Filling Your Portrait Studio With High School Seniors

I had a question come through yesterday on the high school senior market and how you build a list of qualified prospects. And since the high school senior market is coming up in full force here in the States, I thought it would be the perfect time to create a new post and look at how you can fill your portrait studio up with high school seniors.

Like other niches within the photography industry, the high school senior market has become a cutthroat business. Years ago, many high schools in our area had a pre-select group of photographers to choose from. You had to go with one of them to be included in the yearbook. So of course all high school seniors selected from those few photographers. Then things changed.

Now any photograph can be included in the yearbook. A child simply has to get it into the yearbook office before the deadline. There are very few restrictions, which means if you look at a yearbook, you’ll see the good, the bad, and everything in between.

Dig Deeper: 7 Tips To Take Better Senior Portraits

Because people are looking for extra money, the high school senior market seems to be the one area that is easy to jump in. With no requirements from the schools, its just a matter of offering a low enough price to gain some business, or so a lot of photographers seem to think. And in reality, it works. [Read more…]

How To Develop A Great Senior Portrait Package

Each year over 2 million high school juniors make their way into their senior year, and start the long trek to finishing up high school and starting out life as an adult. Because it’s the last step to enter adulthood, it’s always been a right of passage to commemorate it with a special portrait session – the high school senior portrait.

Competition is fierce within this marketplace these days. Even just a few years ago, many high schools had a closed door policy, and they would interview and select a few photographers to recommend, and require each of their seniors to go to a pre-approved photographer. Schools have opened up now, and allow anyone to go anywhere. Yearbook inclusions are more lax, and you’ll see a variety of sizes, styles and displays within the senior graduating class section.

Just because anything goes doesn’t make that the right approach to senior photography. If you make it an experience, it can still bring you in a substantial amount of income during the few months of shooting time. But you have to know how to package accordingly. Here’s some advice.

Start out with a plan

Many senior photographers grab a client, head out to the park, and spend 30 minutes shooting a few images. They put them on a disk, hand it over to the client, and pocket $50 or so. And that’s the end of the revenue stream. You will never get a reorder if you hand over the files for this price. The client will take them and run, and do whatever they choose with the images. So that should never be an option.

Your first strategy is to set up more than one package, and gently lead a client to the higher package. [Read more…]