Kramer Photography Awful Experience. Portraits ruined by horrible retouching. Owner's motto: if you want customer service, you have to pay custom prices Palatine Illinois

If you're looking for a life size portrait of your cat or any number of expensive and antiquated photography services, then this is probably the place for you. Although this studio has been around for many years (they still put a giant gold stamp with "Kramer" on the front of ALL photos) they have only been doing digital photography for one year and it shows.

I had portraits of my children taken on a white backdrop. When the photos came back they had pink & white digitized spots in the background (which the retoucher confirmed was not normal) and the floor was scuffed and dirty. I did not think this was acceptable and asked if they could clean up the photo. In my 15 years of using Photoshop professionally, I knew this was a relatively simple request. Who shoots pictures on a dirty floor if they don't plan on digitally correcting?

The second set of photos I received were a hack job. The digital retoucher obviously did not know what he was doing. The background was completely deleted to a stark white and fake shadows were added under my children's feet. I paid for a portrait, not bad Photoshop work.

The owner, who turns from nice to nasty once he has your money, argued that you only look at photos from a distance and that they were fine. He also admitted he never looked at the first set of photos. What kind of studio doesn't review their own work before giving it to a client? I was given a new price list and told if I wanted customer service, I would need to pay custom prices.

Bottom line, I paid hundreds of dollars for photos that aren't worthy of hanging up and will sit in a drawer. Sears could have done a better job. There are plenty of studios that do great digital work and can fix small imperfections in the photos. This studio is not one of them. Avoid the potential hassle.

Anonymous
Chicago, Illinois
U.S.A.