Volume photography rewards a careful, repeatable production process. A school or daycare job can contain hundreds or thousands of photographs and generate many orders in a short period. A small file, crop or colour problem can therefore affect many customers before it is noticed.
Workspace can help you organise galleries, identify subjects and manage orders, but it cannot correct a file that was prepared incorrectly. Before uploading or offering products for sale, check the source files, finished class-photo designs and print specifications as one connected workflow.
Decide the finished products before preparing the files
Start with the actual print sizes you intend to sell. Record the finished dimensions, orientation and aspect ratio for every product. Prepare each file or design for those specifications rather than relying on the lab or ordering system to make an unexpected crop later.
Many school photographers build Workspace price lists containing print sizes with several aspect ratios. This can work well when the photographs were made with those crops in mind—for example, by leaving additional space around each subject so portrait, square and other formats can all be cropped safely.
The safest option is to match the print sizes in your price list to the aspect ratio of your prepared files. If your files are 3:2, for example, a price list based on 3:2 print sizes minimises unexpected cropping and reduces the number of files that need individual adjustment.
Workspace automatically adjusts a print size to the orientation of the file. A size shown as 6×4 will be produced as 4×6 when the selected image is portrait rather than landscape. These are both the same 3:2 aspect ratio. You do not need separate portrait and landscape versions of the same proportion.
The crop risk appears when the proportions change—for example, when a 3:2 file is ordered as a square or another aspect ratio—not when the width and height are simply reversed.
- Confirm whether each product is rectangular, square or panoramic and note its aspect ratio.
- Check that the image aspect ratio matches the offered print size; Workspace will handle portrait or landscape orientation within that ratio.
- If your price list mixes aspect ratios, photograph with extra space around the subject and inspect every offered crop.
- Allow suitable space around faces, feet, hands, text, logos and the edges of a class group.
- Do not assume that one file will fit every print size without a different crop.
- If you offer several aspect ratios, prepare and review the required versions deliberately.
Prepare and crop a class photo as one complete design, including the group, names, school details, borders and any other layout elements. Do not assume it needs to use the same aspect ratio as the individual portraits.
Workspace includes specific Class Photo products so you can choose a size that suits the finished class-photo layout. For example, you could offer a 10×8 Class Photo because that proportion gives the group and names a more suitable layout, while offering 3:2 print sizes for the individual portraits.
Review the complete class-photo design at its intended product ratio. Make sure every child, row of feet, name and school detail remains comfortably inside the finished crop.
Understand and preserve your file-naming system
There is no single naming convention used by every school photographer. Many photographers use specialist capture, subject-matching, QR-code, editing or volume-photography software to create file names automatically, and each system may structure those names differently.
The safest approach is to use a naming method that works with your complete workflow and understand what each part of the generated name means. A name may contain a job, school, class, subject, family, image or sequence identifier—but it does not need to follow one universal example.
- Confirm that every exported file name is unique.
- Understand which part of the name links the image to a subject, family, class or access code.
- Keep individual portraits, sibling photographs, staff photographs and class groups clearly distinguishable within your chosen system.
- Check that the software exports names in a format accepted by every later step in your workflow.
- Do not rename files after subject matching or ordering links have been created unless your software explicitly updates those links.
- Preserve the relationship between the original capture, edited master, exported file, Workspace record and customer order.
If several applications are involved, test the full naming workflow before the main job. Export a small sample, upload it, confirm that subjects and photographs still match, and make sure the same file can be traced when fulfilling a test order or reprint.
Before uploading the complete job, check for duplicate names, missing files, broken subject links and photographs assigned to the wrong person or class.
Inspect every class photo at the intended crop
Class photos are harder to assess than individual portraits because every person matters. Review the whole group and then inspect each face. Do not approve the image based only on the centre of the composition.
- Confirm that the correct class, teachers and other required people are present.
- Check every face for closed eyes, blocked faces, movement and distracting expressions.
- Look for people hidden behind the row in front or cut off at either side.
- Check spacing, row alignment, posture and distracting gaps.
- Inspect hands, feet, chairs and props near the crop boundary.
- Proofread school names, class names, dates, logos and any other text.
