Photography section at Babies R Us

[Derrel]

Most of the quality of the results on infant and baby portraiture comes from knowing how to pose the child in a safe, age-appropriate way, and the photographer having decent timing. The lighting at places like that is pretty standard industry stuff, typically two large 60 inch umbrellas and a softbox or two as separation/hair lights, and a background lighting setup. In today's economy, the lower-end volume places are doing a lot of business,and can sell print packages at prices people want to pay. if you photograph babies, infants, toddlers,and children all day long, no matter where you shoot, you tend to get pretty good at it. One of the advantages the volume studios have is baby posing tables and wedges, safe and varied props that are age-appropriate, lots of background colors and fabrics/posing rugs, arm posers, etc,etc. Expression counts a whiole lot, and moms are often not super-critical about things like perfect lighting ratios and precise catchlight placement--but if the kids look cute, they purchase!

 

[Artrina]

My daughter and her family get a portrait done at a place like WalMart or JC Penney every year. She says she knows they aren't the highest quality pix, but, they get themselves and the kids in clean, decent clothes and get the pix taken in an air conditioned store by people who know how to work with the kids in a half way decent way. The pix may not be the quality they want for wedding pix, but, they look nice on our wall. Our walls - and the kids walls - are a nice mix of these pix and ones taken at events.

 

[vtf]

My daughter and her family get a portrait done at a place like WalMart or JC Penney every year. She says she knows they aren't the highest quality pix, but, they get themselves and the kids in clean, decent clothes and get the pix taken in an air conditioned store by people who know how to work with the kids in a half way decent way. The pix may not be the quality they want for wedding pix, but, they look nice on our wall. Our walls - and the kids walls - are a nice mix of these pix and ones taken at events.

When I worked in Kmart a few years ago I made a friends with some of the portrait workers/ managers and learned alittle how they did their jobs. I gave them quite a bit of respect for the way they handled customers and especially children. Now that Im older and hopefully wiser that respect hasnt changed but Im more savy about how they can make it a profitable business and give their clients what they want.
I would also say its a very good entry/learning experience for someone young wanting to get into photgraphy.

 

[usayit]

I would disagree, they do get you in the store but as they are separate companies they themselves have to be profitable otherwise they go out of existance. For example Picture Me runs the studios in most Walmarts but are not owned or operated by Walmart. Their costs can be low because those are intoductory shots usually wallet sizes. When you go in to pick them up or at time of shoot they will offer you special packages of bigger and more prints that are developed in their labs.
Look up Picture Me's website or Olan Mills.
They do a service for those who need that low end product.

Correct.... IIRC, one of the people at Baby's R Us said that the studio is actually from Kiddie Kandids. A lot of the studios around here (in the mall especially) are run by LifeTouch Inc which is probably the largest of the "groups" as they specialize in school portraits sending photographers to schools directly. I discovered this when I was "suffering" from a long term stint without a job.... I applied and was almost on my way to manning one of these studios but fortunately I found "real" job opportunity.

One person posted "go to a real photographer". Oh sure... I definitely can understand their place but these "mini-studios" provide a certain convenience at a certain price point. Kinda like the difference between going to a clothing boutique versus Target/Kohls.



My wife approached me (very carefully because I am an avid photographer) and asked if it would be ok to take my Son to a "Flash!" studio in the mall. I'm not at all insecure with that sort of thing and I certainly don't have access to a studio. I said, sure! I went along but I wanted it to be a sort of experience for Mommy and Son. I was actually quite surprised how prepared and how coordinated they were specifically to the needs of children. Our son is extremely active and rambunctious, so they even allowed up to do two very short sessions since he would only cooperate for a very short period of time. The young lady who took the pictures worked pretty darn hard for those pictures... I wouldn't say she is a professional level photographer but everything was setup and scripted to allow her to produce good work. Even the software the studio uses is designed for these "scripted" studios rather than the true "Photographer". They allowed me to play around a little with it and I thought it was pretty impressive.

The end result was a good two visits to the mall, some shopping, and some decent photos at the same time. Our walls are still lined with my photos and a couple of the Flash! studio pictures too. not too bad...


btw... Flash! studios is another "LifeTouch Inc" owned store front. The software is Express Digital (fairly expensive and not really geared towards photographers). Express Digital - The Platform on which Photography Performs

 

[misstwinklytoes]

I hope none of the members of the forum work at Babies R Us.

 

[ababysean]

My best friend gets a temp job every year taking photos at Sears during the Christmas season. She doesn't even have a camera, she takes all her pictures with her cell phone. She has worked for them for 3 years now.

