I had a really good experience taking family pictures here. My newborn was 2 weeks old, and the photographer was very patient with him, even offering us tips for poses. She also listened and helped us create all the poses we came in wanting. Our pictures turned out beautiful. My only concern was that the fabric that they put my baby on seemed dingy. Not sure if they wash that often. Other than that, I was happy. read more

JCPenney Portrait Studio - Session Photography Near Me - Reno, Nevada

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Had an appointment yesterday and the man working was asleep in the back snoring! Asked us to swaddle our baby for the photos and position her and said " I only do the photos".. found it extremely unprofessional. Ended up going home and not doing the photos. read more

Had the best experience getting my daughters first birthday photos this week! All the staff went above and beyond to make sure she was having fun and that I had tons of great shots to choose from. Can't wait to go back for our holiday photos! read more

I was hesitant about taking my daughter's newborn pictures here but was excited to see how they would turn out. When we started positioning the baby, the photographer seemed fine at first but had a bit of a tone. As we moved on to family portraits--my fiancé, our newborn, and me--she suddenly told me, "Don't do whatever you're doing, you have a double chin." This caught me off guard and upset me, especially since I had just given birth a few weeks prior. On top of that, she was openly flirting with my fiancé, which made me even more uncomfortable. After the session, I wasn't impressed at all. The pictures came out blurry, faded, and low quality. While reviewing them, she kept insisting on adding digital frames and text, despite me repeatedly saying no--yet she seemed more interested in my fiancé's opinion than mine. For the $560 I paid for just a few photos, I expected much better quality. You'd think with prices that high, they would invest in a better camera and editing system. Overall, this was a disappointing experience, and I wouldn't recommend it. hispanic lady maybe in her mid twenties late 30's. my fiancé wasn't interested in any of that. read more

I surprised 2 of my my friends by taking them here because I wanted to pretend we were in a ska band taking album photos. we brought 3 instruments with us and our photographer Paula did an amazing job, truly beyond what we expected. she gave us so many great pose ideas and let us do our own too (but with some adjusting thankfully cause none of us know our dang angles). initially it seems expensive for my broke ass but it's about an hour of their time and seeing as they're a professional photographer i think that makes sense rate wise. i'm happy I got all the digitals, i'm gonna get my favorites printed at Fedex or something. Here's a few lol read more

JCPenney Portrait Studio - Photo shoot - Session Photography Near Me - Reno, Nevada

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Should not even get one star. This studio scammed my daughter!!! First claiming photos were only $15, but when she got there that was just the studio fee. Then after the session they told her she couldn't purchase an individual picture because their machine was broken. The only option they gave her was to purchase the entire album & even though their website advertises $79.99 for the album, she was charged OVER $200! This was not a formal session, just home from first year @ college & wanted a fun portrait with her friend. There are many things I would have done differently because I have experience, but the business practice of scamming young adults is poor form, bad for business, and straight-up DISHONEST! When you call the shop, they just claim that there's nothing they can do now and we have to call customer service. When you call customer service, they refer you to the store. Fortunately, we were transferred to the CS Mgr, who has opened a case for us. Not looking for full refund, just to be charged the advertised price. The store manager has not bothered to call me back. read more

JCPenney Portrait Studio - Buyer beware! Jc Penny photo studio are scam artists - Session Photography Near Me - Reno, Nevada

We bought a Groupon and came here. I wish the Groupon shared how many actual photo shots were included? It seemed like really few for the amount of time one is there. The location is clean and the staff is nice and attentive. I'd check out the Groupon if you want to consider it here. I wouldn't buy the prints here, they're overpriced. Just get the digital and get the prints elsewhere. I suggest Snapfish online :) read more

I had my photos taken 3 weeks ago and I still don't have them! They say your photos will be sent in one week. For the first 2 weeks, they couldn't find them and now their system is down so they tell me sorry but they can't do anything! I took these pictures to do Christmas cards and I will not be able to do, so I thought maybe I can send virtual cards but probably I will not have them either! I should have paid a real studio! Never again! read more

