Portrait Innovations

Possibly the 7^th circle of hell… The entire ordeal took over 3hrs and any parents out there will know what that means while wrangling an energetic 3yr old and 10month old. I’l start from the beginning, I set up an appt for around 10am (in that golden happy time between breakfast and lunch/​nap time) and requested a winter background for the shoot for my Xmas card. I get there and am told that someone will be with me shortly. The place is PACKED with wriggling and fussy kids, no place to sit down but some kind gentleman offered me his seat. I’m approached around 11:00 by a photographer who says I’m next and directs me to a room with a fireplace background. I tell him I’m just interested in the winter scene and possibly all white background (per my appt) and am told that those backgrounds are in a different room and I need to wait. So I do. At 11:45 we finally get going. The photographer was great w the kids– friendly etc– but also very rushed (several other employees kept coming in looking anxiously at their watches while my children got more and more squirmy and fussy due to impending lunch/​nap time and over hour wait). He eventually snapped a few shots (not with the background I wanted) and we were done with the picture taking by 12:10. More waiting and we sit down to look at pictures around 12:20. My kids are in meltdown but I’m able to head some of it off with snacks and my cellphone. Meanwhile, the photographer must click through and edit/​center every pic (even if I don’t want it) since he is also evaluated on those I discard. I told him I just wanted 8×10 of the kids together and of them individually and a good digital copy of the group pic for my cards. After continuous attempts at upselling me on massively expensive packages, including several tries to get me to buy their Xmas cards, I eventually get it down to what I thought was what I wanted… 12:40… And more waiting… Finally get my prints and am able to leave at 1:15– no electronic version however since I would’ve needed to buy a super expensive package with a bunch of pics I didn’t like nor want to get the non copy writed version. Most of the pics were too dark or washed out– I probably could’ve done better myself. This place was a waste of time and money and I won’t be back

Poor overall experience.
We were told to expect 30 min shoot and 30 min photo selection. We ended up spending more than 2 hours in process, then waited another 90 mins for prints.
Information flow is bad — we had to ask repeatedly for info about process and were constantly handed off to another associate to get info on timeline, pricing, and package options.
Several photos were needlessly under or over exposed. Lighting was not professional and images could not be effectively corrected in post.
You can get CD w images, however they are low res. If you want high res images, you have to write to corporate headquarters and ask them for copyright permission of your own images that you’ve already paid for.
We will not go back to again. Specific examples above illustrate generally unprofessional performance.