Portrait Innovations

I initially booked because of an offer I received in the mail. We set a time based on the nap time of a baby and two older children. Upon arrival we walked into a filled to capacity wait room with no where to sit. We waited for almost 2 hours past our appointment time. What’s the point of setting a time if you can’t keep it. Then when we started the photographer INSISTED on a Holiday background even though we repeatedly said no. She then took us thru multiple backgrounds, multiple rooms and just generally didn’t listen to our requests. At the end of the session, we waited around (AGAIN) to look and select. While the pictures taken were nice, the wait times, the photographers attitude and overall insanity of the waiting area will keep me from ever coming back.

Beware of the SIGNIFICANT handling fee on portrait package special items (mug, calendar, 16×20). You cannot disinclude the items to avoid the handling fee and still qualify for the coupon. Our additional fee was $ 18.97. Shady business practice.

We were scheduled to take family pictures at the fair lakes location. Unfortunately the experience was very poor, although we had an appointment we ended up waiting at least one hour. The photographer was not personable or creative with our family pictures. If your family changed clothes in between pictures another family was selected in your place until you returned. This caused confusion, impatience and you felt rushed. The staff seemed unorganized, unfriendly and overwhelmed. Going forward this place needs structure; for instance a consistent greeter to communicate with the customers. The photographer should focus on taking pictures «only» and have a sales rep to review the pictures. (to avoid confusion) We will not be returning. Good luck, maybe they will improve.

We went to the Fairfax studio and Crystiana was our photographer. We are a couple looking for individual head shots for work pics and some fun ones together and separate for our friends and family. Crystiana was professional, knew how to help us pose, choose backgrounds, and really put us at ease with the process. We really enjoyed the process of making our choices to keep and it was quick and efficient. No pressure to up sell the pics, good information on the CD and as we said many times on the drive home «wasn’t that fun!!». Thanks for a memorable morning shoot. We will recommend Portrait Innovations to others and return the next time we need something like this. Judy N and Dale F 10.17.2015

I went in for professional portraits to use for things like LinkedIn profile, professional bios, etc. They charged $ 100 for portraits of both my wife and I, and were out of there within about 30 minutes. They did a decent job, provided us a CD with high resolution images and a release of their rights to the photos. In short, I got exactly what I paid for, not any more or less.
For those who are complaining about their experience, you get what you pay for. This is a low-​end franchise, designed to move people through like cattle. Their waiting room isn’t very nice, they’re way, way out in the exurbs of DC, and I had the opportunity to witness high pressure sales tactics with other customers («For only $X more, you can get this amazing frame, but this deal is only available if you order now!»). But you get what you pay for.
Bottom line: If you’re looking to sip a Nespresso while sitting on an Italian leather sofa perusing the meticulously photo-​shopped images of your family, pay the $ 2k that experience costs. If you want a utilitarian experience and some above average portraits, these are your guys.

I just had our family photos done there with our 18 month old son and our newborn, 8 day old, son. We have used portrait innovations in the past and loved it, but this location is a joke! They didn’t do any newborn poses that I had asked for, and the ones they did do came out looking horrible. The camera angles were ridiculous, I could take better pictures with my iPhone! And I couldn’t really micro manage to get good results because I was so preoccupied with keeping my two babies happy. Not a good experience at all. I am going to call the main office to complain for sure. They rushed us so much that I couldn’t even concentrate on what photos I really wanted them to do in the first place. They didn’t help pose my newborn son at all so unless I tried to fix him he constantly looked like his head was falling over etc, not cute! By the time it was all over I was so stressed out I didn’t even know what to say when we were going through all the pictures that looked terrible. Never again will I waste my family’s time and money at portrait innovations!

