'Complimentary' Family Portrait Photo Session . . ?

jstyles

We are going for a 'free' family portrait sitting at a well know photographer's studio on Merseyside very shortly.

Though we are told there will be a free print for us - and that's all we're going for - I understand that there may be extreme marketing pressures, or at least a hard-sell, coming our way! Such as "your free print worth £150 may be used to offset th ecost of the larger £300 one . . " etc etc.

Has any one had experience of this. And can anyone offer any advice? The wife definitely wants to go!

Freddie_Snowbits

Nothing is free!


But you are free to choose

Pink.

The problem with these 'free' family portraits is that the photographs tend to be excellent, so you want to buy them. Thats what the studio is banking on. Even if you go along with the best intentions of not buying, when you see the proofs it's very hard to stick to your guns.

That's why I have never attended one of these........I know my resolve would weaken and if there were good pics of my little darlings I would probably buy the lot :rolleyes:

On saying that I have friends who did the same loved the photographs and seem to think that it was £800 :eek: well spent!

Pink

bernardh_2

My ex and the girls went for one of these sessions.The free photo was great,but it would have been about £1,000 for the others. She couldn`t afford this.
The young photographer then came up with a story about spending years at photography school and was working for a pittance and offered to sell her the discs for £200 or so.They met in a pub and money changed hands.Then she got the photos she chose developed at boots and got a local art dealer to make some frames.
I think it was a con,but she thinks she got a bargain and the photos are fabulous.

Mrs_Thrift

If you can be strong enough to resist lots of cute and flattering pictures of your family, then enjoy! BUT be warned that the sell can be VERY hard: lots of different poses and arrangements of your family will be taken so that there is lots to appeal to you, and the prices can be horrendous! I used to work for a photographer and the mark-up on prints and frames was HUGE, and prices have just kept rising in photographers since then. I wouldn't believe any that say they work for a pittance....

Freddie_Snowbits

Book in with a recognised Photographer, they can guide you throught the session and not rip you off.


If your near me, I will do it at cost (SW Glos.)!

tinalives

Is this photography studio called O--n Mills?

Mumstheword

I've had the 'watch me grow' program before - about £25 for 4 sittings throughout the year, with 1 free photo from each sitting.

Have to say, I'm brill at not buying any others!

Even took my neice and nephew to one of them and got my parents a fantastic photo of their grandchildren.

(I may have made myself a copy of it.....tee hee)

purplepatch

I did a similar thing for my daughter when she was tiny - a scheme called Cherubs where free of any charge they take pics at 4m, 8m and one year, then at the end give you a leather portfolio with your choice of pics from each session.

I have to say it is extremely hard to resist buying additional pictures as they are really lovely and of course you are so totally smitten by your little ones that they don't really have to do any hard sell. You would have to be very determined and ruthless to avoid buying any extras

I did choose extras but I did only get the photos and framed them myself a lot less expensively, ordering frames and mounts made to measure over the net. Also got pics for the grandparents as presents. So they definitely made a few bob out of us.

tinalives

Mumstheword wrote:

I've had the 'watch me grow' program before - about £25 for 4 sittings throughout the year, with 1 free photo from each sitting.

Have to say, I'm brill at not buying any others!

Even took my neice and nephew to one of them and got my parents a fantastic photo of their grandchildren.

(I may have made myself a copy of it.....tee hee)

I used to work for this company years ago, and the pictures are fantastic, and the only 'catch' if you can call it that, is that the pictures are so good that you'll want to buy more than you were initially going to get for free/very low cost.

As long as you say 'no' and stick to your guns you get a fantastic deal!

bylromarha

Get a few nice shots, then muck up your hair for the rest of them. Make sure your freebie is one of the first shots

you won't want bad pics of yourself so it'll be easier to say no.

I've just had a free session and print from PixiFoto (using bounty vouchers). Spud's hair was in desperate need of a cut so it was really easy to say no to all the photos as his hair looked appaling!