Portrait Innovations

Place was jam packed when we arrived. There was about 10 families waiting in line when we arrived & I also made the appointment at 6pm, thinking that I’ll be able to be in & out. we also came 15 mins early & the lady told me that they were running 40 mins behind so she told me to hangout & wait for their call. I think from 6:50pm we started taking photos & didn’t walk out till 9pm. I don’t think that place got done until 11pm… But overall, I do love my photos, I love that it’s close to home & friendly workers but the wait was not worth it.

Had an appointment at 6:30pm on a Sunday for 3 kids. We arrived 10 minutes prior to our appt. like they suggest only to be informed that they are running an hour late. We went to a couple of shops in the area and came back an hour later and they were still not ready for us. We ended up waiting another hour to be seen. It was finally out turn and after taking a picture, we were told we had to go to the other room because the camera wasn’t working properly. Went to the next room but turns out that there was a session still going on there so they asked us to wait again. Back to the waiting room we go. Ok now the room is empty, they get the kids ready just to tell us that we had to go and wait again because the previous couple is just doing a change of clothing. Waiting again… They tell us the camera is fixed in the first room so we go there. By this time my 2 year old and 3 ½ year old don’t even want to think about taking pictures since it’s almost 9pm and they are tired of waiting. So they set us up in the room and tried taking pictures of my kids but I guess they didn’t fix the camera after all. So they asked us to wait again. At this point I was done and just wanted to leave. One of the employees asked us to reschedule our appt. to the following Tuesday and so we agreed. Tuesday morning they call to confirm the appt. for later on that day and everything seemed to be good but an hour before the appt. just as I was getting my kids ready, they call and tell me that the printer isn’t working and if we can reschedule again!!! I just had to cancel and take my business somewhere else. So disappointing!!!

Don’t be fooled… You think you are getting digital images when they give you CD… not, they are in a format specific to Portrait Innovations, they can’t bee opened!!!

I’ve been to PI three times and each has been subsequently worse in customer service and quality of photos.
The final straw: the prints of my son were off in ratio. The wallets were fine; however, the 5×7, 8×10, and 16×20 that came in the mail were all so closely cropped that, when framed, my sons head is covered by the frame.
When I called, I was informed that because I did not buy the $ 500 package with a cd, my prints are not archived and there is nothing they can do.
I call BS, because the images from my son’s first session are all online, and I did not buy a cd that time. So, because YOU as the photographer cropped terribly, I as the customer deal with a half-​visible picture?
Not returning again, cheap or not. You really do get what you pay for.
And, the «free» print they mail is not free after an exorbitant handling fee and the shipping — neither of which my photographer mentioned would be tacked on until they’d already ran my credit card.

Scheduled one toddler for their earliest appointment on a week day. We were the only customers in there. The service was awesome! My daughter was being difficult. These two girls worked their buns off and were able to get some really great shots. They battled through tears and tantrums all the while remaining patient and professional. Two things that bothered me though: they started with a green leaf background that didn’t go with her dress even though I specified I wanted pictures with the number block. By the time we got through that background (which I bought none of) and the number block, we couldn’t do the outfit change I wanted because my daughter was just done. Also they really do try to pressure you in to bigger packages. It really is frustrating when you’re there alone with two kids running around the waiting area.
The pictures were ready quickly. We will definitely use them in the future.

Feeling suckered in… I took my 9 month old daughter in for a photo shoot. She barely smiled and the backgrounds were cheesy. I was not very impressed with the photographer’s ability to capture cute images, she stuck to the 60 photos (with digital — you should be able to take more photos to capture some good images and delete the others). My daughter started getting fussy because she was getting hungry and essentially the photographer made us go through all the photos right then and there. They started with the top package and work down. The pricing is not readily available, so I thought I would spend maybe $ 100-​$ 150. I walked out spending $ 325 and was very disappointed with my prints. I wouldn’t recommend this place based on the lack of artistic ability and the strong sales pitch, as well as the lack of empathy for having a baby that was unhappy. I felt completely taken advantage of and dissatisfied.

Great customer service! Mother’s Day weekend. We arrived a bit late because we worked, however, they gave us a bit of time to get ready, and then we began without issues. Printing actually took less than the 30 minutes they quoted us and they offered to cut all of the photos for us. Would definitely return!

