Portrait Innovations

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Buyer beware - no matter how much you pay (and it will cost a lot here) you will not retain the rights to the photos. This means you can never reproduce them or do anything with them unless you are willing to go through this company and pay their prices. Unless they have a special, a high res CD only comes with a $300 and up package. So, you can only print from your home printer for $300 and up. I take a day off from work every year for my daughter's birthday and it's become a routine to have her photo taken on her birthday every year. I love knowing I will look back at these photos and know that is exactly how she looked on her 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc birthdays. I am not local to the GSP area but my family is. I live in Atlanta. I happened to be in Spartanburg for her birthday and there is not a Picture People there so, I chose this place. I accidentally got the time wrong which was totally my fault and they were nice enough to work me in, but seemed a bit perturbed even though they were not busy (hence the one star I gave them). The session begins with taking my 3 year old’s picture when I ask the photographer to start with the white backdrop. I always want a white one and I never know how long she will tolerate this so I try to get it first. The photog tells me it’s 3rd and they have a system and cannot change it. I thought it a bit odd, but had little choice but to go along. We get through 4 backdrops and she tells me the 5th one is in the other studio section and there is a family there so, it will only be a few more minutes. I tell her 4 is fine. She tells me we have to do 5 because it is procedure. Again, odd, but whatever, I’ll go along. After I ask her if my daughter’s lip boo boo can be photo shopped out. She tells me they do not do editing. I am ok with this as I thought it a long shot anyway. She comes back to the computer with the photos and starts at the $700 or $750 package. I laugh a little and after a minute of her explaining what I get for the money I let her know that I am looking for the $100 to $200 range to spend (which is what you can get at Picture People). She tells me this is how they do it and to let her do it. She keeps going down in price $25-$50 at a time. We waste more time and she’s down to $500 and showing me all the extras I get for the money when I explain to her again I am not interested in all the extras. I want some prints and the CD and want to pay $100-$200. She again tells me this is how she has to do it. She keeps going and gets to below $300 when she informs me that is the last package price where I can a high res CD. I lose it. I look at her and ask is she serious? I have to spend $300 to get a decent CD. She says yes. I tell her that I am done and get up to walk out. She tries to keep me there. I explain to her that I told her what I was looking for. She says we can get to that price but she has to do it this way. We start cutting pictures left and right to get close to the $200 mark. I am furious at this point. It finally comes out that no matter how much I spend I will never own the rights and will be lucky to have a handful of pictures. I get up and leave. I wasted 2 hours of my time and have to schedule another photographer for the next day (not my daughter’s birthday). I will never return. The only good thing I can say is the pictures themselves were good, but $200-$300 for an hour of a studio’s time is ridiculous. For that amount I can have a pro photographer come to my house and do it. This place needs a lesson in the fact that the person paying has all the power, not them.

Chandra, one of the photographers was SO unprofessional. Didn't explain a thing, extremely rushed, rude and not receptive to our ideas, basically just chose our backdrops for us... Rushed through picking our favorite pictures while she deleted very cute ones that we could later not obtain because of the way she *didnt* explain NOT deleting was an option. Basically a long story but want to get it out there- NOT good! Wish I had spent my $300 elsewhere. Could have got better pictures for $50 at Walmart! Professional? Absolutely NOT!