My husband and I took our 7 month old to get a family portrait taken. We had a Groupon. This is JCP Portrait Studio, not exactly a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz, so I wasn't expecting much more than a DMV calibre photographer. When we got there, just a few Sundays before Christmas, the place was crawling with kids, but the staff was super friendly. Ricardo shattered my expectations when he started bouncing all over the room, shaking maracas trying to make our son smile. He went above and beyond. We got some GREAT shots. I can't wait to order our Holiday Cards! And no one tried to upsell us to buy a pricey photo package. I will absolutely come back here for more photos! read more

JCPenney Portrait Studio - Thank you Ricardo, for this perfect shot of our Santa baby! - Session Photography Near Me - Reno, Nevada

I have recently had photos taken and was extremely impressed with Jerilynn and her expertise! I never expected this quality in such a short time but what a professional she is! And an asset to the company! maryann decker read more

Scam. They bring you in with a studio & canvas print for an introductory price but then charge way more than Costco or other local print shops. To make matters worse, I had additional canvases printed at Costco and while their prints are very vivid and colorful, the JC Penney canvas looks completely void of any color by comparison. If you try getting your photos printed at a local print shop they'll often be cropped because JC Penney doesn't use the same standard photo resolutions, so a beautiful digital print will be in some cases impossible to convert to a physical print without losing some key detail. Overall, I wouldn't have came here had I known these problems ahead of time. read more

The photographers and clerks were great but did not have enough time to accomplish what they wanted. Very very rushed. Several interruptions during the 'photoshoot time'. I felt badly for them. No time to straighten my books or fix my jacket, etc. I'd do it again if i could get the same photographer and maybe the last appt of the day so she (and I) could get the desired results and have a few more minutes to do things right. read more

Yes you have to wait forever like everyone else is saying. We were there at a really unbusy time and it still took over two hours even though the shoot itself is like 20 min. So take a book. That said, with all the coupons and groupons our there it's an incredible value. The photographer was great at telling us how to pose and the lighting is great too. So if you can spare sometime and are after standard studio photos- it's totally worth it. Also wanted to add that the staff were great and courteous despite being so obviously understaffed! read more

JCPenney Portrait Studio - Session Photography Near Me - Reno, Nevada

We visited yesterday and although our photographer was so nice, she did an awful job. We took our smiley one year old for photos and somehow the photographer missed every smile by about 3 seconds. The photos we got were awful, our baby looked basically stunned or just confused in all of them. We were all laughing about how happy and smiley she was during the session.... Then when we saw the photos we were in disbelief. Totally missed the mark. And that was before learning we'd have to pay $125 to get the digital album of bad pictures to basically pay for the two we wanted that weren't awful. So... pay a local photographer that is not inside JCPenny to take your photos. read more

Worst session ever! Had an 11:30 appointment to take pics of 2 yo grandchild on 11/11/19. Waited over 2 hours. Finally got called to take pictures. Waited another 10-15 minutes to view pics only to be tapped on shoulder and asked to follow photographer to back room to be told not one of the pictures could be located. Nothing on camera or computer. Aimee "felt" so bad and apologized and promised to make it up with a good discount for a future photo shoot. I said fine. She promised she would get back to me that night. Four days later and not a peep from her. I wasn't going to go back after my experience but was hoping she'd at least follow through with her promises. I went to this place because I didn't want to spend a lot of time and money for just one or two photos and didn't want to stress our 2 year old too much. I do not recommend this studio at all! They double and triple book and give excuses that people called in sick and try and get people to reschedule while they're waiting. I'm now willing to pay a private photographer for a 30 minute shoot. It will cost more but it will be less of a time waster! read more

arrived on time with four young children. photo center was running behind & we had to start our photo shoot over an hour after our scheduled appointment. by this point the youngest child was hangry & melting down from the long wait, basically ruining the photos. it is clear they were severely understaffed. the girl who took our photos was very kind & gave good service, it was clear she didn't have the team support she needed so we don't blame her. but overall it was not a positive experience. if you book here prepared for unreasonably long delays. read more

Great photographer very knowledgeable and patient. The quality and speed was amazing.