I thought it would be fun to get a big family portrait done. Portrait Innovations advertised a great special so I figured that was the place to go. It took awhile to get ahold of the place. The hours advertised online were not the hours that the studio actually kept. But we got it worked out. Due to everyone’s work schedules, we had to make special arrangements to get everyone there, with some of us having to drive an hour each way.
The day of the shoot, there was a little bit of snow, as in maybe an inch. The roads weren’t even all that slick, just slushy. I got a call saying they were delaying the shoot an hour. Then I got another call from someone else saying that they had decided to close the studio for a snow day. I called back the original person I’d talked to so I could confirm it being closed, and was again told it was just a delay and they would be open. After several calls of back and forth, they finally made up their mind and closed the studio.
Needless to say, I was very disappointed. But one of the callers was rude over me asking if they were sure they were closing and offered nothing but a snotty «sorry». A delay I understand, but closing the studio for the day seemed extreme, not to mention the fact that it was the only time we all would be available as some of us were moving across the country. I had even told them that. I asked if the person in the studio could just snap a picture of us all with the camera phone. They said they couldn’t. Thank God for Seattle baristas! There was a very kind girl working at the coffee shop around the corner who was more than happy to help.

My sister had this idea to get a big family portrait done since recently has been the first time all four of our families have been living in the same state in over ten years. She made the appointment and coordinated it with everyone (which is pretty difficult with our family — there are 12 of us and we all work different schedules/​days), and we showed up good to go at 9:00AM on a Sunday morning.
When I got there, the door was locked and a woman came to the door to tell me that there would be no photos that day because it snowed the night before. I know this is Seattle and people tend to lose their minds at the first sign of a snowflake, but I had just driven down with my sister and her family, without issue from Lynnwood, almost 40 miles away. My brother made it from Ballard, and my other sister from Renton. And we’re not talking a blizzard here, this wasn’t like the «Snowmageddon» of a couple years ago when the snow was melting and re-​freezing and snowing again on top of the ice. We’re talking an inch, maybe an inch and a half of powder that had mostly melted off of the streets. Like I said, I made it without issue from Lynnwood.
Since I was the first on scene, I called my other sister to see if I had the right place, because she had confirmed with the photographer that morning that there would indeed be a photo shoot. She called the photographer (fortunately she had her cell number) and confirmed again that we would shoot, but at 10:00 with an hour’s delay. We were fine with that, it just gave us time to grab some coffee and hang out a bit together. About ten minutes later my sister’s phone rings and someone is telling her that the shoot is cancelled. There was a brief exchange about how we had just a few moments ago confirmed that this was happening and explained that we had come a pretty fair distance and that whoever was calling needed to talk with whoever was saying that we were still good to go. There were a few more calls from both people and eventually we learned that the photo shoot was cancelled after all.
So now despite the impassable roads that led to my whole extended family wasting half a day, I somehow have survived the drive yet again, and made it safely back to Lynnwood. But we did get our photo, it was just taken on the patio outside of the coffee shop around the corner. Miraculously the barista also made it in to work and was more than happy to take our picture with one of our iPhones. Not exactly the shot we were looking for, but what else are you going to do?

This is the 3^rd year I take my granddaughter there for holiday photos. This was the first year I had to make the appointment on a Saturday. We got there in time for our appointment (scheduled for 10:00). The place was a zoo. There must have been at least 30 people in the lobby. We had to wait because «a couple of big groups came in» before us. Uh, who does the scheduling? I would hope they realize that bigger groups are going to take more time, etc., etc. Finally, about 10:30, we were able to take our photos. My granddaughter is used to the camera, so she’s smiling right on cue and it went fairly quickly.
Another long wait. .. for the computer. Finally, we’re able to sit down and go through the poses. I (as always) got a fairly large package, photos, two books, a calendar and a large canvas photo. Now for the printing.. . We ended up leaving, going to have lunch and returning back. .. where we still had to wait for another 10 minutes or so. We spent 3 hours there. Yikes! My fault — never on a Saturday again. The previous years were a breeze, but we were there on a weekday.
I like this place, they’ve done a good job but I’m never going there on a weekend ever again.

Plan to blow 2 ½ hours for mediocre rushed photos from amateur point and shoot lackeys…
When making an appointment for 1:00 PM it’s not professional for a photo shop or dental office to make you wait an additional half hour before the start of the service. Then rush the shoot as if your part of a fast food chain assembly line.
The local management needs to learn a lot about proper scheduling! Having families stuffed in the lobby like a Japanese subway train and others with infants waiting out in the cold is not a winning situation for any customer!