I had my daughter’s 6 month old photos done here a week ago. I was a little concerned after reading the Unilocal reviews, but I will go back – they offer good value for the price compared to another, similar-​concept studio I visited and they’re a lot cheaper than getting a photographer who otherwise does weddings and whatnot or going to a high-​end studio that does portraits for your local debutantes. I’m getting pictures of my daughter every three months for the first year of her life, and I can’t justify a zillion dollars every time for pictures for the aunts and grandparents.
My appointment was on a Saturday and it was fairly busy, and no, we were not taken for photos on time, but I was prepared for that after reading the other reviews, so keep that in mind. Our photographer was great, he was very personable and he did a ton of different poses. I wanted formal shots and some fun Valentine’s Day ones and we had two outfits and that was what we did, there was no rush, even though it was busy.
I ordered the 12-​photo package so two pages of each picture, and I got online access, a CD with those 12 in high res and the rest of the photos in low res, a total of 85, and there were some other things in the package I didn’t really need, but were nice, like some specialty prints, a canvas print, and a photo book. The book and the canvas arrived within a week, and the photos were printed out within a half hour.
The only thing that is a bummer is that they don’t do photo retouching. Kiddo had a runny nose and a few pictures that I ordered had a bit of snot under her nose that I couldn’t see on the computer screen. But, I did get the high res images, so I can always just have my husband or someone edit that out of the photo and reprint them.

Martin, the manager, at Portrait Innovations was very helpful. Even though we had an appointment and had to wait for our photo session, Martin’s customer service made up for the wait. He was very patient and listened to what we wanted out of our photo session. Martin helped us pick out or photos and did not pressure us to purchase anything that we did not want. Kudos to Martin for his great customer service!

I would give not any star if possible. Not professional. Rude customer service. They don’t know that they are doing. They tried to take as many pictures as they could in order to sell us more pictures. They printed out wrong order. When I went to pick it up, they offered to reprint the right size and said «you need to give the wrong one back. I can’t give you free pictures». I am happy to pay for what I get but I think they are very very rude and not professional at all. Avoid this place!!!

At first I was skeptical due to all the awful reviews, but I loved my experience here. They were very patient in terms of costume changes and hair changes (I was doing dance photos) as well as thinking of poses. They let me think of what I could do and advised me on what would look good in the photos. The photographer was okay, I didn’t appreciate how she was favoriting certain customers but she seemed to be the only one. Everyone else was more than helpful and extremely friendly which made it fun experience, and my photos turned out fantastic (and were high res)! I absolutely loved the photos and the prices weren’t bad at all. It was also rather busy with a lot of people and yet we only had to wait a few minutes before taking shots.
I’m not sure if I was super lucky, as I had a pretty great experience overall (absolutely fantastic compared to other reviews…) but everyone else that was there seemed to be happy with the studio as well.

If you can go ANYWHERE else, then do so! The wait is long. The photographers pushy and arrogant, think they know everything. Yet, the photos are really poor quality. They don’t bother with whether clothing is out of place or someone isn’t smiling. They click through their standard set series as fast as they can. They ask you to pose in standard poses and rush you through the process because the overbook and don’t allow enough time for quality photos. THEN, oh, then comes the best part… you must sit with one of their sales people, in this case someone named Martin, who was snarky and opinionated. I don’t care which poses HE likes, quite frankly. I am a saavy consumer and I know what I’m looking for. His condescending attitude nearly caused me to get up and walk out. A little creativity (no, this doesn’t mean cutesy props) would go along way to make the quality of the photography better and they should definitely hire some new salespeople.
We will not be back and I will tell everyone I can, not to go.

Went in for a scheduled appointment at 12:30pm was spoken to immediately, but asked to wait one moment which was fine. Our photographer came over and introduced herself within the next 5 minutes. As we spoke to her she got a feel for what we were looking for and the we proceeded to begin out session. She was a great photographer and she kept us laughing. It was a great experience! After our session ended she sat with us, went over our photos and helped pick photos for our package. Only negative is that the printing machine was getting fixed that day so we couldn’t take our printed photos with us, however we do have the CD.

Didn’t have any of the sports themed backdrops as listed on their website. Was excited about getting a mug made as a father’s day gift for my husband until I found out it would take two weeks for it to arrive (after Father’s Day). Before our photo shoot, the two staff members on duty had a half hour conversation about lunch and opening the store that morning, before I was tended to. Photographer was not very friendly and offered very little direction in setting up for photos (where to stand, how to position, etc). Was told I would receive a phone call once my photo mug was ready to be picked up and instead had to call after not hearing from them and was told I should have received an email.
I’ve been to other Portrait Innovations locations and they were much more professional and the staff really seemed to enjoy their job. I would steer clear of this location.

