1. Do you offer other products besides prints?
You betcha! TRUEBLUE Portrait offers a large variety of products, from wall portraits - canvas gallery wraps, metal prints, mini-accordion brag books, couture albums, press-printed albums, greeting cards, and more. . View our gallery here.
2. What am I going to do with my photographs?
Great question! Start thinking what you want your “end result” to be – are you wanting a beautiful piece of art featuring your child or grad for your wall? Are you wanting several large pieces of art to decorate your home? Are you wanting to make a wall collage with a collection of your favorite family portraits? Are you wanting a beautiful heirloom album that your child will be able to pass on to his/her children? Please feel free to request a consultation if you’d like to familiarize yourself with our products – there is a LOT to choose from!
3. What should I do before my ordering session?
Prior to your ordering session, it’s extremely helpful to measure your walls where you’re thinking of hanging one or more of your gorgeous portraits. Be sure to bring your list of measurements, or email it to us prior to your ordering session. Also, if you’re planning on gift giving some of your portraits, make (and bring) a list of who you’re giving to, how many, and what sizes you’re wanting to send. This will streamline your ordering process tremendously!
4. How should I prepare for my portrait session? (Clothes, nails, hair, be rested, on time, etc.)
Before your portrait session, it’s important that you pay attention to the finer details. After all, these portraits are going to be hanging around for a long time, and you’ll want to look your best. So, make sure your nails look good. If it’s time for a root touch-up, schedule that prior to your session. You may not want a radical hairstyle change the day or two before – just in case it doesn’t turn out as well as you’d hoped. And men, make sure to have a clean shave/trim – unless you’re going for a “grungy” look! It's a good idea to lay out all your clothes (including shoes and accessories) the night before. Get a good night's sleep the night before, and we'll see you all bright-eyed for your session!
5. How big should our family wall portrait be?
It depends. A well-done wall portrait is large enough to be a focal point in the room, but is not so big that it seems to crowd the space it’s in. A 16x20 may seem large, but over a mantle, or over a sofa, it is actually quite small. Typically, you’ll want a 20x30 or larger, if it’s going to be the main attraction. If you have high ceilings, that will make it seem smaller. Pay attention to the orientation, too. A vertical image will display differently than a horizontal image. If you’d like to schedule an in-home art consultation, simply ask – we’d be happy to help!
6. What can I expect from my portrait session?
With TRUEBLUE Portrait, you can expect a completely fun experience! You’re going to look and feel great, and share some laughs. And THEN you’ll have LOTS of great images to choose from!
7. Can I order more prints later?
Of course! Additional copies of prints that are the same size, orientation, and crop from what you've ordered, are significantly reduced, so that gift-giving extra prints is easy on the wallet. The Standard Price List will apply to future orders.
8. Why is your logo on my portrait?
There are several reasons we place our logo on all of our photographs. First of all, this is an authentic piece of art, and it bears the artists’ mark. We’re also proud of what we do, and happy to sign or stamp our name to it. Modern technology allows you to share photos with friends and family near and far - and we're happy to help you go that. However, with electronic media, there are some unscrupulous folks that will try to take other photographer’s work to claim as their own. We also do our best to protect images from being taken by others for any other purpose. By including a logo, we aim to deter such behavior, and to preserve our copyright.
9. Do you have any frequent-buyer program, or rewards program?
Yes! We also have a Kids’ Club program that goes from age 2 through 5. With these programs, we see you more often, but the session is condensed from a regular session. Children develop more in those first few years than any other time of their life, and we want to make sure you’re able to document all those sweet milestones with professional portraits. Please ask for details.
10. Is professional makeup really important?
Professional makeup for photography is considered a "must" for professional headshots, and personal branding. Our preferred makeup artists have extensive and impressive credentials, and will make you look and feel like a million bucks!
And yes, even men need professional makeup for business or corporate headshots! No, you won’t LOOK like you have makeup on, gentlemen, but you’ll have a nice, even skin tone, and no unsightly “shine” or blotchiness.
11. What locations can I/we be photographed at?
TRUE BLUE Portrait is mobile, so there are a number of possibilities. For business and branding, clients generally are photographed in their home, or office environment, but may also be outdoors on location.
There are a variety of locations where we do photography for families, children, and high school senior portraits – from mobile studio, to beach, to urban settings, to the park. Need suggestions? Just ask.
Please be aware, that some locations require a fee for professional photography, and that fee is the client’s responsibility.
12. Who can be included for a maternity/newborn session?
If this is not your first child, you may wish to have an older sibling involved in your pregnancy and baby photography. We will be happy to include your child for part of your portrait session. However, we strongly recommend you bring a friend or relative to entertain your child for the rest of the session, as they will likely become restless. With newborns, the more bodies in the room, the more stimulated (and usually fussy) the baby becomes. So we do try to keep the newborn session very mellow. If there is another sibling or someone special to include, we will typically do those portraits first, so the sibling can leave to play with someone else.
13. How long until I receive my prints and/or products?
Our standard turn-around time on prints and wall portraits is about 3-4 weeks. We take the utmost care in image retouching and prepping the files for the best print quality. In cases where there may be additional artistic effects that require proofing and approval, the time is based from the approval date. Custom-designed artwork, such as albums may take around 4 weeks for proofing, and typically take about 6-8 weeks from client approval for production, binding, and shipping to the studio.
14. What's included in your retouching?
When you first see your images, they will have basic editing applied. We may have "worked up" a couple of our favorites, with additional retouching or artistic effects. During your ordering session, you will have the opportunity to view the images on a large-screen TV, and review for any additional retouching, such as softening lines/wrinkles, removing a mole or birthmark (we don't remove such things unless requested, as some people are quite attached to their beauty marks), a simple nip/tuck, etc. You will review our edit notes on the order form and sign off on it.
Please allow about a week for us to get the additional retouched images reworked. Once you receive the images, if you find additional things you'd like retouched (e.g. "My shoes are scuffed," "My smile looks a little crooked," "My one eye seems a little squinty," etc.), an hourly edit fee will be incurred.
Included in our basic edits are things such as: exposure, contrast, dodging/burning, saturation, color levels, and basic skin-smoothing and blemish removal.
Our retouching services include: softening lines/wrinkles, reducing hair flyaways, additional skin-smoothing, removing stretch marks, removing beauty marks, basic nip/tucks as requested, when possible, and cropping.
Retouching that requires additional time and fees: removing glare from glasses, removing braces, root touch-up, "fixing" a spray tan, major body modification, and altering clothing or jewelry.
15. What's your Privacy Policy?
When you subscribe to our mailing list or submit your email, we keep it safe and never sell it or share it with anyone else. We hate spam as much as you do. When you're on our mailing list, we won't bombard you with emails. But you will be first to know about specials, events, and other news. You're welcome to unsubscribe at any time. We'll miss you, but we understand.