Prom is a fun and busy time during a senior’s last year in high school. It marks the end of a senior’s high school days with a fun celebration, allows them the chance to get dressed up, hang out with their friends and celebrate. And high schools all across the country are in the midst of prom season.
In addition to being a wonderful time for teens, this is also a great opportunity for photographers. Prom photos are a must and taking these photos for your current senior clients or potential clients is a great business opportunity.
I wrote a post last week on setting up a DIY backdrop for prom photos and you can read that here. But today, we have some great information from another photographer. Morgan Werner of Morgan Werner Photography in Orangevale, California shares her tips for photographing PROM! Check out what she has to say below! Thanks for sharing Morgan!!
My main love in photography is my seniors. But, coming in a close second is proms! Prom photography is such a great way to familiarize yourself with some new potential clients and their parents, especially the underclassmen, and sometimes their dates from other schools that you might not have “infiltrated” yet. They’re also a great incentive for your reps or as an add-on for your regular senior clients.
2013 is my fourth year of shooting proms, and each year it gets bigger and bigger for me, with this year being my biggest year yet! By the time prom season is over, I’ll have shot six or seven weekends of proms, with some of those weekends including two or three different proms (I’ll go over how I handle the higher volume on the same day a little later). So, I’ve had the last few years to really perfect my system, although I’ll constantly be working out the kinks. Here is my system:
MARKETING: Like anything else with teenagers, it’s all about the social media! The first thing I do is create a Facebook event, adding all the kids I can to it and asking them to invite their friends. Reps play a big part in this for me, as I try not to add every single teenager under the sun to my personal page and therefore need my Spokesmodels’ help to spread the word. I update this event a few times a week, and watch for kids asking questions so I can answer them. I also create a marketing piece for my Facebook biz page and Instagram. If you have a nice following on Twitter, utilize that! More and more kids are leaving Facebook for Instagram and Twitter. Tag anyone and everyone you can in these marketing pieces. Send it as picture messages to everyone you can, asking them to forward it to everyone they know. (This is all part of my Spokesmodels’ job description to repost, forward, and tag all my marketing pieces. It really helps!) My Spokesmodels also have the incentive of getting FREE prom pictures when they bring me four or more couples.
PREP: The preparation needed is based on the volume of couples you’re expecting. My proms and homecomings are pretty high volume these days (at least by my standards – I just booked my 27th couple for a Junior Prom this weekend!), so I have to keep things really organized as far as appointments are concerned. I use a spreadsheet to keep the appointments straight. I use fill colors on the cells in the spreadsheet to keep track of who gets free pictures (my little brother, my cousins, Spokesmodels, etc.). I have looked into tons of different online scheduling systems, but none of them have all the features I need and want, or they’re just not dummy-proof enough, so I’ve stuck with my old-fashioned spreadsheet system. I include my cell phone number in my marketing pieces, so most of the kids just text me for their appointments.
PRICING: I charge a flat rate per couple, and simply give them digital files. I tried print packages the first year I did a prom, and it was a GIANT headache. So, each couple gets to choose six of their favorite photos from a ShootProof gallery using a promo code, and they can purchase additional digitals or prints (highly discounted from my usual portrait prices). I usually only get a couple of print orders with each dance, but that’s fine, because I have already made my money with the session fees. As I said above, it’s a huge marketing opportunity and the monetary compensation is only part of the pay with these proms, so I’m ok with keeping prices low (at least compared to the school photographer) and products simple.
LOCATION: I am not the school-contracted photographer for these dances (not yet, at least), so I cannot shoot on school grounds or at the dance, but that’s fine because I like to shoot at prettier locations anyway! I scout out locations with great lighting and that I am “allowed” to shoot, (so no private property without permission or permits), and where there’s a decent amount of parking (for when I have a ton of appointments scheduled). I also try to find a location where I can attempt to keep the parents corralled in a certain area (more on that later). If I am shooting multiple proms in one night, I look for a central location to both schools so that nobody is driving across town for their pictures.
EXECUTION: I have my husband and/or my intern set up at a table with the cash box and the iPad. I have an app for signing people in (it’s called Sign-Up Events, and I believe it’s free). The app collects their names, phone numbers, email addresses, school and grade, and then exports the data into a spreadsheet. Any parents who want to receive notification of the photos being ready can also sign in. I also print out the spreadsheet of the schedule so we can mark off who has arrived and how they paid (cash or check). It’s important to me to try to keep the parents at arms’ length while I’m shooting. It’s really hard to get the kids to focus on my direction when the parents are standing behind me taking pictures, heckling, or criticizing the kids while I shoot. So, my “bouncers” inform the parents that they are to hang back and not follow the kids over when it’s their turn.
If I have 8 or fewer couples scheduled, I can handle it on my own, with just me shooting and my husband or intern signing people in and doing money. But, on my bigger proms (12+ couples), I need more shooters. I have a lot of photographer friends in the area so it’s easy for me to wrangle a second or third shooter if I need to. In this case, we set up stations. Each couple comes through each of the photographers’ stations, and we spend about 5-7 minutes with each rotation. Each station will feature something different: station 1 will be the classic couple shots, station 2 is the individual shots, and station three is the fun and goofy shots with my antique sofa and any props, plus group shots. This way, there is a lot of variety in the photos. The other shooters simply hand over their CF cards to me and I do all the editing.
Have fun with the kids! Pose them like models. Let them goof off in the photos. Show them the back of your camera once in a while! Get creative! I get ideas for posing from engagement sessions and weddings. I just make sure to keep it G-rated and innocent. Oh – and even though it’s awkward, it’s important to ask the couples if they are just friends or a “thing,” because it makes a difference in the posing options.
POST PROCESSING AND DELIVERY: I couldn’t do this without Lightroom! Just like any other session, I cull the photos in Lightroom, apply any edits necessary, and export to a ShootProof gallery. I collect all the email addresses from my spreadsheet and put them into ShootProof using their pre-registration feature. I set a promo code for the gallery which allows the kids to download their six photos. I upload a sneak peek of each couple and any group shots to Facebook so that everyone can have their instant gratification. If you’re able to do this the same night while they’re all at the dance or after parties, that’s the best way to do it. I try to get sneak peeks up within two days of the dance, while they’re all still tweeting about how magical prom night was and it’s fresh on their minds. The more excitement you can muster up about the photos, the better!
Using the email features in ShootProof, I send out email notifications to the attendees with all the info they need: link and password to the gallery, the promo code, expiration date of the gallery, and any other instructions you have for them. Be prepared for emails and calls from those who didn’t read your email in entirety and are asking you to hand-hold them through the process of getting their photos. I try to make my instructions as crystal clear as possible, and it keeps the questions to a minimum. ShootProof also has an awesome new automated email feature that will send out emails to remind the gallery visitors that their gallery is about to expire in a few days. This is awesome for me, because after every dance I get emails and calls from people, months after the dance, asking if they can still get their photos and they never got around to looking at them. (ShootProof isn’t paying me for all the plugs, BTW! I just love them and all the ways that they have made my business life easier!)
Depending on the volume of your prom, your shooting style, and how you want to structure your pricing and finished products, this might seem like a lot of work. So, you can tailor this system to your needs. I’d love to answer questions, if there are any! Follow my Facebook page to see all the proms I am doing this spring!
Topic Tuesday – {Prom Photos}
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heck, yes i do!
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YAY! Thanks so much Morgan! Fantastic run-down on what you do and how you do it!! Carly x
You rock, Morgan Werner!!