Please try not to lose your information sheet, especially in the dog.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to re-issue passcodes due to safeguarding rules. We recommend you photograph your passcode for safekeeping.

However, if you have lost your information sheet, then well before the deadline you should:

1. Contact your child's school as only they are capable of verifying registered parent email addresses. Schools are provided with all pupils passcodes and can usually help you.
2. Otherwise, you can contact us and we will do our best to help you.

All orders, for both digital and printed items, are processed and despatched to schools or homes after the deadline date has passed, not your order date. You may therefore have a wait if you have ordered early in the ordering window and we thank you for your patience.

While orders can take up to twenty working days post deadline date to despatch, we always turn them around as quickly as we possibly can.  Also, delays after despatch are sometimes beyond our control, e.g. postage delays during busy periods and some schools may even delay handing out orders if it is raining.  If this order delivery timeframe is not acceptable to you, do not order.

Definitely! All our packs can be mixed over different individual or siblings from the same family and household. We believe you should have one affordable pack for all your needs if that is what you want.

We do think it's unfair when school photography companies restrict packs to a single image or only allow mixing in top priced packs, thus making you climb their 'sales ladder' and forcing you to spend more than you otherwise would.  We believe in giving you your choice of images in the pack you can afford. So, mix up your school-photos packs!

We sympathise! You can browse images and products, but we may occasionally require an account with findmyphotos.co.uk to add to basket and purchase.

Even so, there are user benefits to having an account, including

• you can ❤️ tag your favourite images to make a personal gallery
• which makes ordering easier if you have multiple children over multiple codes
• passcodes become optional after 'tagging' (even so don't lose them!)
• your basket is held on your account, not your device, meaning you can construct your order over time (e.g. if you visit your parents)
• which means you won't lose your basket if you clear your device cookies
• accounts persist over time
• we can better assist you with customer service (as we can view your account and amend your current basket contents on our server)
• you can check the status of your order (e.g. open, awaiting deadline, in production, customer queried, despatched to school, fulfilled, archived etc) at any time

Please ensure you create an account before placing your order.  Creating an account after an order will not assign your original order to your account.

The printed information sheet explains how you can view and order images online (on any device) using a unique passcode that unlocks only your images - so please do not lose your passcode! Benefits of printed information sheets are numerous, including: it is much faster (as pupils receive and take them home on photo day), minimises multiple contact points and it cuts out considerable administration for your school.

If you are separated from your child's other parent and they have legitimate access, please share the information and passcode with them.

Your passcode may not work after entering it at the search bar because:

1. Images are still awaiting upload. If your child has received their information sheet on or shortly after photo day, then please allow at least a few working days for us to process and upload the images before contacting us. The website will inform you if this is the case after entering a recognised passcode.
2. Your input may be incorrect and the search bar is saying 'passcode not found'.  Please check and input your passcode carefully - it is usually an eight digit alphanumeric passcode (alpha characters are lower case only). Be aware that certain characters can appear very similar - e.g. 0 (zero) looks similar to o (for oscar).

If you are sure it's not working when it should, please contact us and we will help you.

Please order within the ordering window allowed for your school if you wish to order printed items. We normally allow at least a two weekend window for ordering printed photographs.  We usually have a slightly longer deadline for digital image purchases than for printed photographs.

Otherwise galleries are sometimes re-opened at later dates in the academic year for physical print orders, e.g. during class photo ordering windows.

It is rare for our payment provider to block a payment being made. If the payment has been declined and your card is issued by a UK bank to your UK home address and with sufficient funds, then it is usually the issuing bank (i.e. your bank) that is refusing the payment.  Our payment provider will only occasionally decline a transaction if the attempted payment comes from a non-UK bank account or if it has been flagged for risk assessment, e.g. payment using a virtual or disposable card. If your payment has been declined, please contact us and we shall try to help you.

We now offer image retouching, as can be seen in your gallery product options under 'Retouch'.  This includes such editing options as spot or acne removal, skin smoothing, brace removal, glass glare removal etc.  Please note that retouching incurs an additional fee and that fee is per image, not per child.  Retouching is at our discretion and you may not receive a preview of the edits before printing occurs.

Please don't be offended by retouching service.  We know that all children are beautiful.  It is intended more for secondary age children who may prefer to have their portrait edited and would not purchase them if they were not.

Also, if you are separated please communicate and agree with your child's other parent before ordering our editing service.  This is because only the single .jpg image will exist on our servers, and if that image is edited as requested, and subsequently ordered by a different parent, their order will also show the editing.

