Communion Photography: plan your campaign for 2023

If you do communion photography, we are sure that you have already started to promote this temporary session a few weeks ago and this is precisely the ideal time to give a big boost to your 2023 campaign. Families with children making their first communion this year are already booking the communion dresses, the restaurant and all the important details such as the communion photographer to make this celebration unique.

If you have not yet started to seriously promote your first communion photo shoots on the Internet, there is still time to fill the agenda of the coming months with first communion photography sessions. In this article we are going to give you 5 tips to make it much easier for you to get these types of clients.

Communions are just around the corner, do you already have your communion photography sessions well planned?

Plan your communion photography campaign 2023

Although the 2023 communion campaign has officially started, you still have plenty of time to promote your style of communion photography and reach many more families this year.

To do so, you can follow these 5 recommendations that we are going to give you below:

• Set the dates for the duration of your 2023 communion photography campaign.
• Create special packages for this temporary communion photo session.
• Explain in detail to interested families what their first communion story with you could be like.
• Give priority to these first months of the year to carry out this type of communion sessions. Especially March, April, May and the first days of June.
• Offer your clients a wide range of children’s reports that are adapted to all types of families.

To help you even more to advertise yourself as a first communion photographer, we are going to break down each of these 5 points.

1# Set the dates for the duration of your 2023 communion photography campaign

This is the first point you should plan for so that you don’t get caught up with the dates and have all your clients’ communion photos ready on time.

Communions usually start at the end of April and finish at the beginning of June but there are many families who decide to bring the photo shoot forward a few weeks for 3 reasons:

• Because in the church and sometimes also in the restaurant they offer the services of a regular communion photographer.
• They want to use the communion photographs on the day of the celebration, especially to give them as souvenirs to the family.
• And, as is often the case at weddings, on that day, once your child has left the ceremony, they want you to enjoy your big day and forget about the photo shoot.

That’s why, if you want to offer your clients communion photo shoots prior to the day of the celebration, it’s best to organise your campaign several months* in advance. This way, parents will be able to schedule their children’s photo session with plenty of time to spare.

* Please bear in mind that for the first communion photos, the costumes have to be ready and delivered beforehand. Talk to the families to make sure that all the dates are finalised.

When planning the dates of these temporary sessions, keep in mind the time you spend from the moment you make a reportage until you can deliver the edited photos to the families.

2# Create special packs for communion photo shoots

As you do with the other types of photo shoots you offer on your photography website, with communion shoots, even if it is a temporary job for a few months, you should ideally also have a series of detailed packs on the website.

If you don’t want to complicate things too much and you also want to follow the trends and recommendations made by marketing experts on this subject, you can create 3 simple packs:

• Basic package: this will be the most economical of all where you can include only the communion photography session and a certain number of printed photographs.

• Recommended package: as a general rule in marketing it is advisable to offer 3 options and show the middle one as the most recommended. Here you can include, in addition to the photo shoot, the delivery of digital photos and a photo album.

• Premium Package: This will be aimed at a select number of clients who are looking for a communion photographer with a more comprehensive service. In this package you can include a double session in studio and on location, a series of photographs in print and digital format, the photo album, reminders for the family and an enlargement.

Although working with packs is always much more practical and quicker, it is advisable that you also leave the door open for them to ask you for a personalised communion photography quote. You may be in for some great surprises.

In addition to having these packs available in your studio, you can create a hidden page on your website with all the information. This way, when a family asks you via WhatsApp or social networks about your work as a first communion photographer, you can send them all the information privately.

>> WhatsApp Business service now available in Arcadina

3# Define your communion photos

As we mentioned in the previous section, it is important that you create a dossier or a services page on your website so that you can explain what the communion photography sessions you carry out are like.

When organising the information for these communion sessions, as well as including the packs you consider, it is also important that you explain a series of characteristics of these sessions very clearly. Also, think about what kind of communion photos you want to offer this year and plan a series of details in advance, such as: the locations you are going to use if you are doing outdoor sessions, available sets in the studio, varied and different props from previous years, extra services, etc.

Also try to highlight in the information for the families some detail of your work that makes you stand out from the rest as a leading communion photographer in your area.

• For the communion sessions in the studio you can determine: the number of sets you are going to use in a day of reportage, what the backgrounds will be like, what kind of props you are going to use, who is going to be able to participate in the session, etc.

• And for outdoor first communion photos, you can look for a series of locations near your studio that stand out for being more natural environments. Or even schedule a personalised outdoor session so that the parents can surprise the first communion child with one of their hobbies.

Once you have all the information ready, share it through all possible means (web, networks, online advertisements, etc.). This will give you a much better chance of being hired.

4# Absolute priority for communion photos

The communion campaign, together with the Christmas campaign, are the most frenetic of the year. Several months of non-stop photo shoots, photo editing and preparing photo albums in record time await you.

