Question on School Portraits in Italy?
So I came up with an idea that I think would be great here in Italy. Considering I grew up in the States and every year until I graduated school we had Picture Day...not just the group shots but individual pictures as well. I noticed that here in Italy they don't do the individual pictures with the various packages and print sizes. All they do is group shot of the class and that's it. Now I'm not a professional photographer with a studio or anything but I have taken various classes and know how to work a camera. I would go to the schools and have the classic "picture day", then take the prints to a local photography store and have them developed. I would like to one day be able to operate from my own studio, but to start out I think that's the only way to go about it. What I'm looking for is some suggestions on how to go about getting this started. Could this be something interesting and innovative here in the town I live in and the surrounding towns, or am I just going to be wasting my time and money. Any sort of feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Photography - 3 Answers
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1 :
no, it's not a waste of time and money.. what you're doing is great.... and a single small step will help you a lot... so opt for these individual snaps and you'll surely owe a studio of your own in the future! good luck..:)
2 :
I'm wondering what town you live in. I do freelance photography in Germany, Im stationed here with my husband. I know the same thing applies to the schools here, off post there aren't yearly school portraits. In my opinion I don't think it would be cost effective to open a business that provides packages for every student in the school. Printing costs are much higher in europe, as is everything else, than in the states. Even if you had them shipped to Italy through a US company. The concept in the states is to provide the entire package and you just buy the prints you want, the money is made by what the students purchase and the remaining photos are discarded. They do this on post here for the kids and families, these companies make you pay a sitting fee to pay for the costs of the prints and give people an incentive to purchase more by giving you the free 8x10 that is not the best shot, but showing you the others. I know these companies exist around the posts in Italy, not sure about the economy itself. I think a better idea would be to market yourself as a freelance photographer first, you can build your equipment starting with a nice camera and tripod, and then as you build a client base market yourself at the schools rather than trying to jump through the hoops to be the schools exclusive photographer.
3 :
Distribution and the processing of orders is the hardest part of volume photography. Perhaps you could start with a small day care, nursery school or kindergarten and work your way up. I suggest pre pay because most schools and teachers do not want to be responsible for the collection of money. The schools need to be promised a percentage of the income in order to comply. 25% to 35% should be built into your package price.
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