The Photo Session

We normally do a photo shoot for a fixed fee, so you know what it will cost before we start.  We prefer to take the photos at our small studio, however we can come to your place should you prefer.

We prefer not to take photos using flash photography as we find people tend to be more relaxed when we use constant lighting, which produces a much more natural look in the photographs we have a range of ways to set up the lights to get the look you want, whether that is dark and moody or bright and breezy. We take our time with you to help you relax, to start to forget the camera is there and to get the photos you want.

A typical shoot lasts 60 – 90 minutes, although if you have specific requirements which means the session will take longer we are happy to accommodate that and set the fee accordingly. The time on the shoot is typically half spent taking the photos and half working with the photos.

During a typical shoot we usually take 80 – 150 photos, all of which you get to take away on a USB memory stick.  The copyright for all the photographs will be yours.

We will sit and review all the photos with you and, working with you, select a few favourites and edit them as necessary.  This could involve cropping to show only the parts of the photo you want, removing blemishes or other parts you aren’t happy with, editing out identifying marks such as scars, tattoos or even mask your face off the photo if you wish.  We can also apply artistic effects and change the image from a photograph into a watercolour painting, pencil drawing, “Andy Warhol” type poster or any of a wide range of effects.  We will typically work with 8 – 15 of your pictures in this way.

If you want more extensive editing done to any of the photographs we would typically do that in the days after the session and then send them to you.  This may involve a further fee.

All the photos will be supplied in two sizes such that they are suitable for use both as portraits if you wish to have them printed or edit them yourself at home, and as profile photos if you want to post them online

At the end of the photo shoot we can either keep the photographs on our secure server so you can get them again at a later date or ask us to do further editing of them in future.  We will not use those photographs or show them to anyone without your written permission. If you prefer, we will delete the photographs completely from our equipment.  Please note that if we delete the photographs we cannot do any further editing of the photos in the future.

Our Studio

We have a small studio which is our preferred location to take your photographs.

We normally use a plain black backdrop for the photographs as this allows all the focus of the photograph to be on the person being photographed.

The floor, ceiling and two walls of the studio are set up with black fabric backdrop which allows us to take the photographs from a full range of angles as necessary, and means we can control the light and any reflections to allow us to generate exactly the effect we are after.

Your Place

We can come and do the photographs at a location you chose, whether that is your house, a friend’s house or other location you chose

We can come to your place with lighting backdrops as necessary, but please be aware that this is more limited than we can do in our studio.

The best photographs are made by the camera being a couple of meters at least from the person being photographed, and any background being at least a further metre behind the subject.  If we are coming to your place to do photographs please take into account that the space needs to be large enough to allow for this, along with room to erect the backdrop and lights.

If we are coming to your place to do the photographs, we have to charge for our travel costs and the time spent setting up any equipment in addition to the charge for the shoot. This additional charge is not refundable.