The shoot went pretty well and the girls were nice. I didn't much care for the fact that they let us choose two backgrounds and only took a handful of pictures of the second, but that's whatever. However, we had issues with the actual picture prints, which weren't centered properly. When I called to have them re-centered and reprinted, the manager said "well, I guess centered to you doesn't mean the same thing as centered to me." What person in customer service says something like that? I worked as a camera operator for several years. I'm neither perfect, nor am I the best, but I know when something isn't centered properly. Not only that, but I showed the pictures to others without that type of experience, who noticed the same problem. I was, however, allowed to go in and fix the problem, by myself, without interference. I felt this was a very nice gesture. They ended up coming out much better the second time around. I've found a lot of the independent services in JC Penney, such as the photo studio and the salon, are really lacking when it comes to the attitudes of their managers. It's made it hard for me to justify going there for anything and it gives me a better understanding of why department stores and the like are going away. I get it, as I've worked in customer service for a long time. Things get stressful, people lose their cool. I always try to be understanding of that fact and try to be extra nice. It's hard to continue to be understanding, though, when you've done nothing to deserve the treatment you've received. read more

Though my experience had a happy ending, it did not have a happy beginning or middle. I won't return or recommend this studio to others. (NOTE: This review is for the portrait studio in the Tanferan Mall, San Bruno, CA. The Yelp page for that studio redirects here; I don't know why it lists "Reno" on the location above.) I wish I'd seen this page before booking a session for my infant son. I got suckered in by JCPenney's aggressive marketing--the store is always passing out coupons for cheap portrait packages, and it's ridiculously easy to book a session online. Every timeslot is magically available, even on short notice. That should have been my first clue that everything seemed too good to be true! The truth is, JCPenney severely overbooks and understaffs its photography studio. It's the sign of a company in decline, who stopped caring a long time ago. When I arrived for my appointment, there were (no joke) over 40 people crammed into a tiny 12x14 waiting room with six chairs. Dozens of families with crying babies and toddlers who had been waiting for hours. There was ONE person working the front counter, and ONE photographer. That's it. People who tried to get the counter girl's attention were brusquely told to wait and then ignored some more. It took nearly a half hour to get her to check me in, another 20 minutes for my name to be called, and then another 30+ miserable minutes of waiting for someone to upload the photos so I could review/edit them. The entire appointment took well over 1.5 hours. On the upside, the photographer (Evelyn) is very sweet and very talented. She is patient with babies (and their parents!) and her photos came out beautifully. When I complained about the long wait, she apologized and comped me the digital photos, so I only paid for the prints! That was a much appreciated touch, despite the frustration of the long wait and the poor communication. However, Evelyn told me I'd receive my digital prints in my email inbox within 2 hours, but they did not arrive. I tried the next day, and the next, to call the studio to inquire. No answer. Their phone goes straight to voicemail. I also repeatedly tried calling JCPenney's customer service number, and no one ever picked up that line, either. Wow. These are clear indicators of how JCPenney values its customers. Finally, several days after my photo session--and after my husband suggested I put a fraud dispute on the credit card charges, due to my inability to get a hold of anyone--I had no choice but to visit the store again. Luckily Evelyn was there, and helped me with my order. It turns out that my email address was misspelled - a forgivable error, but SO aggravating that I had to go back to the store in person to resolve it. My overall experience was a miserable 2 stars, but I am generously giving three because the photos were beautiful and cheap. Evelyn, if you are reading this - you deserve SO much better than to work at JC-frigging-Penney. Please find a professional studio that respects your talent (and your customers) and pays you like a rock star. And look me up when you do - I'll happily bring my business wherever you land, not to this suburban mall hellhole. read more