Just like what the other reviewer said, we wanted to stick with a package also. I told the lady on the phone what package we wanted to do and that was all, and she kind of blew it off by continuing asking my information. We get there and do a bunch of poses, and the guy was good, but got me kind of laughing inside whenever he was trying to get my three year old to smile as if he was a few months old baby.
This is how they get you and this is why they take a buttload of photos. When the photographer is done, they go through this package by having you pick one picture out of every three, to really try to sell you a lot of poses in the end. $ 500 worth! The photographers are really worse than those hagglers at the kiosks at the mall. Even when you tell them something, they keep on reiterating things and try to convince you to spend so much. We got it dropped to about six poses, which was about $ 129. I wanted to drop it down more because we really don’t need that many photos that’s included and I didn’t like some of them, but this company is really a sales company like a dealership. We’ve been to other picture places that tries to sell you a lot of photos, but we’ve never had an experience like this.
With how much you’re spending, you might as well go to a more expensive place that does better photo quality, like Picture People. Or if you don’t want to spend as much then go to Sears or JCPenney. We’re left with a buttload of small photos because we don’t have that many family and friends, which was why we were trying to stick with a package or just a few poses. Two stars for some cute photos, but bad experience at the end.

My family is super HUGE! I have 4 brothers and One sister, and then theres me. Then I have 8 nieces and nephews between them plus my parents. There was some kind of mix up before we got there (On their end) My dad called to make the appt, but then we got there and still had to wait. However the pics turned out great, and with a family as big as mine we dont do family pictures that often. We spent kind of a lot of $ but am glad we got them done. It was time consuming and we were there for about 2hours from start to finish. I probably would come back though in hopes there wouldnt be another mix up.

I will NEVER come here after today. Our photographer Brian was irritated and rude. He rushed through EVERY pose and got annoyed when our ONE YR OLD wouldnt sit down in a white room with no props or anything. He gave up after only 42 shots which they said on the phone they take over 100. We didnt even have enough pictures to MAKE the books that they offer. He did NOTHING to make her smile or offer any types of different poses, just because she didnt want to do the sitting on the ground in a white room pose, he just ended our session. He rushed through our selection sitting and huffed and puffed anytime we changed our mind on a picture. Because of him I will NEVER be returning here.

Anyone thinking they can get pictures for the coupon advertised price is mislead once you walk through those doors. I took my family of 5 in there with a $ 19.99 coupon for pictures. I told the guy UP FRONT this is what we want and nothing else. He still took other pictures of the kids and various un-​needed photos. This went on for quite some time. I told the guy when we sat down and reviewed pics that I just want the $ 19.99 price. He said we need to go through all the photo packages first. After every package he went through, he says «Stop here ?» I said please get me to the package I want and lets not waste anymore time just trying to be as nice as I can to the guy. After an hour later I got what I wanted… SAVE YOUR SELF THE HASSLE AND GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.

Update: I called the corporate office back on ¹¹⁄₂₃ and spoke to a representative. It was obvious that what I was told by the previous representative had not been true because I had to tell the story of what happened all over again. She put me on hold and called the studio manager. At the end of that conversation she told me that I could return the photos I had purchased if I was unhappy with them but I would have to pay in full for the re-​shoot. I explained that I purchased the 3 poses because I was told they couldn’t be saved until the re-​shoot. I asked what happened to the promises the other representative had made me? She said that she had spoken to a customer service manager and the offer of $ 25.00 gift certificate was the most they would do. I asked to speak to this manager and I told her that even a $ 50.00 gift certificate would have been acceptable because that was half of the $ 100.00 I spent at the first session. The manager was unwilling to compromise with me at all. When I asked to speak to her boss she told me that there was no one else to speak to and I could return the pictures for a full refund. I was unsatisfied with this so I sent an email to the CEO John Grosso and I got a response back with in an hour. I have received a $ 50.00 gift certificate towards the re-​shoot. I appreciate how quickly this was handled once it got to a corporate level. Because of this I will definitely return to portrait innovations!

The digital proofs that we got were of too low quality to print, and staff at the location either didn’t know this or didn’t bother to tell me. I would not have gone there and spent a single dollar if I had known that the quality of the proofs would be lower than what I take on my smartphone.
Service was pretty good but money spent was largely a waste. What I get for paying attention to their low-​cost, get you in the door special.

