School Portraits – Is it Time for a Change? Opinions Wanted

9 years ago I helped change the look of the school portrait throughout the UK. I left the blue mottled background behind and introduced a contemporary white replacement which at the time was a welcomed change. Since then I’ve seen most other school photographers follow suit. I know the blue background lasted decades. I for one had that same background in my own school photos right from 1975 when I started school (maybe I shouldn’t be sharing that). I don’t feel that society accepts or expects a lack of change anymore. We all want everything to move with the times and the times move much faster these days. So is 9 years enough for school photos to remain the same. Do we want to see an updated look?

So I created a few new portraits for a style I’d like to introduce this coming September and I’d love to hear what you think. Would you want to buy your child’s school portrait if it looked like these? If not, what don’t you like? What would you prefer to see?