So I bought the Groupon special for $20 and went here for the photos. I came here the 1st time just to see where it was and what I would need since I was shopping at Tanforan anyways. The guy tells me that I don't need an appointment but it is best I get one. Not knowing when things can suddenly come up I didn't make any appointments. So I stopped by a couple weeks later on a Saturday and they said they were completely and I had to make an appointment. Luckily they said it didn't look like one of their appointments was going to show so they squeezed us in to that. The photographer got some great shots and made my kid look great. The groupon was for only 3 shots but the photographer ended up taking over 25. So after the shots was the preview. They tried to push one package that was close to $100, then another that was close to $200 then finally they tried to push a package that was at $300. Even buying some of the sheets alone was going to be $18 each. So we ended up doing the Groupon package with the 3 photos; print of 1 of the 3 photos on CD. Then we ended up buying 3 of the others which was an additional $45. We paid and was told to come back a week later. A week later and we were in a rush. So again they tried to push another $100+ sticker/ postcard package. I declined and went off. When looking at the photos later I realized they got the wrong photos. They got two of the CD and one printed photo incorrect. I called and they said since I walked out of the studio it is too late to do anything. read more

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First experience at this photo studio in a JC Penny's! My session experience, was above and beyond & totally exceeded my expectations! We came here in hopes to get a Christmas card photo, and now we have so many good ones to choose from! Ricardo was our photographer and he captured my family & my 2 month old perfectly!! Process was quick, painless and we were finished before my baby could think of being fussy! We will definitely be back for milestone photos! Thank you Ricardo! read more

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EDIT #2: Okay, so after calling to talk about picking up my photos and coming to get them, I feel the need to mention TRISHA. She hasn't caused me to change my star rating, but I can see why some other reviewers may have had a bad experience due to her. Firstly, she has NO customer service skills. When she called and left me a message she was very to the point and not an iota of that special spark that a good CS rep has. Then when I called to ask about when the store closed, she seemed to have some sort of attitude that I was stupid for asking when they closed AFTER their 2-3 lunch break. No thank you have a nice day, no thank you for calling look forward to seeing you, nothin. Then when I finally got there running, huffing and puffing all the way from the BART station (I live in The Fillmore district so San Bruno is a ways away) thinking I was going to run into the dreaded "closed bars" some other reviewer ran into since it was 30 minutes to closing... TRISHA was the only one working there with LOADS of people still waiting around to finish their shoots and buy their photos. There was one family in front of me waiting to pick up just like me and they had been waiting a good 20 minutes. When TRISHA came out of her photo shoot she immediately came to help those of us picking up. (+ some points for that.) Yet she seemed defensive and hostile. When it came my turn she even had the gall to ask me if I had a cold (because I was sniffling and huffing from running through the entire mall from the BART station!!) and when I told her no I didn't, she said "Oh we all have them." Umm thanks for giving me one I guess? Just as she was on the phone, she was very to the point, with no manners or thank you's. When we finished our transaction, I told her (in a sincere tone) "Good luck, I heard you're the only one here I know how hard that can be!" and she just gave me an angry look. So after meeting and interacting with TRISHA I can see why some people have such poor experiences here, but please read my original review below to find out who you can have a GOOD experience with. :) (end edit) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After reading the reviews here I had my reservations... (including the one I made a week earlier ;)) But holy shnikeys Batman!! These guys ROCK!!!! First of all, when we came in we were greeted by MEGAN and she provided a changing room with a mirror where I could adjust my clothing and makeup. Because we arrived about 15 minutes early, they were able to take us in early after I got ready in the changing room. No waiting at all! (Just for me to change.) We knew what we wanted and had a nice family item to make the session special like they suggested. ANDREW did our shoot and he was so kind and understanding! He knew exactly what we wanted and made it happen beautifully. After our shoot which lasted a generous 15 minutes, MEGAN edited and helped us pick out photos. We knew about many of the specials and prices since we had already done our research and weren't shocked or tried to be "upsold" on anything. We got 48 cards, 3 large canvas prints, the full photo CD, and joined the membership club for only a dollar more than our total. There's no JCPenney in SF where we live, but this San Bruno location is great and worth the travel. :) Also, about the online appointment system; I had the same issue with it forcing me to enter certain fields that didn't pertain to me. Usually when anything wonky happens with ANY webpage, you should try loading it in Internet Explorer. (I'm not a fan myself, I prefer Chrome, but webpages are usually optimized to be viewed in Internet Explorer.) I did this and it worked perfectly and was easy to use. I'm uploading just one of our 100's of photos they took. This will be our 2012 Christmas card. (We met on World of Warcraft and have known each other for 5 years. He moved from Vermont to live with me in San Francisco. :)) EDIT: Oh, and to the reviewer who was upset because they didn't have the room ready, they don't have it ready for you because you have to pick out the 2 background and several props that you want. They can't ready a room that they don't know what to do with. read more