Definitely not a individualized experience. They have their specific ways to take photos and that’s it. It’s not, oh can I try it this way, or I have a specific passport photo I need in order to obtain my official passport so I can meet my travel plans in the near future. Oh no, rest assured, they will take THEIR photo. They will beat you with a bat to mold you into the pose of their choice before letting you decide. And the photo will still come out looking like junk. I wasted about two hours of my life getting the photo and wasting the lost revenue as I took leave from work for half a day. I should have just spent triple the amount elsewhere and would have been ok if it came out even half as decent.
They feigned ignorance to my most basic requests for just one specific pose, just one pose out of the 100 shots they took. Looking back on it, i think it can be attributed to either the fact that they are 1. complete idiots 2. Enjoy displaying sheer content when ignoring customer requests or 3. They have been subject to some sort of sick twisted training to which they are forced to adhere.
That being said… if you like the cliché, stereotyped photos that they offer, that most likely 50% of the neighborhood probably has, by all means to for it.

Made reservation 30 days in advance. Day of shoot: they didn’t get to us until 90 minutes after scheduled time – needless to say, the kids were not in a smiling mood anymore. Picture lighting, composure was average at best. They do NO photo retouching and the CD of JPG pictures are 50−70mb at best – WAY too small to use for anything. That was 3 hours and $ 100 wasted.

We had photos done there. The poses were fine. The rest of the experience has been horrible. We were told that if we paid extra the photos were included on CD. What the manager didn’t tell us that they were all lo res. She told us several days later after we complained to contact the main office and we could get the hi res photos. The main office is a joke! they will not approve any high res photos. We are still waiting for a book that we paid for to be delivered weeks later. once again the manager is NO help! she said to contact the main office. I guess we are on our own to get all that we already paid for.
If you only want the basic special package you should be fine. Do NOT pay for anything extra. You will be disappointed.
We will not be back.

Customer Service is always key when making a purchase. This place doesn’t care, especially if you aren’t purchasing more than the promotion package of $ 12.99.

I would give 4 stars for the photographer session, but the rest was just so-​so. The photographer was very patient with my 10 yr old son who doesn’t like to show his teeth. I think the poses and creativity were just average, but otherwise she worked very hard. I was not expecting to spend so much, but the photos turned out great.
I had to wait days for my photos. Then I had to go back again for a canvas print. THEN someone screwed up and called me again and left a msg that I had something to pick up. I called before I went over there and a young man said– without really looking– that yes, something was there for me to pick up. When I got there (a good 20 min drive for me), he searched for 15 min., and there was nothing there for me. Not sure what happened, but I think I’m ready to use a private photographer rather than go through this process again.

My wife and I have gone to Portrait Innovations at least a half dozen times in the past two years. Every other time we have gone to their location in Leesburg and have had no problems. This place was not the same experience.
They have their $ 9.95 package which gives you a ton of pictures with one poses. The idea obviously is that you will get multiple poses and a bigger package. My old son had a birthday in March so we got a family picture, pictures of both kids and a picture together. Obviously more than the $ 9.95.
This past weekend we just wanted the $ 9.95 one pose deal for my sons birthday. My son is the cutest kid in the world and I love him to death but I don’t need ten different poses of him for his first birthday. And since you can look through all the pictures you can find one that you will like just fine.
So why two stars…
Well when the employee found out we were only going to do the one pose she was rude, wouldn’t look you in the face, and when the pictures were done she just set them on the counter and walked away with putting them in the folder and without acknowledging that they were done.
If you go just for the deal just be warned… Employees may be rude!!!

We decided at the last minute to take 1 year photos of our son, but had bad experiences at Sears and JCPenneys.
In comes portrait innovations. I’ve seen their ads that mention that their process was different, and that pictures would be ready the same day (rather than weeks later).
We called the day of, and they had an appointment later that afternoon (on a Sunday). We were helped immediately when we walked in, and didn’t feel rushed while getting the kid dressed.
Our photographer was WONDERFUL with my son, who I admit can be quite a handful. She sang, danced, and did whatever she needed to do to make him comfortable and keep him happy. Even after he ran out of the studio for the tenth time, she was calm and professional.
We got a ton of shots, and had a hard time narrowing it down to what we wanted. The only reason they didn’t get 5 stars is because their was a slight push to buy more than you wanted, but as soon as you said no thanks that was it (which is a far cry from the pushy salespeople at other studios). I will defintely be back for more family photos.