Portrait Innovations

04/27/11

Good studio if you know its limits.

by Laura McEachen at Citysearch

We have used this studio four or five times to do family photos and photos of our two children, now ages 2 and 4.

With young kids, the outcome of your photo session will depend on the photographer's patience as well as the mood of your kids. Try to book the appointment when the children are least likely to be hungry or tired. Bring games or toys and snacks in case you have to wait. If your kids totally melt down during the session, ask if you can come back later. The studio has accomodated us on this. They know they aren't going to sell you photos of kids crying, so it is in their best interest to photograph happy kids. There are definitely some photographers that work better with kids than others. Try to see if they have the staff to give you a photographer and an assistant who can help position the kids and get them to smile.

Don't expect the photographs to be high quality, artsy shots. This is quantity over quality and they hope by taking a ton of photos you will be able to choose a few that you like. They do not do much editing of the photos other than to crop and center them.

Be aware that once the sitting is over, you will have 70-100 shots to choose from. This can be overwhelming as many of them look very similar and the photographers go through them very quickly. If you have young kids, try to have someone take them outside during this part so you aren't distracted. The packages can also be confusing. If having a CD of all the poses is important to you, ask how much you have to spend in order to get the CD, then you don't have to deliberate so much as you can make your own prints from any of the poses. It can be easy to overspend and purchase more poses than you really need. Try to have an idea of what you want before you go in (e.g., one picture of son in this outfit, one of daughter in this outfit, and one of the kids together). Even thought the shot of kids fussing or looking goofy might be funny to you, do you really need a bunch of prints of it?

We have had a good experience with this studio once we knew what to expect and how to prepare. The cost is reasonable and it is nice to have the prints available the same day.

11/25/10

We Take Better Pictures With Our Camera

by citychic202 at Citysearch

The pictures were just okay. We take better pictures with our own digital camera.

For some reason their lighting didn't seem very good.

11/16/09

Bad experience for pictures

by dkansas09 at Citysearch

I don't recommend this place to anyone. The wait was horrible. We waited 2 1/2 hours for our appointment and pictures to be taken. Then we were told that we had to come back to pick up our pictures 30-45 minutes later. The place was packed full of people waiting.

They didn't take a lot of pictures and the ones they took were not good. A lot of young kids were the ones taking the pictures. It didn't matter to them if they got a good shot or not. We over heard a comment from one of the kids saying "I only work here." They wanted to get us in and out without trying to take good pictures. When we picked our pictures, from the few good ones, it really wasn't worth the price. I got them home to see the bad lighting in the pictures. We all looked really dark in the pictures and the pictures seemed out of focus. I called the studio to be told that they would get back with me. They didn't. I had to call them back. Honestly our home pictures look 100 times better.

We won't go back here!

• Pros: No sitting fee
• Cons: Bad pictures, not professional, long wait