I would rate to zero if they have it as option. Firstly - we are on time for appointment in Carlsbad location, there is nobody there, we have to wait for someone to show up, then she said the coupon is not valid until next week - so after the session and after over $200 charge on photos, she said will receive the digital in 24 hours. After 72 hours of waiting , no digital photos in email, we called and said she already emailed, and that she will resend again. Such a liar, no email sent in the first time - not professional and extremely incompetent staff. Will never go back. read more

That'll be $500, no wait, I almost forgot we have a 40% off coupon, it's your lucky day, so we're at $300, oh and if you subscribe to our membership we can take an extra $10 off, so $290, oh and you have a coupon 25% off it's in store only perfect! Oh wait I'm sorry that's for JCPenney's, we are not affiliated. So your total comes to, $343.20 which includes taxes, annual membership fee, photography fee per person, Booth fee per person, prop fee per prop, and the sucker fee... read more

Of could give them 0 I would horrible rushed and unprofessional. My photos came out absolutely horrible photographer was useless could've produced better pictures with my cell phone. read more

This is the worst portrait studio. Scheduled once showed up early, had to wait two hours for them to tell me they were having technical problems and would call me to reschedule. They never called after 3 days I started calling them to reschedule, a week later someone answers ( they never returned the voice mails I left daily)! I rescheduled for the following week only to wait over an hour for them to tell me I had to reschedule again they are having technical difficulties! No offer of any compensation for my time nothing! Go elsewhere this place is the worst! read more

Booked a session online only to be told that they were already overbooked that day and that whole weekend when we got there. I showed the guy at the front desk my confirmation email and he just said sorry it was not in their system and that I should have called instead. He gave us two free sheets since we were already there and they couldn't take us in. So we tried again on a weekday evening for the last session available. Turned out they were available to take us in early, but said they couldn't reach us (they had the wrong phone number entered and didn't bother to correct it). When we finally got our pictures taken, it baffles me that the photographer only took one picture per pose. As you can guess, some of the pictures had closed eyes and even off center! While other studio is able to print the pictures on the spot, we have to come back to t his studiobut10 days later to pick up our picture. By the way sheets were available for purchase at a much cheaper price when ordering online with the coupons they have currently. Will not go back to this studio. read more