Glass lenses in spectacles reflect light according to the laws of physics (the angle of incidence = the angle of reflection on a plano surface, if you are interested), and whilst we always try our very best to prevent our lighting equipment showing as reflections in spectacles, please be aware that sometimes it's just impossible.  This could be because of a highly convex eyesight prescription, we are often restricted in the space (especially height) at which we can place our light and we are always time limited per pupil.  Please see the 'can you photoshop faces' question above and the image retouching options now available in your gallery for possible glass glare removal.

Our prints are measured in inches at 12×8 (large), 9×6 (medium) and 6×4 (small) in size.  Imperial measurements are still prevalent in the photo printing industry, but in metric this equates to approximately 30×20cm (large), 23×15cm (medium) and 15×10cm (small).  Our large 12×8 inch size is larger than many of our competitors, where 8×6 is common due to the convenience of only printing from 6 inch paper rolls.

As an approximate print sizing guide, your information sheet (A4 paper size) is almost 12×8 inches (more accurately 11.7×8.3); fold in half length-ways to give approximately 9×6 (8.3×5.9) and fold length-ways again to give roughly 6×4 (5.9×4.15). Each being half / twice the area of the other.

No. All of our prints are 'compatible' with the most common sizes of mounts and frames available. We only sell prints in 12×8, 9×6 and 6×4 inch sizes as they exactly match the 3:2 camera sensor ratio.  Therefore, the image you see on your preview gallery is the image you get on your print. However, even though photographic print ratios are highly variable, our prints will fit most common print frame inch sizes of 10×8 (5:4 ratio), 8×6 (4:3 ratio) or 6×4 (directly) with either a little overlap behind the edges of the frame or you can trim the edges of the print down yourself. Be aware that most frames, mounts and overlays will overlap printed images by about ¼ inch per side also.

Green-screen, sometimes called chromakey, is where a pupil is photographed against a green background which is then digitally removed from the image leaving a transparent background, allowing you a preview of the different backgrounds we offer.  If you know your child is going to be photographed against a green-screen, then they shouldn't wear any green coloured clothing or hair accessories. Also note that a pure white background is not possible with green-screen.

Any personal information you provide on our ordering website findmyphotos.co.uk is held in accordance with the privacy policy and is in compliance with the regulations and spirit of the GDPR regulations. Contact us to discuss. Please note we do not receive your card details from our payment provider and no financial data is stored locally or on your account.

Normally, though it is at the discretion of the school and not all schools offer sibling photos. Internal siblings (brothers and sisters at the same school) are usually photographed during the school photo day, but only while time permits and it's not guaranteed. External siblings (brothers and sisters not at the same school) are usually photographed before the school day (if pre-arranged) and we sometimes employ an online registration form that you will have to complete. The school will notify you if so. The exception is when a family photography day is offered with a slot booking system, which usually replaces any external siblings time period.

Yes. In fact, the majority of orders are now made on mobile devices. Our website and image galleries are responsive and automatically adapt to your viewing device (desktop, tablet or phone) while still offering full accounts and secure ordering.

Unfortunately, orders cannot be amended or added to after they have been placed. Please ensure your basket contents are correct before clicking on the 'I confirm my basket contents are correct' checkbox and checking out.

All photographers are DBS certified.

Accessing your child's unique passcode: Your child will only receive one printed information sheet on photo day which includes their unique online code to view and order.  If you think you may not receive the information on the sheet from your ex-partner, then please contact the school who can provide you with your child's unique code which you can enter into our ordering website at https://findmyphotos.co.uk.  No other information is required to order.

Receiving your printed orders: When we receive multiple orders for printed photographs for the same child and for delivery via school collection, they are always returned to the school in separate parcels with different despatch tickets outlining the name of the purchaser.  However, the teacher or school administrator can only reasonably give all parcels to the same child to take home on the day that they are released.  If this might cause a problem for you, please choose home delivery for your printed items at the basket. Alternatively, you can choose digital images for download which will be delivered via a special link directly to your e-mail address.

Image retouching: please see the 'Can you photoshop faces' question above.

All online school portraits are passcode protected into individual galleries and parents can only see the child / children for whom they have a passcode.  Even so, if you do not want your child's image to appear on our website whatsoever, please let us know and their images will be removed.  Consequently, you will still need to purchase via online ordering (using the image filenames as a reference) and will have restrictions including reduced choice of images, products and backgrounds.

Yes. We understand that some parents / carers prefer digital images so they can share them easily online or with distant relatives, arrange their own printing and it avoids problems if parents are separated. Unlike others, they are freely available for purchase from the start - i.e. they are not restricted to being an 'add-on' item to expensive print packs. Please note that digital images are never available for class, year, whole school, sport or team photographs.

Orders for digital downloads will be made available either in your 'My Account' section or by direct email. We shall contact you again when they are ready, which will be after the order deadline date shown in your gallery. If you have not received your email within a few days after the deadline date, then please check your spam folder or your 'My Account' section of the website. Note that email download notifications may arrive earlier than printed items delivered to the school. Please make sure you type your email address carefully at the basket screen, as it is the only way we have of notifying you that your images are available.

