CRAWFORD'S PHOTOGRAPHY

The staff and photographer were all friendly, punctual and professional and made my son feel relaxed. The prints were delivered very quickly. The focus of the photos and poses of my son were average (nothing special, but not terrible either). Unfortunately we were very disappointed with the choice of backdrops and props, the quality of the retouching and the quality of the final prints. We ended up spending quite a large amount with the company, but only because we were short on time (we had the main sitting in early May) and it was unlikely that I was going to get my son to do the sitting all over again. When I expressed my opinion about the backgrounds when I received the proofs, they did offer to take more photos, but we were just out of time.

We purchased the second to the most expensive sitting, which included three outfits, with one sitting taken outdoors. The yearbook photo was taken against a blue background and turned out the same quality as the inexpensive photos they take at school every year, which was disappointing after I saw others' senior yearbook photos. The three indoor backdrops used for the main sitting were white, brown and a purple door (keep in mind this was for my 18 year old son). We requested an urban setting for the outdoor photo and it just ended up being a dirty brick wall. The only prop used was a black chair that looked like it was from an '80s pizza parlor, totally not appropriate for a 2011 graduate. For the price, we expected something more creative and attractive than the backgrounds and props used, which we could have got at any mass market photography studio for a lot less. In hindsight, I would have been more involved in suggesting different backdrops, although there weren't that many better ones to chose from in the studio.

Even though we were disappointed with the backgrounds and felt that we should have had better options to chose from, there were still a few close up shots that we wanted to order. To cover prints for my whole family, I ordered the $899 package, which included a 20x24, two 8x10, several 5x7, 4x5 and wallets, plus digital images of all proofs. When the prints were delivered, we were very disappointed with the quality. At the very least we thought for the price we would be getting prints of similar quality to what they showed us in the studio and what you would expect for spending so much money. Flimsy glossy photo paper was used like you would get if you turned your roll of film in at a grocery store, the wallets were cut somewhat roughly and worst of all the retouching made my son look very shiny and unnatural and like he had a fake orange tan. A few of the prints had a pixely starburst like you would add to a photo to make a fake shine and in some of the outdoor photos they photoshopped some of the unwanted background into a yellowish whitish cloud that looked very strange and fake.  Overall the retouching was very amateur and the print quality was cheap.

Because of the poor quality for such steep prices, I would definitely not recommend this photography to anyone, which is unfortunate because their overall customer service and responsiveness was excellent.