How can we take better group photos?

Group photos can cause myriad complications for advisers and editors alike. They can delay page submission, create a less-than-accurate record and cause tension with club advisers who don’t understand the production process. Or, by planning ahead and being organized, the staff can increase its credibility in the school, save hours of time and feel certain that they’re creating an accurate record. Here’s a step-by-step guide to making your staff look great on club photo day.

First, plan to take all club pics on the same day. Notify the faculty about a month ahead of time so they can plan for a crazy day with interruptions (It will cut down on some hostility from your colleagues!) Be sure there are no field trips scheduled that day. Secure use of the main gym, a microphone and a ladder (for large groups).

Two Weeks Before Photo Day

Get an accurate list of all school clubs with the name of the sponsor, the sponsor’s conference hour and approximate number of members in the club. We send an all staff e-mail with the names of groups photographed the previous year and ask for group number and any additions/deletions.
When your list is complete, make a photo schedule with no more than 10 groups per class hour. You can manage more if they are small and fewer if they are large. We have groups that range in size from 10 members all the way up to 100 members.
It is VITAL that you try to get photos scheduled when the sponsor has his or her conference hour so they can be present for the photo. Most of ours do not want to be in the photo, but they help get their kids organized.
When the final schedule is completed, make Photo Day passes for every club; we create about 10 passes per letter sheet with a space for the club member’s name, club name, hour of picture, date and sponsor signature — there is also a note at the bottom that tells the students to report to the main gym when dismissed by intercom.
On each of the passes, yearbook students fill out the club name and picture hour on the number of passes needed for each group (plus about a dozen extra) and deliver those to each sponsor for his/her signature and for that faculty member to distribute to the club members they want included in the picture.
The yearbook staff DOES NOT give out any passes; it is up to the sponsor — if a student loses a pass, he or she must get a replacement from the sponsor. This has cut out completely non-members jumping into photos.

One Week Before Photo Day

Post final picture schedules around school for students with reminders for club members to get passes from their sponsors.

The Day Before Picture Day

Make an 8 1/2” x 11” sign for each group on bright paper — with the club name as big as possible. Attach with tape to a dowel rod (You can get about a dozen of them for $2 at most home improvement stores.) You can buy enough for each hour and switch the signs before the next round of pictures.
Meet with your staff and assign a minimum of two staffers to each group if possible. If groups are 20 or fewer, one yearbook student can handle it alone. Use yearbookers who are club members when possible.
Go over all the rules/procedures with the staff — they need to be as professional, courteous and firm that they can be. We have a group photo day analogy about the students being cows and the staff being the cowboys who have to drive the cattle wagon!
Enlist someone to release students from class by intercom at the start of each hour and provide them with a final schedule. Our assistant principal or activities director helps us.

Picture Day

Bring your schedule with yearbook assignments, paper clips, pencils and your signs to the gym.
As soon as the groups are dismissed by intercom, have your students spread out down the middle of the gym facing the empty bleachers with their club signs held high.
As students enter the gym, announce over the microphone that they are to find their group’s sign, line up tallest to shortest and have their pass available and ready to be checked; if students are in more than one picture, tell them to get in the smallest group first. If students don’t have a pass, they must find their sponsor to get one.
Your staff members need to help get the group organized as quickly as possible; tell them to enlist the help of the sponsor or a club leader to help get the group members in order. We do tallest to shortest on the bleachers because it tightens up the photo — shorter kids are a step up so you can still see faces but without as much space in between.
Your staff members need to check EVERY pass to be sure the name is CLEARLY written on it and that it is for that group. This is the hardest part of the process, but so important to maintain the integrity of the pic and make captioning it a snap!
As soon as a group is ready, your yearbook cowboys walk them over to an empty section of the bleachers and, with the photographer, get them situated according to the shape you need for the space in the book.
The photographer and his/her assistant snap the photo and then move over to the next group that is ready.
It is VERY hectic for about the first 5 minutes while groups are getting organized and lined up; once they are rolling, it moves very fast as you can literally be getting 3-4 groups on the bleachers at a time.
Once the photo is taken, tell all the students to remain in their spots and their passes will be collected; yearbook members begin at the bottom left (facing group) and collect the bottom row, then go back to the left side and collect the second row, etc., like a typewriter; now the passes are in the exact order of the kids ready to be typed in as the caption; paper clip or rubberband and then the students move on to help with the bigger groups.
After using this method for only couple of years, we can get about 8-10 clubs with anywhere from 10-100 members photographed and out of the gym in about 15-20 minutes; during the remaining time in the class hour, my staff runs over to the computer lab and types in that hour’s group captions, downloads the pics and creates a printout which is then put into the sponsor’s mailbox for them to check and get back to us in a couple of days.

The Final Step

Reward your staff for a job well done by springing for lunch that day. Send out for pizza or something.
Thank your faculty by having kids put little notes with treats in mailboxes - for example, little rolls of Lifesavers with a note thanking them for being the staff’s lifesavers yesterday.

submitted by
Nancy Smith, Yearbook Adviser
Lafayette High School, MO
Yearbook Discoveries Vol. 11 Issue 1