Today we attended a scheduled photo session with JC Penny Portrait Studio at the Florida Mall. On arrival we were told they were running 45 minutes late. Our appointment was at 12:30. We arrived at 12:00 pm. When they took our pictures, they did not provide a background. It looked like the kids were in a room in our home standing against the wall. This was a reschedule from an outside appointment. We were rushed through the sitting. What was scheduled bro 30 minutes was completed in 15. In addition, we were not told that we could only have one wardrobe change. We had pre-paid for the sitting. We were charged an additional sitting fee per person. I verified with them the sitting fee was paid prior. I was told the sitting fee for outside is different from the inside and I would have to call customer service to get my money back. After the picture were taken, because we needed them for advertisement; we decided to order the digital album. We were told by one person the price was $169.99. Then one of the other people overheard the conversation and said it was on sale for $89. Finally, when we received the album there were no edits to the photos. The photos showed all the blemishes and misaligned clothing. In conclusion this was very important to my family as we are trying to launch and online business at this time. The photos were to be used on our website. Now we have to start all over again. This will be costly in time and finances. I am very disappointed with JC Pennys and would not recommend their services to anyone. Thank you Mary read more

Not sure why they have such low stars:/. Bought a package off Groupon for 15$. Made an appointment to get my 16month old some studio taken pics. And all I can say is wow!!!! Richardo was our photographer and is he is so amazing!! Great with kids, super energetic & patient!! Omar had answered the phone when I made my appointment and he was super helpful and friendly, he called back the day before my appointment to remind me and verify I was coming. He also helped me after the photos were taken to pic the best ones:). I had an awesome experience and can't wait to go back!!!! read more

JCPenney Portrait Studio - Session Photography Near Me - Reno, Nevada

I've been here a few times because it's easy and only once have I come across a photographer who knew what he was doing. Our last family pictures were all uneven and asymmetrical. There's a circle of a stain on the light grey background WHICH IS IN EVERY ONE OF MY KID'S PORTRAITS. Thanks for hiring high school kids who don't care about $160 spent. read more

You make an appointment and then you are sitting another 45 mi utes beyond the appointment time. They are taking people who come in after your scheduled appointment. Why make appointments if you aren't going to get service at that time? Terrible organization read more

JCP Portrait Studio is the worst. I arrived at the Lakeside location and the Studio was packed wall to wall, people breathing on top of each other, kids running everywhere...and no one wearing masks. There was no social distancing and they were not sanitizing the equipment in between customers! We spent 2 hours in this environment and the photographer was rude, hurried, and did an awful job. She took pictures that cut off my granddaughters feet, elbow, tops of their heads! The edges of the backgrounds she used was showing on the photos!! She didn't take any time to pose the girls or ensure they were smiling. I was so disgusted with the experience, I just bought the digital images for $200 so I could go somewhere else and get my photos cropped and printed; however, when they sent me my pictures, they were all pixilated and blurred!!! Totally unusable! When I called them to complain and request a refund, it was then...and only then, that I was informed that digital images purchased were non-refundable. Now I am out $200, 2 hours of my time, and still have no pictures of my grandchildren. Take my advice and spend a little more for a real photo session, with a professional and trained photographer, and let JCP Photo Studio collapse with the rest of the store. read more

