[CatManDo]

Hi there,

Maybe slightly O/T but...

Anyone used these? They are advertising quite extensively and I would like some nice pics done of my family.

Just wondered if anyone had any experience with them?

TIA

[vulkan75]

Yes I have used them, back in the days when I wasnt taking photos myself.They are very expensive.
We paid about £200+ for three or four 10x8's .for a collage of sixteen small pics they wanted about £675 .Dont know ther currant prices but the photographer who took our shots wernt that hot(I now know).

Ive seen some nice onesby them though.

If you are into photography or know someone who is,my advice would be...Get a white background And do your own.

[Astaroth]

Hmm.... £25 gives you 1 hour studio time and 1 photo printed plus a few hours of hard sell for other images taken at extortionate prices

Being less cynical my main concerns are they dont price their other items at all. Their portfolio also seems very limited.

I must admit that I am surprised that you need to consider buying studio time with the number of people with decent cameras and particularly on here with a fair number that also have studio lights etc

[wabbitt]

vulkan is spot on... do them yourself or get another photographer to do it. It's not that difficult... honest.

I did these for friends.

[vulkan75]

Wabbit,lovely shots there mate .Youll have to give me some pointers.

Isnt that Ashley cole and Dom joly.

[CatManDo]

Thanks guys for the advice, I appreciate it.

Think I will try a local photographer rather than a commerical studio setup like Ventura.

Wabbitt, very impressed with you pics....shame you are in London

[geofftelforduk]

CatManDo - i work with a guy who used Venture! he said the experience was excellent, but the hard sell afterwords was a nitemare! Especially when there are kids involved because you come out feeling really guilty that you didnt splash out the £2000 on photos of your kids they would have loved you too!!

Just get a mate with a white background!!!

[nealgs]

I've got to hold my hands up on this one - we have used them. The experience was really good, no hard sell at all only us prannying around deciding what pictures to purchase.

We ended up spending £1400 I think it's a bloomin (proper expleetive unprintable) ripoff, but the photo's are impressive (all fully framed) and it was as part of the wifes 40th Birthday present (and 41st, 42nd, 43rd......51st, 52nd )

The kids enjoyed the experience as did we, but Venture definately do play on the heart-strings/guilt as regards to pricing of items. All the photos were very good, and it was difficult to decide what to buy, but as a few have already mentioned, could be done yourself i think easily.

Friends have also used them 2 or three times (usually when a new child has come along etc) and have spent a fair few pennies.

They must be either raking it in to be able to afford to advertise on telly now, or desparate for business as there are more and more people/companies now doing this type of thing for a lot less money.


wabbit - I love the first picture, that is awesome, exactly the format that venture do - nice

regards
Gary

[redmax]

Originally Posted by wabbitt

vulkan is spot on... do them yourself or get another photographer to do it. It's not that difficult... honest.

I did these for friends.

Wabbitt
Nice shots
Can you share the processing workflow for the 2nd pic.
It looks like the use of solarizing filter...........or is it a secret.

I've got a week off work for half term and have booked some shoots of friends kids.
I want to try something like your shots.

Thanks for any tips.

Mark

[wabbitt]

Thanks for the nice comments.

I have the PSD file at home for these shots so I'll open them up and spell out what I did to it.

[RRR]

As it happens we went and had the viewing from our session yesterday evening.

Our approach was that for the £25 it was worthwhile even if just to pick up some new ideas for photographing our 6-month-old son. We really enjoyed the shoot, which was very relaxed.

We had noticed that they don't hand out the price list until after you've had your photo shoot. We didn't think they would be cheap but I nearly fell over when I started to read how much the prints cost

For example, their cheapest properly mounted 8x10 for wall hanging is now £315 and the prices go up from there! Having said that there was no hard sell although we did make it clear when we arrived that we would only be looking at small prints.

We were impressed with the photos they had taken, but as others have said most of them were something you could take yourself with just a little effort. In the end we ordered three pictures in desk-standing frames from the cheapest range they do and managed to spend under £200.

So it was good fun but I'm not sure I'll be rushing back given the prices - and the fact that I'm getting a Nikon D80 in a couple of weeks