In order not to get your fingers caught, try not to fill your agenda for those months with other reports, or at least not too much. This way, you will have plenty of time to edit the photographs and if you see that you have enough time, you will even be able to take more communion photos of late parents who always come to your studio at the last minute.

If you do a little research into the day-to-day life of a family with 9 year olds, you will see that for studio sessions they prefer a weekday afternoon and for outdoor shoots, Saturday and Sunday mornings will be perfect. With this in mind, you can leave any day of the week in the morning free for your other photo shoots.

5# Photo shoots for children not making their first communion

Yes, this is another business idea that many communion photographers are already promoting in recent seasons.

The truth is that there are many families who decide not to celebrate their children’s first communion in a religious way. But in many cases, they do want to organise a party for them like the rest of their friends. Or they simply want to keep a memory of their child at this stage of their life.

For those families who decide not to celebrate the first communion, you can plan a special pack. Because the truth is that the age of 9 is a time of change for all children and taking advantage of this moment in their lives to have a photo session can be a great selling point.

More tips for success as a first communion photographer

When planning this year’s first communion sessions, you can keep in mind a series of extra tips that we are going to give you below:

• When it comes to organising the set in the studio. Look for accessories, props and backdrops in neutral colours that go well with both the girls’ dresses in lighter tones and the boys’ outfits in brighter, darker colours. This will save you time when setting up the studio for a communion photo shoot.

• For outdoor sessions. Make it clear to the parents where you are going to take them and the care they will have to take with the communion costumes. If you think that the children may stain their costumes, warn them in advance to avoid any possible unpleasantness and suggest to the families a session in street clothes so that the children can enjoy the reportage and play freely.

• Make it clear who will be able to participate in each photo session. If you want the images with the family to be an extra, explain this before the photo shoot. And if you want to include them in the photo shoot, let them know in advance so that the parents and siblings come prepared for the day.

• The final products are also important. If you are going to offer several models of albums, different types of reminders and a more special packaging for these sessions. It is important that you explain and show this before your clients hire you.

Discover new ideas and find inspiration for your 2023 communion photos

If this year you want to stand out from the rest of your colleagues as a professional first communion photographer and you feel like trying new things in your sessions. At Arcadina we encourage you to do so and we also recommend that you take a look at how other first communion photographers in your area work.

A very good idea to renew or update your first communion photography style can be to look for inspiration in other photographic references. Here are some ideas:

• Be inspired by the greats. Research and look for photographers who do communion photography and can become your references. Study their portfolios to get ideas that you can adapt to your own photo sessions.

>> Maru Serra is new ambassador for Arcadina

• Follow foreign photographers. Often, it is good to look for these references outside Spain. See what trends are followed in other countries and if they can fit in with your own style.

>> 10 fantastic Italian photographers’ websites

• Look for ideas for communion photos in other disciplines, such as wedding photography, fashion photography, book photography or even landscape photography. Take the best of each speciality and adapt it to the way you work.

>> The best wedding photojournalism websites for 2023

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Arcadina helps you to promote yourself as a communion photographer

As soon as you have defined your communion reports for this year, it is ideal that you announce them on your photography website, networks and advertisements.

At Arcadina we offer you a series of specific business solutions for photographers that will be very useful for advertising this temporary campaign. These are some of the options that you will have at your disposal:

• Front page advertisements. It will be the first thing your visitors will see when they enter your website. This way you make sure that your 2023 communion campaign is publicised.

• Services page: Whether you want to include it in the menu of your website, or if you prefer it to be hidden to share it with clients who ask about this service. Explaining in detail how communion photo shoots work will help you to sell more sessions of this type.

• Communion-only image galleries: as with the services page, you can also include in your gallery a sample of your latest communion sessions in a separate space.

• Private galleries with public cover: this will be the space where families will be able to view, select, download and buy more photos comfortably from their homes. And by including a public cover, other mums and dads will be able to see all the sessions you have already done.

• Gallery for selling sessions: you can set up a gallery in your online shop where visitors will be able to buy a communion session directly. With this small gesture you will see how sales increase.

As you can see in Arcadina you will find all the tools you need for your communion photography to reach many more people than in previous years.

Ready to promote your communion photography?

If you have not yet started to advertise your communion photography, get ready and help yourself with all these recommendations that we have given you today to offer a service of reports before the day of the first communion that really attract families.

On this occasion, we want to share with you the experience in Arcadina of photographer Omar Huerta, who in addition to making sessions of newborns, babies, families and weddings, also offers on its website communion reports. If you go to his website you will see that he has already started to promote his 2023 campaign.

>> “My website helps me to show a professional image”, Omar Huerta

And as usual, to say goodbye we would like to ask you a question: how are you promoting your communion photos this 2023? We’d love to find out in the comments.

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