I heard about this place through one of my friends who saw their $ 9.95 package deal. There are no sitting fees and you receive your pictures right after you pick out your favorites. This definitely caught my eye, since it was cheaper than going to Picture People, who like to charge you $ 18/​sheet. I normally go to JCPenney, but I was in need of getting the pictures taken and printed out right away for my daughter’s 3^rd birthday. I planned on sending her pictures with her Thank You cards after her birthday celebration.
We made it just in time for our appointment and my daughter was NOT happy to be here. She saw the Lego table right as we entered and that’s all she could focus on rather than wanting to take pictures. I was somewhat disappointed that our photographer couldn’t get my daughter to smile. She said very little and didn’t do much. She didn’t even try to bring out any of her props to see if my daughter would have any interest in them. Instead, both my boyfriend and I tried everything we could to get my little one to smile. Another photographer who happened to finish up with her group, she came by and tried to make my daughter smile. Even by bringing some of the Legos she wanted to play with. We didn’t get many smiling shots and when it came time for an outfit change, my daughter had a complete meltdown. Our photographer offered to reschedule our appointment, since they normally take about 90 shots, whereas we only got about 20 or so in. I didn’t want to come back, because like I had mentioned… I wanted this pictures now and needed to have them to send out next week.
So we went ahead and picked out our favorites. We chose one pose where it would apply to the $ 9.95 package, where you get over 40 pictures in various sizes. We ended up spending about $ 100 on the pictures that were just «okay» but doable for the occasion.
The prices here are great. But I’d only suggest going here if your kid has no problem smiling for the camera.

I’ve visited the location at Kent Station several times to document my now 2 year old daughter’s life. For the most part, I’ve been fairly satisfied. It’s not great, but definitely not bad.
This last time, however, will be our last visit. The photographer clearly had no idea what to do with my kid — asking her to do things that were way beyond her ability to understand… she’s only 2! Additionally, I had been told I would get 80 – 90 images, instead I got barely 40 shots.
Pros: you do get to leave with the photos after about a 15 min wait. Quality is good, price is reasonable compared to most fancy photographers.

I’ll admit it, I’m kind of old-​school when I get portraits of the kids. I like simple, well lit, studio portraits. I love the look of some of our local photographers portraits of children in parks, autumn leaves, near the water, etc. But sometimes (like for the far-​away relatives) simple studio pics do a nice job of showing how little Janie looks these days. I’m also not a fan of cheesy backgrounds or props (save some of the standard ones for milestones – like a block with the number one to document baby’s first b-​day), and they are very respectful of your taste. If you like props and backgrounds, they have them.
Before they went bankrupt (and have now reopened with new ownership) I took my kids to Kiddie Kandids. But when my baby turned 9 months old, we trekked down to Southcenter and realized they were GONE. Vanished. Poof. What to do? Kiddie Kandids was cheap, quick, and simple. With limitations, but it’s what I was used to.
I hit the seattle mom blogs and started querying. A mom who recently moved to Seattle from Atlanta let me know about Portrait Innovations and said they sounded like what I wanted. She was right.
Our appointment (two children, three changes of clothes for the one-​year-​old and just a few pics with older sibling) was LONG, but in a good way. I brought my mother along– and am glad I did, because trying to manage the two toddlers and select pictures/​packages would have been a nightmare. I was sweating with two employees and my mom to help!
Recommend making an appointment for a weekday morning, you’ll get more options and attention that way. Our photographer was great, the other gal working didn’t have any clients, so they both worked together to get a great variety of shots. There was also a developmentally disabled woman working in the studio, cleaning, organizing, and putting together packaging for the portraits – which was a huge plus in my book. I respect their franchise owner for giving her the job.
After the pictures were taken, we (the photographer and I, while my mom kept the kids busy at the lego table in the front of the studio) culled through 100 digital shots and kept whittling down to my favorites. Ahhh, decisions, decisions! Most of the pictures were great, so it was almost overwhelming to have to figure out which ones to get prints from. The package prices were super affordable, and because we went big (lots of pics for the three sets of grandparents) – we got a free CD with some medium resolution images. Very good value, and much, much, much more variety than Kiddie Kandids (who only allowed 8 images per sitting and would never let me do separate sittings when I brought both kids in, even when I made an appointment for such). For $ 215 I got shots from 14 different poses in a variety of sizes (wallets all the way up to 11X14s). They save your chosen poses on the CD in a format that they can open if you ever want more prints. The lower-​res images are open, but wouldn’t work well for more than 4X6/​maybe 5X7 enlargements. And, just like the other place, you get to take your pictures home THAT DAY! Hurrah!
I am very pleased that I heard about this place. It’s in the Kent Station shopping center– a LONG hike for a Seattleite like myself, but well worth it from my experience. I hope to be able to give a good review the next time I use them. It would be great if a franchise opened closer to Seattle, but I’d still make the trek (about 15 minutes further than IKEA).