'Money-making' services during graduation season

For nearly a month now, the 20-member graduation photography group founded by Ms. Nguyen Thi My Nhan in Quynh Xuan ward (Hoang Mai town) has been working at full capacity to fulfill signed contracts.

Accordingly, in the past 15 days, her group has signed 100 contracts to take yearbook photos for high schools in the province and Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh provinces. At peak times, the group has to split into groups to complete 10 contracts according to the pre-arranged schedule.

Ms. My Nhan said: “The time after Tet (from February to April every year) is considered the “yearbook shooting season”. Because this is a time when the weather is quite nice; studying is not yet in the final stage, so senior students take yearbook photos. Therefore, during this time, we have to work hard from early morning to late night to meet the needs of customers”.

Many yearbook photography teams work at full capacity but are still overloaded with contracts. Photo: TP

The price of each yearbook set ranges from 200,000 to 600,000 VND/student depending on the customer's request. With a full-day photo package in many locations, complete with costumes, accessories, makeup, hair, and transportation, the price ranges from 300,000 to 500,000 VND/person. Customers are paid 250-300 photo files and can choose 10-15 photos for further editing. At peak times, some photographers earn from 2-4 million VND/day from taking yearbook photos.

However, according to Ms. Nhan, the yearbook photography profession is quite hard, first of all, you need to be highly creative, have unique ideas and unusual shooting angles. Post-production is also very elaborate because the customers are a group, "nine people, ten opinions", so ensuring customer satisfaction is not easy.

Taking graduation photos requires creativity with unique and strange angles. Photo: TP

According to the survey, currently, almost all districts and cities, in addition to studios and long-standing photo shops, have young teams and groups specializing in yearbook photography services. However, due to the increasing demand of customers, yearbook photography also requires specific requirements in terms of creativity, ideas, inspiration and keeping up with social media trends, so young photographers are more preferred.

Teams and groups with many unique ideas, a firm grasp of trends, and meeting the tastes of young people are always "overloaded" with contracts, mobilizing human resources, and working overtime but still not running out of work.

“Sometimes I work 16-18 hours a day. During the day I take photos, at night I filter, edit photos, make videos … At peak times I earn millions a day, but the effort is not small,” said Quang Anh, a photographer in Vinh city.

The post-processing and photoshop are also quite elaborate. Photo: TP

Regarding costumes, if the classes do not choose to take photos in combos, they will rent costumes at the stores. Accordingly, students rent white ao dai, bachelor's dresses, evening gowns, costumes in each style... Along with that are accessories such as: head flowers, colored paper airplanes, balloons... The rental price for bachelor's dresses is 40,000 - 60,000 VND/piece, ao dai ranges from 120,000 - 250,000 VND/piece, costumes in different styles range from 80,000 - 150,000 VND/set.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Chung, a costume rental specialist on Vo Thi Sau Street (Ben Thuy Ward, Vinh City) said: “It is the season for yearbook photos, so the shop has prepared costumes specialized for yearbook photos such as: ao dai, vest, costumes in each style such as: Korean, Thai, Chinese, ancient costumes... Every day, there are dozens of groups renting costumes for yearbook photos. Most of them were booked before Tet. Up to now, the shop has received schedules for classes and groups to rent until the end of April."

Costume and accessory rental services are also very popular during this time. Photo: TP

Makeup services, both professional and amateur, are also booming during graduation season. At famous makeup salons, students often have to book appointments a week or even half a month in advance, and the prices are quite high. Therefore, many people seek out temporary makeup artists.

“I have taken a personal makeup class, and before that I only did it for myself and my family when they needed makeup. In the past two years, seeing the high demand for makeup for graduation photos, I have been doing makeup for students on this occasion. The average price is 100,000 - 150,000 VND/person.

Makeup artists also "do well" during graduation season. Photo: TP

If we coordinate with photography teams to provide services for class groups, the price will be cheaper (70,000-100,000 VND/person). During the 3 peak months of yearbook photography, seasonal makeup artists like me also have a good income every day," said Ms. Dinh My Anh, a makeup artist in Dung town (Thanh Chuong).

Grasping the tastes and trends of students, as well as parents with children in their final year of school from kindergarten to university, they are all willing to spend money on yearbook photos to capture memorable moments, many service providers have to mobilize all their staff to serve customers. This is also the time when the yearbook "following" services are in season.

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