- Check that replacement heads, composites and retouching look natural at print size.
View the final design at 100% and also at the complete finished composition. Both checks matter: one reveals technical defects, while the other shows balance, spacing and crop problems.
Prepare colour for Queensberry printing
Files sold through these Workspace galleries are printed by Queensberry, so prepare them to Queensberry's colour-management and file requirements.
- Supply files in RGB, 8-bit and 300 dpi.
- Embed an ICC profile in every file. Queensberry accepts Adobe RGB (1998) or sRGB and prefers Adobe RGB (1998) for its wider colour gamut.
- Work on a calibrated and profiled monitor in a consistent, suitably lit, neutral environment.
- Use a hardware colourimeter rather than relying on visual or software-only calibration. Queensberry recommends recalibrating regularly—approximately every two to four weeks.
- For monitor profiling, use gamma 2.2 and an LCD brightness target of approximately 100–120 cd/m².
- Soft proof using Queensberry's current Soft Proof ICC profile before sending files for printing.
Across the complete school job, compare files from different cameras, rooms and lighting setups. Pay particular attention to natural skin tone, density, white balance and mixed lighting. Check that class-photo backgrounds, borders, logos and individual portraits reproduce consistently together.
Include supplied school logos, backgrounds and important design colours in your test prints. A portrait may reproduce well while a strong brand colour, dark background or fine text does not.
Read Queensberry's File Specifications, Calibrate Your Monitor and Photoshop Colour Settings before preparing your production files.
Export the complete class-photo design for its product
Treat the class photo as one finished design containing the group, names, school details, logos, borders and any other elements. Build and crop the complete design to the aspect ratio of the specific Class Photo product you will offer in Workspace.
The class-photo ratio does not need to match your individual portraits. For example, you may offer 3:2 products for individual portraits but prepare the class design for a 10×8 Class Photo when that 5:4 proportion better suits the group and its names.
- Set the design canvas to the intended finished aspect ratio and dimensions.
- Leave comfortable space around every child, row of feet, name, logo, border and school detail.
- Supply the final file in RGB, 8-bit and at 300 dpi, with an embedded Adobe RGB (1998) or sRGB profile.
- Export a high-quality JPEG suitable for the largest Class Photo product you intend to offer.
- Make sure fonts, logos, borders and composited elements render cleanly.
- Check that the design software has not unexpectedly resized, cropped or recompressed the export.
- Open the exported file itself. Inspect the complete composition and then check faces, text and fine details at 100%.
Workspace automatically adjusts a product to the file's orientation, so a 10×8 product can print as 8×10 for a portrait-oriented design. You do not need a second product merely because the width and height are reversed.
One exported design can be offered at several physical sizes when those products share the same aspect ratio and the file has enough resolution for the largest size. If you want to offer a different aspect ratio, create and inspect a separate export for that crop rather than relying on an automatic crop of the complete class-photo design.
Order test prints before opening sales
A screen review cannot prove how the complete workflow will print. Before accepting a large volume of orders, order representative test prints using the same export settings, file transfer method, product and print size you will use for customers.
Your test set should include an individual portrait, a class or group photograph, a dark image, a light image, a range of skin tones, fine text, a logo and any important design colours.
- Check colour, density, sharpness and skin tone under suitable viewing light.
- Confirm that borders are even and text is comfortably inside the finished edge.
- Check that small faces in a class group remain clear at the chosen print size.
- If you change the template, export settings, printer or product specification, test again.
Keep the approved test file and print as a production reference. It gives your team a known standard when reviewing later batches or investigating a customer concern.
Use a final pre-upload check
- Confirm every file belongs to the correct school, class, subject or group.
- Check file names for uniqueness and consistency.
- Confirm the offered print sizes match the prepared aspect ratios.
- Inspect every class-photo face, edge and text element.
- Verify colour, dimensions, resolution, format and export settings.
- Open and inspect the exported files, not only the working designs.
- Approve representative physical test prints.
- Back up the source files, masters and final exports before opening the gallery.
A written checklist may feel slower at the beginning of a job, but it is much faster than tracing a repeated problem through a large batch of orders.