 

[ababysean]

oh and if you've never tried to photo kids in clean clothing, posed a sort of way, after being awake for a certain period of time and drag through the mall, usually to wait 30 to 45 mins AFTER your scheduled appointment time, you really can't say anything. Kids are damn hard to shoot.

 

[Morpheuss]

My best friend gets a temp job every year taking photos at Sears during the Christmas season. She doesn't even have a camera, she takes all her pictures with her cell phone. She has worked for them for 3 years now.

Man if I went there and saw her take out her cell phone to take the picture.... i would get up and walk away....

I'm glad I have the knowledge I do now... So when my gf wants to take me to walmart to get some pictures done.... I can go there ahead of time and ask them about the camera they use the lens they use and the lighting they use and see if they are actually decent... I'm leaning towards finding a real photographer. It just makes me feel disapointed with walmart and all those walk in photo places....

 

[vtf]

I find it really hard to believe in retail that this studio has not had its share of compaints. Everyone is quick to complain about most anything in retail so I doubt she has done that.
Sorry, but I wont belittle people that pick up a camera daily and take care of business.

 

[usayit]

Kids are damn hard to shoot.

OMG.. you are so right... Never realized how hard it is until I had my son! I can see these child photo studios placing a higher value on an employee's ability to work with children than their photography skills.

Being in the mall actually helped... we could take him for a quick snaps... then go shopping or to the playground.. then return a little later for more.

 

[usayit]

My best friend gets a temp job every year taking photos at Sears during the Christmas season. She doesn't even have a camera, she takes all her pictures with her cell phone. She has worked for them for 3 years now.

Man if I went there and saw her take out her cell phone to take the picture.... i would get up and walk away....

I think ababysean meant that her personal camera is a cell phone. When you go to Sears, the whole studio is setup with their equipment and preset so the photographer doesn't have to worry about anything but working with the clients. They don't expect photographers to provide own equipment.

When I applied for a job, they were actually quite taken by the knowledge I had in regard to photography. They mentioned that their business model assumes no photographic knowledge and I would have to understand that I would need to operate within those guidelines (meaning don't try to change the studio to my own preferences). Stay on the scripted process. That's fine since I understood that I'm not the only one working in their studios.

m glad I have the knowledge I do now... So when my gf wants to take me to walmart to get some pictures done.... I can go there ahead of time and ask them about the camera they use the lens they use and the lighting they use and see if they are actually decent... I'm leaning towards finding a real photographer. It just makes me feel disapointed with walmart and all those walk in photo places....

You might as well just go to a "real" photographer and save the hassle. Most of those shops aren't going to be up to your specs I can say that for sure. The Flash! studio I went to was equipped with an Old (but still good) Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n with a Tamron zoom lens. IT IS A BUSINESS catering to the typical (not photographer) family with certain expectation of price. You can't expect these studios to fork over that type of cash for equipment, keep it updated year to year, and expect a good return on investment. I can say that you can see a decent investment put into the studio itself (strobes, computers, backdrops, props). I think this is proper as these are the equipment that actually makes a big difference in a studio environment.

With that said, there have been many discussions on studio lighting versus camera+lens. If the studio lighting is done properly, most "normal" lenses will perform and deliver good results. Its the LIGHTING that is important. We've seen many examples (the Iphone one comes to mind) of this here.

Now if you were shooting sports (moving objects, bad lighting), natural lighting (low light, high contrasts, high specular highlights, CA etc..) where lighting conditions are less than ideal, that's were expensive/exotic lenses obviously will out perform. This is simply not the case for studios where light is controlled (hopefully).

 

[usayit]

Oh forgot to mention one observation at our local mall.

There are 5 studios at our mall (can't believe there is that much business to keep them all open). Flash!, Sears, JCPenny, Picture People, Glamour shots. The people working Flash! and Picture People seemed most keen on baby's, toddlers, and infants. Glamour Shots seems to focus on older children, and young teens. Sears and JCPenny seem to be really marketed towards full families.

The best equipped seemed to be Picture People. They were actually using older Hassy's with digital backs last time I checked. On the other hand, their pictures seemed very bland.. very typical... mostly white backdrops. We chose Flash! because of the variety of props and backdrops they used.

 

[ababysean]

The thing is, most people do not know about the technical side of photography, so if you get everyone smiling and looking at the camera, they think wow what a great picture, even if it is a bit out of focus, or under/over exposed.
Places in department stores are set up to catch the smile, get the baby to smile, snap the pic, and the proud parents go gaga over the picture.