Anyone have a portrait studio?

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bcaparoon

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I'm not sure if this forum is just about the art of photography or if there are any people out there with their own studio. I had a question though.

In the US we have high school seniors that in their graduation year they all get their senior pictures taken to be place in the yearbook and to hand out to their freinds before they go off to college.

Is that a trend you see in the UK and if so how do you guys market to this group?
 
You'll probably find that 99% of schools don't have yearbooks to be honest. You used to have the annual school photos but they never went into a book or anything like that.
 
hey I'm an expat American so I'll tell ya! They don't do highschool graduation here. The school system is very different and going from "A" levels to university is not a cap and gown ceramony like it is in the US. So that just isn't a niche that needs to be filled here. If ya have any other questions just let me know!
 
How does the general market there work in portraits? Is there much of a demand for it?
 
There are many professionals with studios in the UK, a quick net search shows that so the business must be there for them to succeed.
 
I think we're just starting to see this kind of thing breaking through here.
A lot of of High schools are now holding Proms.
I tend to get a lot of business from teenage girls wanting their nails done at Prom time and the demand seems to be growing.
When my son left school 2 years ago, he did indeed receive a Year book ... he was the only miserable sod who's face wasnt in it, lol!

Im fairly new to photography but, its the portrait side that interests me and Id like to learn more about it.
In my area, in recent years, the portrait business seems to have gone through the trend of 'Makeover shoots'.
I worked for one of these companies very briefly, where women payed silly money to be heavily made up, nails & hair done then offered heavily soft-focused prints at more ridiculous cost.

We're now seeing the trend for 'Venture' style portraits here. The style is very high key with the clients adopting very relaxed poses &style .. and if you go to the Venture company itself ... again very expensive!
 
I went to a PPA convention in New Orleans right before it got destroyed. I learned a lot of really good marketing ideas but I can't seem to get any of them to work very well. One of my favorites was to create an "Ambassador" program.

This is where you find a couple of kids in high school to let you take their senior pictures for free and then you print some wallets sized images with your logo and contact info out on them (on the back). Then let them hand the images out at school. The drive is that the ambassador will get their friends to come in and every friend they get so much "studio" credits and then they can spend the credits on images to be printed or whatever they want.

It's a very cool idea but I couldn't get the word out effectively I guess.
 
Try including some drugs with each sample ;)
 
I guess you'd have to make sure you target the coolest kid or the prettiest girl in the school for that one to work to full effect. Also, if youre aiming the idea at the senior market, dont you have a limited time scale for it to work?

Ive also noticed where I live, that in the middle of the aisles of our local shopping centre/mall, over the last 6 months we've had 3 studio photographers set up picture-boards with sales reps.
There always seems to be potential clients talking to them so it must obviously be worth their while to stick around even with the extortionate prices the place must charge them to set up in there.
 
On that note I've seen a woman in a local shopping 'mall' using a digital video camera on a tripod, connected to a laptop and printer. Doing instant portrait shots usually of babies / small children against a basic backdrop. The results could not be great quality but she was certainly getting custom.
 
We have something similar at our local mall. It isn't great quality but it also isn't expensive and if I wasn't into cameras it would be a great way to get pics for the grandparents.
 
What do you guys do to get new customers? We try to be on the middle to high end but so far we are struggling to get off the ground.

Everyone loves our work but would rather go to a chain studio but they get suckered into paying just as much as if they were to come to use. We'd love to get into more model and actor headshots but there's not many where we are.

I own another business that makes money but would gladly give it up if we could get our studio out of the red and start making a profit.
 
It's probably a bit late now with Christmas just around the corner but what I intend to do next year is approach a few local schools and speak to them about advertising family portraits at a knockdown cost (around £30?). I only have a portable studio and I haven't worked out all the details yet but I'm thinking of hiring a small conference room in a hotel or a community centre (or even the school hall) for a weekend and book the families in for 20-30 minute slots, the price will include one print but most importantly I will make a donation to the school for every time slot sold, that should get them on my side and hopefully help to sell a few slots. Considering the amount of families in the area I think there could be a few busy weekends on the run up to Christmas.

Obviously it won't make huge money but it will a) get my name out there; b) the possibility for reprints will be high for families; and c) hopefully get some referral and repeat business.
 
I have to agree with colin (Hacker) that get your name out there with some great photos at "cheap" prices. Meaning sitting fee with 1 pic $30 or so. But then reprints would cost more of course. Plus you will probably find that most of the people on here do portraits and photography as a second to there normal income. It sort of supports their "habbit".
 
Some studios franchise this kind of work out to (art or photo) College students, who take a (very small) percentage of the takings.
Saves the 'serious' photographer dirtying his hands by doing portable studio stuff in shopping malls etc.
 
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