JCPenney Portrait Studio - Session Photography Near Me - Reno, Nevada

I am not sure what I expected when I came here but this was certainly not it. Where I live all of the JCP portrait studios closed down so we drove about an hour to get there - not their fault of course, just prefacing how far we drove for a poor experience. My 18 month son didn't do well for picture day at his daycare so I was given a voucher for a free studio session. I ended up buying the pictures they took on picture day even though he was crying because he was still so cute and decided to use the voucher to have Christmas photos done for my husband, my son, and I. We get there about 10 minutes early and stand at the vacant counter. This should have been my first indication because I stood there until our appointment time and was finally greeted when I guess the woman heard my son laughing. She came out asked my name and said they would be with us shortly. Cool right? No. Not at all. We sit and sit and sit and watch family after family walk in to get in line for their scheduled appointments. The woman who I can only assume to be the manager kept blaming the customers for the long wait times. I didn't say anything but other customers asked how long it would be and I heard the manager tell at least 2 or 3 people "I called you yesterday to confirm your appointment and you did not answer so I over booked in case you didn't show up." I heard someone say that she didn't leave a voicemail, otherwise they would have called her back. I heard another one say they were at work and cannot answer their phone on the job. In any case, it was uncomfortable to be in that small room practically sitting with strangers in my lap being shamed by the manager for the long wait times. Again, we got there 10 minutes early but we waited at least 45 minutes to finally get our name called for this joke of a session. The photographer, poor guy, had no confidence and pretty much had us just do whatever without any direction. My son started getting fussy and I decided we were done and left our session knowing these photos were not going to be great because as long as we were in there, the photographer barely took any. I send my husband and son off to walk around so I can pay and go. I had already planned on just buying all of our photos on a digital download - easy peasy. No. I waited another 30 minutes after our session to be helped. She finally calls my name to go over the photos. She immediately gives me the store offers and asks me to sign up for their credit line. I respond that I do not want a credit card and I just want a digital download of everything the way it is. She proceeds to go through every picture and show me different filter options. I again explain to her that I just want my photos in a digital download the way they come, no filters, nothing fancy. She asks me to hold on a moment to go help another customer. This took about 10-15 minutes. She comes back and asks what package I want, so I tell her again that I just want a digital download. She then goes through the offers again but adds one where I can get 8 sheets of prints for an additional $10. I go ahead and add it. She again asks me to sign up for the credit line and I again so no thanks. We finally wrap this up and she starts adding my total. She tells me it would be cheaper to sign up for their membership because I would save in the future on the session fee. I told her I had a voucher for a free session. I have looked at my receipt several times trying to figure this out but honestly, in the moment, I just wanted out of that place. She tells me that it would actually be $50 more expensive to use my free voucher and to just get the membership because it would be cheaper. WHATEVER at this point, just get me out of here. I go to check out and she asked me for a 3rd time if I'm sure I don't want to sign up for a credit card? Seriously, no... in total we were there over 2 hours. I was so exhausted and frustrated with the lack of organization and the overall experience. I didn't even mention the pictures... laughable!! Honestly I was laughing at almost all of the family photos because they do not look professional at all. I can at least say that the ones of my son were precious. I will never go back even though I paid for a membership. I honestly only went there because I had the "free" voucher... I will never stray from the photographer I have used in the past again. She is fantastic and even though she charges a little more, we are done within an hour and I have about 100 BEAUTIFUL photos by the time we are done. Not the unprofessional pictures I just paid almost $200 for... Shop local and make a small business owner's day - they will appreciate you 1000 times more than these people! read more

The guy who manages the studio at wheaton Mall location is very mean. He doesn't explain what he is going to do during the session neither does he give you the option to tell him what you want. I regret going there. read more

Omar the manager helped me today and made up for the last session. I'm pleased with the outcome of my visit today. I've also been in contact with the customer service center and they've been extremely helpful. read more

It was terrible, I spent over $100 on a headshot, they could've said hey fix your hair on this side or fix your necklace it's twisted, extremely disappointed, would never go back here. Scary that they weren't capable of taking a decent photo of an adult. I can't imagine them trying to get photos of uncooperative children.. read more

Horrible experience at the Niles location. I told her how extremely important the pictures were for me, which is why I'm spending so much money, yet she rushed through the whole thing, very briefly adjusting my pose each time, and not paying attention to details like symmetry of my tie, extent of my smile, presence of double chin, etc. Unprofessional. read more

We have been to JC Penny Portrait for a few years now to get out annual Christmas pictures, but this last time we went was a disappointment. We were suppose to get two backgrounds. We got only one. As the photographer forgot to change the background. She went to ask the manager for more time because she forget. The manager said "no" as there were other families waiting. But it wan't our fault that the photographer forgot. Pictures were for Christmas. They did not have backgrounds available for Christmas. Past few years, we had backgrounds for Christmas. We had gadgets such as ornaments, masks & Christmas presents. This time, we had nothing. Giving two stars -as the photographer did fixed my children shirts and prompt them how to pose. Pictures for my kids look good, but wish they had Christmas background. I'm not sure will I be going back next year for Christmas pictures. read more

