One thing I would like to do more of is have more professional pictures of my kids taken. Lately, life has been way too busy and money has been spent other places (preschool tuition, sports, etc) that getting professional photo’s done has taken a backseat. So I rely on the once a year school photo for my nice professional photo for that particular year. My son brought home his school picture and I absolutely fell in love with it. It was perfect. I looked at my daughters proofs online, picked my favorite one and was very excited to make it another year with two great school pictures for my kids. Or so I thought.
Now remember, I said I looked online at my daughters proofs. That info’s key. The picture that I saw online looked fine. I wasn’t too thrilled with the lime green chair and in your face blue background the photographer used, but whatever…that I could deal with. When I asked the photographer if she had a blue background when I was booking her for the school…I assumed when she said yes, it was a true photographer blue background sheet as opposed to the ridiculously in your face blue piece of felt she brought to the school…but again, the color of the background and the lime green chair could be dealt with.
What I can’t deal with is the horrible pictures I received. The first set, my daughter had a very yellow looking face, especially across her nose. She looked like she had jaundice. A bad case at that. Besides the jaundice looking face, she also looked like the sharpen edit tool was used WAY too much. So much so, she looked like she was computer generated. It was horrible. I immediately emailed the photographer and she told me she would fix the problems and bring new pictures up to the school. The new set of pictures were no better. Well I take that back. The jaundice look on my daughters face was gone, but the computer generated appearance was still there. Of course I contacted the photographer again. I basically just asked her if we could rectify this situation by refunding my money and I would return the pictures to her. How could I hang such horrible pictures of my daughter on my wall and pass them out to my family?
Well Ms. Valerie Gleason of Embrace-Photography has refused to refund my money. Basically she would rather have her customer be dissatisfied with their pictures than stand behind her work. Let me tell you what I think happened with the pictures. Ms. Gleason told me that she did very little editing. That she basically just smoothed out the background. Remember I told you that she brought felt as her background…you know…the kind of material that collects lint like you wouldn’t believe. After I told my husband, who does know a lot about image editing since he does that with his job, that she smoothed out the background, he said that the reason our daughters pictures look so bad is because the photographer probably outlined around our daughter to select her and keep her separate from the background so she can smooth out the background which then when she is deselected she appears more harsh and sharp. I don’t know if that is how things happen…I’m not a professional photo editor. Honestly, it doesn’t matter. The bottom line is, Ms. Gleason is a professional providing customers with a product. When the customer is not happy with something they paid for, she should do everything possible to rectify that situation. If it can’t be fixed, then a refund should be issued.
Would you be happy if you paid good money to have pictures that look so bad that it almost looks like your child is computer generated? How about if there was a big glare across your child’s forehead? Or better yet, lets just soften the picture to the point that it is blurry. Does that really sound like she provided our school with quality work?
I run my own business. If one of my customers contacted me because they were unhappy with the quality of product they received, I would bend over backwards to make it right. That’s what you do when you provide good customer service. But unfortunately, Valerie Gleason of Embrace-Photography takes a much more “it is what it is” approach when it comes to the quality of her work that she is providing her customers. So with Embrace-Photography, it is definitely a buyer beware situation.
Wow that is a shame. I mean why would she use felt if she is going to have to than edit it and smooth it out because it looks like crap in pictures? She should really refund your money! Just horrible. I am so sorry you've had to deal with this. 🙁
That sucks , and really how unprofessional ! I find some school pictures are just to blah for me , it is always the same pose same background each and every year. I stopped doing them years ago and just make sure I get some great snap shots of the kids all year long.
I agree with you though, you paid for a service and you are unhappy. She should be trying to fix the issue or refunding you your money !
Ya know, I have no clue on the felt thing, I mean it seems to me that professional photographers use bed sheet like materials for a reason…because they are already SMOOTH!
I personally love school pictures. Ya they are boring because they are the same pose but it's one of those things that, for me, you just do. One of my favorite things to do when I was little was look at the frame my mom had on the wall that had a spot for all my school pictures and then a big one for my senior picture. I loved that frame and want to get one for my kids to be able to look at and see how they grew.
But now I have to go spend MORE money to get a picture where my daughter doesn't look computer generated.
What is it with photographers lately. My friend got married a few weeks ago and the pictures were terrible. Their heads were cut off in some of the pics along with the centering being off. The owner just couldnt understand why my friend was upset. I hope you can get different pictures done.
Lucy
That's terrible! In this economy, you'd think that business owners would care even more about customer service. Such a shame…
If I were someone who depended heavily on referrals I would definitely want to rectify any situations like this. Sorry she couldn't act professional in this situation – that sucks!
That is terrible! Photography is not cheap 🙁