Shooting a school prospectus
- Thread starter simonkit
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- Daryl
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Shouldn't this be in the business section?????
2 ways of doing depending on size of school and what type of school.
if like me you to shoot the 3 jobs or so you can get from a school then we shoot it for free as i want the bookings that could be worth £3k to £8k a year from them.
Primaries do not have much to cover and can be done in a morning so £250-£350
Senior schools have much scope and fun ie: science labs and catering so you can set up great shots. Sports also can be great..
£550-£650
you need to go through what the school wants and also the school has to check who(what children have permission to be in the photos ) for web and brochure use.
They will give you a list who can be in shot.
Nice money earner there if you approach it right.
good luck.
2 ways of doing depending on size of school and what type of school.
if like me you to shoot the 3 jobs or so you can get from a school then we shoot it for free as i want the bookings that could be worth £3k to £8k a year from them.
Primaries do not have much to cover and can be done in a morning so £250-£350
Senior schools have much scope and fun ie: science labs and catering so you can set up great shots. Sports also can be great..
£550-£650
you need to go through what the school wants and also the school has to check who(what children have permission to be in the photos ) for web and brochure use.
They will give you a list who can be in shot.
Nice money earner there if you approach it right.
good luck.
OP
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Thanks for the info, very helpful...
If I get the work then equipment wise unless they request studio portraits I suppose I should be fine with a flashgun?
Ideally I'd like to take as many shots as possible in natural lighting but obviously this is limited by the areas they want shots of - I'm going to suggest we ideally do the shoot on a decent weather day which will obviously be better for the outside shots but should help with natural lighting in the interiors too
Simon
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- Mike
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Hi Simon
I have done one of these as I work in a school (no budget for hiring a pro). You will probably be shooting children doing interesting things around the school.
You will need to watch out for a lot of details, school uniform that conforms to the school's uniform policy, kids reluctant to do up top buttons/ties etc, background clutter (of which there is a lot in a school), general grubbiness (ditto) and watch out for obscenities written on the kids' hands/desks etc.
Have fun with it!
Mike
I have done one of these as I work in a school (no budget for hiring a pro). You will probably be shooting children doing interesting things around the school.
You will need to watch out for a lot of details, school uniform that conforms to the school's uniform policy, kids reluctant to do up top buttons/ties etc, background clutter (of which there is a lot in a school), general grubbiness (ditto) and watch out for obscenities written on the kids' hands/desks etc.
Have fun with it!
Mike
OP
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It's a private school that requested the quote so I'm guessing the above isn't quite so relevant...
The suggestion is that the shoot could be completed in one day but 50 photographs have been requested, this sounds a pretty big ask to me - planning on quoting full hourly rate for the 1st full day and then a slightly reduced rate for any further visits needed.
Simon
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What ever you do Simon in or out what ever lighting you will be best to do fill in flash. sunny days more so.
Photography needs to look a stage up from something a teacher could do them selves?
http://www.cleverbox.co.uk/41/photography
http://schoolprospectuscompany.co.uk/
http://www.prospectuspictures.com/
Photography needs to look a stage up from something a teacher could do them selves?
http://www.cleverbox.co.uk/41/photography
http://schoolprospectuscompany.co.uk/
http://www.prospectuspictures.com/
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I do a lot of work with private schools. First thing to do is ensure you have a teacher or school admin with you at all times and get the school to give you a badge or whatever that identifies you as a legit visitor. Unfortunate but true.
I usually start by asking the school to show me examples of what they think "good" looks like. 100% of the time they will have competitor school brochures that they have been looking through and will have an idea what they want.
I always scout the school inside and out for good locations. A very good tip is to look for colours that match the school colours or are at least complimentary. I do this a lot and often shoot wide aperture shots with "on message" blocks of blurred colour in the foreground or background.
The setup shots with the kids and head are always a laugh. ask the school to pick some suitable kids and then younare aft some pastoral-liske shots showing how caring the head or other teachers are.
As for any people photography, chat to your subjects first to get them at ease. Tell the, what you are doing so they know what to expect. Be clear if you want them looking at the camera or not etc.
I usually do a variety of poses for each shot I set up so you have a good variety to pick from. You should also get a number of head and shoulder shots of the head and other important teachers for the school to use during the year for newsletters etc. Get the head to have 3 or 4 changes of jacket/shirt/blouse and use different locations.
I'll often shoot with an off camera flash through a white umbrella, and a ring flash to fill. Keep it simple and dont over-flash the shot. Get some settings dialled in and then just use them again and again in different locations (assuming the ambient is the same obviously). Even for natural light shots, a tiny bit of flash to get a catchlight in the subject's eyes makes the pictures come alive.
Good luck.
I usually start by asking the school to show me examples of what they think "good" looks like. 100% of the time they will have competitor school brochures that they have been looking through and will have an idea what they want.
I always scout the school inside and out for good locations. A very good tip is to look for colours that match the school colours or are at least complimentary. I do this a lot and often shoot wide aperture shots with "on message" blocks of blurred colour in the foreground or background.
The setup shots with the kids and head are always a laugh. ask the school to pick some suitable kids and then younare aft some pastoral-liske shots showing how caring the head or other teachers are.
As for any people photography, chat to your subjects first to get them at ease. Tell the, what you are doing so they know what to expect. Be clear if you want them looking at the camera or not etc.
I usually do a variety of poses for each shot I set up so you have a good variety to pick from. You should also get a number of head and shoulder shots of the head and other important teachers for the school to use during the year for newsletters etc. Get the head to have 3 or 4 changes of jacket/shirt/blouse and use different locations.
I'll often shoot with an off camera flash through a white umbrella, and a ring flash to fill. Keep it simple and dont over-flash the shot. Get some settings dialled in and then just use them again and again in different locations (assuming the ambient is the same obviously). Even for natural light shots, a tiny bit of flash to get a catchlight in the subject's eyes makes the pictures come alive.
Good luck.
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I do a lot of work with schools too. Loads of good advice above - often the non-posed, almost more 'reportage' shots are better than posed photos, especially for primary, where kids don't understand the concept of not posing, so pull awful huge smiles.
School visitor badge stuff is complete standard fayre. I don't always have an admin person with me, depends on the school. (yes, I am CRB'd - but that's an irrelevant debate)
I shoot a lot of wide apertures.
Lots of key things to look out for - the school probably also has a few key 'attributes' eg 'friends', 'caring' sharing' etc etc usual stuff - try to think what images will work for these. Other things that are always good are stuff like 'teacher helping student' or 'two students working together' - look for where students are interacting and talking to each other.
If any kids CAN'T be photographed, have them put a sticker on their jumper, or for secondary, mention it to them.
In classrooms, I often use a single speedlight slightly warmed up, popped off the ceiling just to up the contrast a bit from what can come in the windows.
School visitor badge stuff is complete standard fayre. I don't always have an admin person with me, depends on the school. (yes, I am CRB'd - but that's an irrelevant debate)
I shoot a lot of wide apertures.
Lots of key things to look out for - the school probably also has a few key 'attributes' eg 'friends', 'caring' sharing' etc etc usual stuff - try to think what images will work for these. Other things that are always good are stuff like 'teacher helping student' or 'two students working together' - look for where students are interacting and talking to each other.
If any kids CAN'T be photographed, have them put a sticker on their jumper, or for secondary, mention it to them.
In classrooms, I often use a single speedlight slightly warmed up, popped off the ceiling just to up the contrast a bit from what can come in the windows.