now get ours from WHCC. We get the books with the lay flat pages. I am thrilled that they are now offering smaller ones as well as the 10x10.

3. We show about 40 to 60 photos. Adam does basic adjustments on ours, but we never do heavy work on proofs so this isn't any different than what we usually do. Adam picks a few of them that we call something like art images. On these few he does some effects, such as black and white, sepia, vignette, cross-processed, vintage or whatever he wants to do. We tell them they can have any effect on any image when they order final prints, they just need to let us know if they want an effect. We do not offer digital files for portraits of any kind, including seniors. If they want to purchase a single file for some specific need we talk to them about it on a case by case basis. We do allow them to place their slideshow on their facebook page, we actually encourage it because it is great marketing for us.

If you would like to look at an online proofing site of one of our 2009 seniors you can go to this link or this link. You can view blog posts which have slideshows linked here. The blog link goes to the senior posts that are on our blog. To see the slideshows, you click on any of the photos. The top three on the blog posts are for some of our 2009 senior ambassadors. Below those are some of the seniors from this past year.
AEkstrom
The most popular for me is......

Senior Blends....
Click to view attachment

7x7 Hardbound Coffee Table books from Asuka...though this year I will be doing the one's from WHCC that lay flat.

Folio.

Wallets
BillCawley
QUOTE(GingerM @ June 6 2008, 02:55 PM) *
I have some questions! (Thanks, everyone! I appreciate all of this advice SO much. Hey Bill, good to meet you in Vegas:)).
I guess I have a couple questions--if anyone has input on any of these!

1) Since I don't have a home studio, would it be ok to have people into my home to review their pics on my big TV? If so, I would of course consider putting up some frames and canvases of my work? And then make sure my house is always clean:)

That's what we do - It's in our dining room, the coffee cart is a stainless rolling rack I got at Costco, the dining room has canvas and mounted metallic samples on the walls - I keep the area very clean, bright and clutter free - I want it to feel high end and really showcase the images and products. I also want to make it feel like a treat to come here. smile.gif


2) These senior albums you are speaking of, do you have a favorite company?

ACI 7x7 is what we've been using - but I'm switching to the WHCC 8x8 hinged page books. Both are very nice. I also include a couple 3x3 ACI books as a bonus - it's not listed on the price sheet but everyone that gets the book gets them (and love it of course).


3) Do you edit all of the best photos and then show those to them? Or, do you do basic editing (to say, 30-70 pics....??) and then have them select the poses they want? Do you put a limit on how many they select? I currently offer the CD of the images if they purchase *$ past their print credit, and it seems to have been a great incentive since they want it for facebook or grad announcements (and they still order past that...). However, that means that if I did not retouch every image from the session (or, say, the best 50 that I narrowed it down to), all those images would go on the CD. They don't look BAD, since I did basic editing to them, but is it ok that I give them my work that their skin is not perfect on? As of right now, I asked them what their faves were and did the skin touch-ups and further enhancement on those photos. I'm thinking if I leave it that open ("choose as many as you like for me to enhance") that's not going to work with doing lots of seniors. Suggestions about solutions about how many are touched up, and/or how many go onto a CD....? (or any other thoughts?). I am the type of person who likes to give printing permission with CDs, because I want my clients to have all of the images, since I like all the images!

We don't include any product credit with our shooting fee - has to do with WA state sales tax - I explain the tax situation to each customer and that it's saving them money and they love that. The DVD is available as a bonus if they spend $1k or more at the viewing session. It's a cool product with a custom menu, slideshow and the original files included. We show somewhere between 40-60 images - in the first pass they usually cut it about in half, meaning they chose 20-30 images that they love from the set, that's when I talk about the book option and how they can get 20 images in the book (I let them go to 22 with a couple doubles on pages). This is actually the first moment that pricing is discussed in detail. I know it's a cliche in this business to make them view and fall in love with the images before they see the exact pricing for the products, but darn it - it works. Nobody can look at a book or canvas of somebody else's kids, no matter how nicely done, and think it's worth what I have to charge to stay in business. It just doesn't work that way. But if they love the images and are amazed by the quality product samples and are having a fun time to boot, they'll spend the money and recommend the experience to their friends. perfect. smile.gif

I do retouch all those images - to a varying degree - it has to look awesome on the 47" LCD. Most people can't envision what an image 'could' look like, it's not their job, it's mine. I certainly do some more retouching on enlargements or canvas images, but I spend 1-2 minutes on each image dialing it in before the viewing - it's worth it to me.

If you have a chance next year to see Tero Sade when he and his wife are doing their tour leading up to WPPI, don't hesitate to go.



(Sorry I'm so wordy! read2.gif Thanks for reading that novel...)


My answers in bold.

~Bill
BillCawley
QUOTE(Melissa O @ June 5 2008, 10:20 AM) *
Hey I like this idea, I may try it on my next Senior. Do you do a sneak peak or slideshow before the viewing? It pains me when they can't make a decision and the ordering process goes on forever.

Mel


Yup, I put about 5 images on the blog - no more - I don't want 'all' the best shots on there. They usually fall in love with one or two of those prior to the viewing and almost always the wall art comes from those images.


GingerM
QUOTE(BillCawley @ June 7 2008, 01:50 PM) *
My answers in bold.

~Bill


I appreciate all your wordiness (I usually am, myself!). I heard Tero speak at WPPI this year and was very moved... And he definitely knows how to run a business. I was a fan of his coffee and chocolate idea, too!:)

Thanks a bunch everyone!
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