It should be disclosed that when purchasing digital images, JCPenney will first charge for the digital access, then Lifetouch will charge another $149 ($99 on sale) for the digital album. Instead, the sales rep said it would be $60 per digital image, which we gladly paid for the one decent photo that came out of the bunch. A week later, (and too late bc of a delay) we get the whole digital album and in order to get our photo, we have to pay another $99 for the full digital album. read more

I decided to go here for Mother's Day pictures several weeks ago because I was hooked in by their professional-looking website. Little did I know that their website looked great but did not match the in store off-putting things that result in this 2 star only rating. First, when we got there, four staff members were just hanging out at the front register and no one acknowledged me when I approached the front desk. It took me asking, "so where do I check in for my appointment?" before anyone acknowledged me. Then we were told to wait because our photographer (forgot his name, but he's been working there awhile) had to go prepare our room. I thought: instead of standing around chatting about who you saw on facebook, why don't you get your rooms ready for your clients who have appointments?? Then when we started, the photographer was curt with his directions. It was all business with him, no excess talking, no asking our names or anything like that. Just stand there, do that, smile. After feeling like we were just warming up, the session ended after about 15 minutes. I even said out loud, that's it?, to which the photographer simply said, yup. We had to wait longer than the photo session took! Our photographer went over to a computer kiosk and began editing the photos. It's interesting because he just started editing as we stood behind him, watching him in silence. There was no talking, no explanations, no asking us which photos we liked, no explaining about the packages or anything like that. After about 10 minutes of just watching him, he finally decided to talk to us and began showing us the pictures. After each picture he would ask us, do you like it or not? without any explanation of how this part of the session worked. I had to stop him after the third picture and ask if we were selecting pictures to order or what was going on. His answer was vague: just picture ones we liked so he could figure out what package we needed. I didn't feel comfortable because I had no idea what the costs were and he wasn't about to give me any answer when I asked him about pricing structure! So I had to put my foot down on some of the pictures and have him edit and change them. It turned out the the pictures with special layouts, backgrounds and fonts are considered "enhanced" whereas the unedited ones are referred to as "traditional" portraits. Beware that the enhanced ones, which look cooler, as way more expensive. They specific spend extra time pushing you towards those pictures as an "upsell" strategy. Our photographer didn't give us a hard sell but definitely spent a lot of time editing the enhanced pictures and didn't even bother telling us the options of black/white and sepia for the traditional ones. I was annoyed by this. By the end, he looked at our selections and seemed to pull a number out of his butt: something like $250 for the all the photos we wanted. I was in shock at the cost. I think he saw my face because then he pulled out of his butt a discount for us: 25% off. This brought the price down a bit. However my strategy was to cut down on the pictures. Just as I was getting ready to cut pictures, he pulled out yet another discount from his butt: $50 off for some unknown reason. He then threw in "free" online access to our pictures for reordering (this costs something like $10 which is ridiculous!!!). In the end, we ended up spending about $150 for three 10x13s, five 8x10s, 6 sheets of 5x7s, one sheet of 3.5x5, and one sheet of 8 wallets. The biggest thing that sucked about all of this was that we had to wait 8 days to pick up our pictures. I didn't realize this because if I had, I wouldn't have arranged for mother's day pictures here. I wanted immediate gratification for my mom! When I finally found time to go pick up the pictures, the woman that helped me, pulled each one out of the envelope one by one, which I thought was a bit unnecessary. Then I realized why she did this. After showing me all my pictures, she pulled out 3 more 8x10 "enhanced" pictures that they had done for me "just in case we wanted more options" which is what I recall her saying. She tried to sell them to me for $20 a sheet, $30 for two and $50 for all three (I think). Tired of being upsold, I immediately declined. Overall, I wish the photo shoot was longer, the photographer was more personable, clearer pricing, no upselling, ability to "enhance" my own pictures, and ability to get my pictures in an hour. For all this, I give only 2 stars. read more