Yes. Sometimes photographs may show the background edges, the front edge of the background floor or other paraphernalia. We are often space restricted at school settings so backgrounds have to be small and therefore we can sometimes 'catch' it in the photo. However, all purchased images will be correctly 'photo-shopped' to remove any background distractions. N.B. if your child was photographed completely off the background, then it may not be possible to amend in that instance.

School photography does involve a lot of processing and manual handling and, even with the best of intentions, things can occasionally go wrong. Please contact us detailing the issues you have with your order no later than one month after receiving it.  Please include as much detail as possible including photographs, quote your order number (provided on your order confirmation email) and we shall investigate.

That is expected.  One order means one parcel, so if you have purchased photographs of multiple children on a single order then all items will be returned in one parcel, not one per child. This is usually received by the eldest child, though not always.

We normally offer two methods of delivery:

1. School collection (no charge)
2. Home delivery direct to your door (charged)

School collection is the default option as it is easier, faster and cheaper than home delivery. Home delivery is more for separated parents or grandparents that may live away from their child.  Also note that we do reserve the right to choose the most appropriate home delivery method, including hand delivery.

If you have requested school collection, then:

• Primary: your order will normally be distributed to your child's class teacher for them to hand to you or your child on the day they are despatched.
• Secondary: the options for distribution are up to your school - some will distribute to the form tutor for handing out at registration but most schools will hold them at the office to be collected by the pupil (if so, please tell your child to take the order number with them to the office).  Some secondaries will require your child to write their initials on a printed order table to prove that your order has been collected.

Sometimes a school will require all printed photographs to only offer home delivery rather than school collection.  In these instances, only home delivery will be made available to you in the online ordering system.  This is what happened under COVID restrictions.  Of course, digital images do not incur any delivery costs.

Unless you have been provided with a paper based order form and payment envelope along with your information sheet on photo day, then we no longer accept cash / cheque as a means of payment. Your information sheet includes full details of how to view and order online through our website and we have made the ordering process as simple as we can. If you get stuck, contact us.

The benefits of online only ordering is that is it simply more efficient for all, keeps costs down, frees school administrators time for far more important tasks, is more environmentally friendly, reduces physical contact points, ensures accuracy (a major problem with hand written order forms), greatly speeds up turnaround times (no delays waiting for cheques to deposit / clear / bounce) and, as most schools are now 100% cashless, is the only realistic way to order school photography.

All of the photographs that we produce for proofing purposes show a copyright watermark to protect our work - ©school-photos.co.uk.  They are also protected via other means. All purchased prints and digital images that you receive do not include any watermark. Additionally, purchased digital images come with a personal usage licence and you are free to make unlimited personal prints.

Please note that any photograph that shows children other than your own will only be available as a printed, physical product. Class, year and whole school photographs are only available in print format because they show multiple children and digital images are too easy to share online, creating multiple concerns. Please do not copy or share any product that is provided to you by school-photos, unless otherwise stated in our terms of sale.

Some of our galleries are available with the option to purchase black and white prints, and this will be shown in your gallery options. However, this is not always the case, e.g. greenscreen galleries do not offer a printed black and white option. If you still want monochrome images, we recommend you purchase digital images and convert to black and white with any photo editing package.

Parents might want to give their children haircuts beforehand.  Placing long hair in a ponytail helps, though if not the photographer might sometimes ask children with long hair to place it behind their ears to see their full face. Full clean uniform also helps greatly.  Please note that the photographer does not have any control over how pupils are presented to us and, as photographers do not touch children, cannot amend things for them such as odd collars.

No. As long as your school continues to use our services, we do not delete images that are less than five years old. However, they are not held online and will need to be ordered by contacting us directly. It is therefore very important that you retain your unique passcodes for future reference if you may intend to purchase in the future - again it is best to photograph it for long term safekeeping.

All of our prints and products are made to the highest professional standards using quality archival materials. All standard prints are wet, silver halide processed that makes dye-based RA-4 chromogenic prints for maximum longevity. However, like all photographs, please keep them out of direct sunlight or they can fade and bleach within a few years. Although rapidly improving, we do not use inkjet 'dry-lab' prints at all.

Most schools prefer that photographs are taken in the autumn term, as schools want their pupil images updated in their database as soon as possible and parents can order in time for Christmas. However, not all schools will follow this and some prefer the less busy spring term. Subsequently, schools will usually stick to the same time frame every year, so if your school photographs were taken in the spring in previous years, this will likely remain the case this academic year. Class, team and whole school photos can vary, but are usually offered for sale in the summer term.