Frequently Asked Questions

Please contact us directly, not the school. You can reach us several ways through our contact form, email: support@alschoolportraits.com, or by calling 858.298.7732

You or your child can ask your teacher for an additional form. We also supply the school office with additional order forms that can be picked up in person. Additionally, online ordering can be placed. The school or room parent will email online ordering instructions or you can contact us for your school's online ordering code.

Please check with your school to see what the required photo day attire is. Many catholic elementary schools have a “Sunday Best” or school uniform requirement for dress attire on photo day. click here for some tips and tricks for preparing for photo day.

No. For traditional fall school photos, we use a high-quality, abstract backdrop that is chosen by the school administration. Please click here to see sample backdrops.  For special event photo days, we often use backdrops with related scenes or more simple printed backdrops with the use of props to help capture the theme of that photo day.

YES! Each child will need his/her OWN order form whether it be a paper, hard copy form provided from the teacher, or the online order form. A SEPARATE payment will need to be made for each child’s order.

This optional, add-on service includes standard facial retouching for blemishes, teeth whitening, and shine and is limited to the face only. Removal of braces is not included in this add-on service. If your child has a sore, skin lesion, or any type of injury on the face that you would like for me to take note of please contact me PRIOR to photo day and we can let you know if it is something that can be edited or can be included under the retouching service fee.

Checks made payable to Angela Levy School Photography (returned checks are subject to a $20 service fee), Cash (exact change only), and credit card (online orders only)

Not at all. We STRONGLY encourage you to speak with your child about whether or not you want him/her to wear their glasses for their school photo. If your child is younger and might forget please discuss your wishes with your child’s teacher. Children wearing glasses will be photographed first among their class and the studio lighting will be adjusted to remove as much glare as possible from your child’s glasses. Some glare/reflection may still be present in the corner of the lens but will not cover your child’s eyes. Please DO NOT put any information about glasses on your child’s order form. We will NOT see it prior to taking your child’s photo.

Sorry, but no. Only one photo/pose of each child will be included in the prepaid order and no online proofing is provided. This same photo will be your child’s yearbook photo. It’s important that all photos in the yearbook are consistent.

Absolutely! We provide hand sanitizer, tissues, wet wipes, water spray bottles, hair gel, disposable combs and mirrors at each photo station. All parent helpers are coached to help students with stray hairs, boogers (gross, but necessary) food on their face, crooked collars, shoulder straps, etc. With all that being said, older children (for example, 5^th graders and up) tend to know how they want their hair and clothing to appear in photos and certainly have an opinion about it, ha! While our team and school volunteers will make suggestions, we will NOT push your child to change any of these things if they are insistent. Please speak with your child on or before picture day about your expectations about hair and clothing as a parent.  

Unfortunately, we cannot edit out braces. Should you opt for the facial retouching add-on with your order, that will include basic retouching such as acne, correction of redness and evening out of oily/shiny skin. Teeth whitening and removal of braces is not included in this add-on service. For the older students who are hesitant to show their teeth when asked to smile the photographer will usually ask them if that is intentional. It’s common for tweens/teens to not want to show their teeth while wearing braces. If they tell me that is their preference, that will be the photo that will be chosen for their order. Please discuss with your child prior to photo day if you prefer to see those pearly whites in their final photo.

It depends on which occasion the photo is taken for. All photo packages that are pre-paid, such as fall school photos, include ONE final pose. The pose chosen is the best photo that was taken of your child on photo day, and a proofing gallery is not provided. Some special event photos do provide a proofing gallery.  Whether your photo day calls for a pre-paid order or provides a proofing gallery, this information will always be clearly noted prior to the photo day.

For pre-paid, single pose photo event days, a link to each digital image purchased will be sent home with your child at the same time that all photo orders from your recent photo day are delivered to your school. Included in the photo envelope will be a sheet of paper with the download information and a copyright release giving you permission to use the image for personal use. For multi-pose, special event photo days where online galleries are provided, customers will be emailed any digital images purchased immediately upon finalizing the order and completing payment.

Yes! Please contact us and we'll be happy to help.
Please note: Orders that are placed after your school's batch has entered print production must be processed individually through our lab and will incur shipping and handling fees. All late orders will be mailed directly to the address you provide.

Instructions for re-ordering photos online will be included on the envelope that your photos are delivered in. All additional orders will be placed online and mailed to the customer’s home. All additional and late orders are subject to a service and shipping fee and prices may vary from the original order placed.

We offer a satisfaction guaranteed policy and customer service is super important to us. If for any reason you are unhappy with your child’s photo, please contact us directly to discuss the issue and see if we can come up with a solution. Each school will offer a photo make-up day. Depending on your child’s school, the date and location for make-up photos will vary. If we are unable to correct the issue your money will be refunded.

This question was always in the back of my mind UNTIL I started taking school portraits, ha! It all makes sense now! Please keep in mind I’m given LESS THAN A MINUTE PER CHILD to capture each school photo. With that being said, I’m more than a school photographer, I’m the whole package kind of photographer, photographing newborn to H.S. Seniors as well as families and children of all ages. So I’ve had lots of practice and gained some serious patience over the years. I take pride in my job and as a mom I know what it’s like to want a good school photo of my child too! It’s my promise to you that I will do my best and take several photos of any child who appears a bit camera shy or “stubborn”. For the younger students, I will even act like a complete crazy person to try and initiate and capture that natural smile. Also, since I’m not a giant company or chain school photography business I’m afforded the ability to take these photos back to the studio before submitting them to the lab, and go through each and every one and make sure the best of the lot is selected for each child. But at the end of the day, remember. . . less than a minute per child isn’t very long.

An email and order form with your school’s picture date will be distributed by your school in the weeks leading up to picture day. You may also contact us directly, and we’d be happy to help.

In general, you should receive your order within 3-5 weeks of your school’s original picture date, although several factors can affect delivery timing, including class composites. Should you place your order after the order deadline for your school please expect a delay in order processing as well. Depending on when your order is placed and where your order falls in the ordering/batch process it might be held over and processed with make up photos or processed by itself and mailed directly to your home.  In today’s world of online ordering and free 2-day shipping, we understand that it can be confusing as to why school portraits require so much production time! The simplest answer for this is that each order is one piece in a puzzle of production for the entire school. Time is required for proofs to be distributed, orders collected, class composites/group pictures to be proofed by the school, all images cropped, color-corrected, retouched, printed, packaged, and shipped. . . and the work is completed as efficiently as possible for your school as one complete batch. This batch production process enables us to provide your school with many photographic service items for its administrative needs, while still keeping pricing as low as possible for parents.

If the package you received is incorrect or you received no package at all, we’ll gladly assist you in correcting your order. Please contact us by submitting a support ticket , or call us at 858.298.7732 so we can assist you further.