Photo Genie

NewLifeAhead_2

Hi
http://www.photo-genie.co.uk/
Has anyone heard of these? I first found them a few years ago on workingmums.com advertising as a franchise-type opportunity. It wasnt like most franchises that cost £5-20,000, i think the initial cost was about £300 including a digital dslr camera.
Basically they do novelty photographs, you would visit people at home.playgroup/nurserys etc, take photos of their children and they would choose a background. Then the photos are sent to be developed and returned to you to deliver. I cant remember what the cost of developing was, but i do remember the first print (16" by 12" maybe?) was £35 and extra smaller copies about £4, and you keep a big proportion of that as your earnings.
You dont need to be a qualified photographer or anything, you get basic training and as the photos are put on backgrounds it doesnt matter where the children are - you can just catch them running through a room full of kids and leave only that child in the picture.
I really wanted to do it back then but didnt drive, and only now have remembered it. They still have a site but no telephone. I have emailed them though but just wondered if anyone knew of them and if you think it would be good as a bit of extra income?
Thanks in advance :j

InsideInsurance

Have to admit if I simply looked at their site I would have said they were a two bit operation given they dont have any of the basics that a normal organisation would have, and in some cases are legally required to have, such as privacy policy, identification of who legally they are. They also have somewhat of a net of companies with Photo Sell Ltd owning the domain, Photo Genie Ltd owning the trademark but is a dormant company.

Looking at the gallery, which should be their top end photos, some of them are really terrible and have basic errors with them. I imagine you could make some money out of it, assuming you get paid, but you will be responsible for generating 90%+ of your leads and have to deal with people complaining if the results are as low quality as their site suggests they may be.

I'd also be concerned over your comment about the quality of photos you need to take, ultimately the GIGO principle applies (garbage in, garbage out).

There are low cost retouchers out there, I'd wonder if you'd not be better off not using the franchise but hooking up with someone who could do the PC part of the work for you?

NewLifeAhead_2

Hi thanks for your reply. You are right, and in all honesty if they were any sort of real or decent business surely they would have replied to my email.
Its something id love to do and i think it could make some money done properly - i know my own children would love something like this done as would I, i think it would be popular. So i guess now i need to do some research as to how i could maybe do this off my own back. Learning photography is obviously a start
Thanks again :beer:

InsideInsurance

It wouldn't be too hard to do yourself but to do it well would require some investment in kit. Ideally you would want to take the photos in front of a green screen which will both make it easier to do the super imposing (so cheaper) and give better results.

If you're not green screening and you're not significantly better than an amateur photographer then Id question the value of taking the photos yourself and not just getting people to submit their own photos for the processing to be done - obviously this then becomes a fairly different business model.

You can certainly pick up a reasonable green screen with portable stand for under £150, though an ultra light weight one would be more expensive. Ideally in time you would add flashlights and light meter but you could get away without them to start with - I wouldn't buy the cheapo lights as they tend to give cheapo results which isn't what a business wants.

Good luck with it all

NewLifeAhead_2

Thanks! Really helpful :beer: