Photographer: 5 stars
Front desk gal: 4 stars
Hair/makeup gal: 1 star
I just picked up my finished "little black book" of boudoir photos for my husband's birthday and overall I'm very satisfied with how it turned out. I was pretty anxious going in because I'd invested A LOT in this whole process (money + lots of time picking outfits, hair style, etc) so I wanted the pics to turn out fabulous. Here's the breakdown...
The Studio is a pretty small space so you're the only client there for most of the time. Hair & makeup might start on the next client while you're finishing up your photos, but otherwise you're there by yourself. I came prepared with my two outfits and magazine photos of the hair and makeup I wanted. Nothing difficult, all pretty standard. I HATED my makeup. Looked nothing like the images I'd shown her (smoky eyes, that's all I wanted!). I asked her to make a few changes and it looked better, but still I was very disappointed. Same with the hair. I didn't want a different style, just fuller and slightly messy. She did tease at the roots, but didn't spray it or anything so it all fell flat minutes later. Causing the photographer to have to tease it up with her hands before every shot. Consequently, all of the poses I ended up picking were side shots or from behind, any kind that made my makeup less noticeable.
That process over with, I changed into my first outfit and met with Chrissy (I think that's her name?), the photographer. She was awesome! Spent a few minutes asking me if I wanted to play down any parts of my body or accentuate anything, what my husband liked, and how the overall process was going to go. Every shot was 100% posed. She told me exactly what to do and even modeled the poses for me first (some of them were a workout). This is exactly what I needed because left to my own devices to look sexy, everything would have been a disaster. She was really friendly, bubbly, and encouraging thru the whole thing and made me feel totally comfortable.
All the pictures took about 45 minutes. After about 15 minutes all of the images were ready and I went through each one with Debbie. She was very patient and I didn't feel rushed to pick out my choices (you pick everything out right then). I was told they'd be ready in 4-6 weeks. I left feeling really good about everything (minus the makeup...)
The only other negative came when I still hadn't received a call 5.5 weeks later. My husband's birthday wasn't for another week, but he's away in the military and I only had the weekend before his birthday to see him. This fell after the 6 week range, so I figured the book would still be in. I was told that the book had been scheduled to get in the day before his birthday, but they were able to move it up. Not a huge deal, but very annoying that they cut it that close. And that they told me it would be 4-6 weeks, not literally the day before.
Also FYI - they phototouch the crap out of these photos. And I have to say mine looked decent without any touch-ups, but once I got them back my skin was flawless. Almost to the point of too much, though. I noticed a couple photos where my hand was blending into my leg because they'd just overdone it. read more