How to get family photos for under $70.

Do you ever get so sick of how expensive professional pictures are? I mean, it's awesome that a photographer will spend 30-60 minutes taking pictures of your family and then do some minor editing afterwards before giving you 30+ photos that you can print off. But how many pictures do you actually need? Do you have 30+ picture frames in your house just waiting to be filled? No. I barely have 10 (I'm somewhat a minimalist decorator), and of those 10, there are only 2-3 that I change out when I get new pictures.

What you really need from a photo shoot is 1-2 family pictures, a single photo of each kid, and maybe a sibling picture. So why spend several hundred dollars on that?

Here's what I do for family photos, and why I love it so much.

How to get photos for $70 (or less)

I schedule an appointment with JC Penney Portraits. Before we go, I look up a coupon online. They always have one for 40-50% off with $6.99 prints (regularly $19.99) and some deal on the digital book. You don't need to print the coupon, just have it handy on your phone so they can type in the code at checkout.

We go, get a few good pictures taken of the family, each kid by themselves, and a sibling picture. Then you sit in the waiting area for 5-10 minutes while they create some extra collages you could buy. Once this is complete, they show you all your pictures.

Now, depending on how the session went, you may have one good picture of each kid, or you may have several good pictures of each kid (read my caveat section below for details). But really, all you need is one good picture. That's why I laugh when people pay hundreds of dollars for an outdoor photo shoot and get dozens of good pictures but only ever use a handful of them. 1-2 is good enough.

You decide which photos to order and which sizes then give them your coupon number and ask to buy the membership ($35). That should give you a hefty discount (sometimes in the realm of $200) and bring your price down to about $70. If you have a big family, or order tons of photos, then it'll be a little more, but if you pay $35 for the membership and buy 5 prints at $6.99 that'll get you right around $70, plus as a member you get 1 free 8x10 so you can use that here as well.

Why I love it!

You get some really great photos without having to decide between your favorite of, say, 12 very similar photos. Really, who needs that many to choose from?

You don't have to spend tons of money. $70 is a lot, but it's much better than $200-500, and those prices are only if you're lucky.

What's not so great

Now, the problem with doing it this way is that you don't get every photo, so you may have to pick and choose which ones to print (which is only a problem is you get tons of good photos).

Another problem is that if you do anything smaller than an 8x10, you'll get multiple of the same photo, which is only a problem if you just want one copy of it. They come in sheets so you can get 8 wallets, 4 - 3.5x5s, 2 - 5x7s, or 1 - 8x10.

The other problem is that you have to order directly from JC Penney. The only way to get all the photos in digital format is to buy the digital album, which is usually well over $100, or close to $100 with a coupon. I don't ever buy this, but it may be worth it to you if you want to be able to print off any and all photos on your own.

Caveats

Not every session will turn out great. We got newborn and family photos after my second daughter was born, and we were lucky to get barely 1 good picture of each girl and 1 mediocre family picture. However, when we went 6 months later, we had two photographers helping us (helping distract the girls that is) and oh my goodness we got so many photos that I could hardly turn down any of them (but still got them for under $70, Whew!).

That's it! That's my secret to getting family photos at a reasonable price. I love this little hack and I hope you will too!