Department store portrait studios

maven212

What do we think of these?  Seems to me I've dropped a tonne of money on photo journalistic shots of weddings, pregnancy, newborn, and family shots in my lifetime. Whatever happened to the fuzzy carpet with the wooded lake scene?  

For my birthday i've asked for pics of LO at 1 year. We are going to hire the same photog that took her newborn shots for that. In the interim i got a few portrait studio pics of her wearing a dress i wore in similar pics at a similar age. They are for my mother. I just had a kind of sub-enh experience at walmart. For a bunch of reasons - mainly that their high res photos i was promised were given to me reduced to 500kb or lower....but the camera being bolted to the desk didn't help either. 

Anyone have a good experience they want to share/recommend?

bridetobemo

other than her hospital pics weve had all of Rs pro pics done at jcpenney and weve had great results

ssmb_clarinet

I have had a good experience with JcPenney as well.

jg1011

I've done very well at Picture People. My SIL swears by JcPenney.

kjmommy1214

I really like JCPenny. This is where we have had all of K's done.

winecastle14

katiemay8979 said:

I don't care for dept store photos. we always use a prof photographer. it's one thing that's important to me and I splurge on

This.

sara785

We used to go to Penney's until I found Portrait Innovations. I'm not sure if they are a national chain or just local. We liked Penney's, but Portrait Innovations is so much better for the price. I feel like if you are that critical of WalMart (not saying it's a bad thing), you likely won't be satisfied with anything besides a pro similar to who you've already used.

CurlyQ284

I liker our JCP photos. We had a groupon so I got a lot for my money. :x

ExcitedMum2B

@jg1011 How is the pricing at picture people? All I could find online was portrait package pricing.

jg1011

@ExcitedMum2B Well----there is always a coupon for an $18 package. It has the basics in terms of sizes. Where they get you is when they take multiple posses and they are ALL good! LOL!

 

This is the package I usually get on top of the $18 package. That usually gives me what I want in addition to the CD which is essential to me.

 

Deluxe Package $135.00

•Any 10 color portrait sheets

  •Up to 10 different images •View & Share CD*

  •Additional sheets only $10

  Total value: $215

 

Plus...if you join the portrait club each time you go in the year you get some freebies. I'm on my 3rd visit so I get a CD of the sitting this time. So I can get the $18 package and whatever other sheets I want and know I have the CD for anything I don't have actual prints of.

 

ExcitedMum2B

Thanks! I just found an $18 one on groupon, and splurged on the $75 one for the CD also!

Jordysmommy

I have had all of my sons pictures done at JCPennys and have been very happy with the results.. There is a few so you can see.. These are his 8 month photos.

shaunnna

I take photos every month of DS. The only "professional" pictures that I have not taken of him were his newborn pictures done in the hospital.

maven212

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

Ya, mainly my beef with the walmart studio was that the photographer was super inexperienced - so the style of shots that specific location advertised as possible were not from her portfolio. It ended up costing a little less than an hour with a child photographer I happen to really like. That said, the whole point was to get the pics with leafy background and shag carpet....that the baby is out of frame or the floor is inexplicably at a 30 angle is kind of beside the point, I guess. I did get the one shot i went there to get, so i can't really complain. I'd like to try another studio, though, and see what the deal is - so now I have lots of leads. 

I might call my old  photographer this week and get a nice day in the life -style family shot.

jennygirlmt

I hate the look of department store studios but I'm spoiled in that both my brother and sister are photographers. I've just looked at their packages and realized I've probably had $1000s in free photography (and then print with groupons, free shutterfly books/prints). I am so cheap I probably wouldn't even do dept stores though. I'd just use my own DSLR. But I think if its what you can afford then the pictures are worth it.

atrinh11

We usually do our professional photographer as well, but we did try Sears once when LO was a month old. They turned out pretty nice. We did go in knowing exactly what we wanted, and the photographer was so excited to work with our adorable little baby, that I felt like she totally went the extra mile for us. We had a coupon, and I felt like we totally got our money's worth from that shoot. That being said, I will still do all of my "important" photos with out phtographer that did my maternity shots and first family shots. I am already looking at dates to book 1 year pics for LO with her.