Why Choose Custom

Custom photography is a product and experience in which you get to choose the style and final look of your portraits. There are many factors that ultimately make up your final portraits. These may include the photographer’s style, location of your portrait session, clothing, props, lighting, mood, your vision and the final products you desire.

Photographers that offer custom photography may have many different options available to you that fit their style or may have a very distinct style that you may like and choose. They have the ability to make your experience tailored just for you as opposed to the chain store time limits and crowds.

Imagine getting your family dressed and ready for your portrait session. Usually that is the most stressful part of any of my sessions. Then you walk into my studio which is ready to go and we start photographing. With family sessions, we are usually done in 30 minutes, sometimes longer and sometimes less. I have had many dads tell me that was pretty painless and thank me for making it so easy and not stressful. Mainly, this is because we have talked before the session and I know what direction we want to go and have it mentally planned out.

Custom photography requires a level of commitment, investment in time, money, and planning on the part of the client and requires a larger time commitment for the photographer as well. When you make an investment in photography, you want it to last a lifetime.

Here are a few questions you might want to answer first to make the process easier.

• Who is going to be in the portrait? your immediate family, extended family, just the children? Are there groupings you want taken such as mother and son, just the kids, as well as the entire family?

• Where do you want it taken? Inside the studio, at your home, an outdoor location of your choice?

• Do you want it more posed and formal or journalistic showing how you interact with your family?

• What final products do you want? A large wall portrait, a few gift prints to give, a storyboard depicting a few moments, or a storybook telling about the family and interactions?

Why does custom photography cost so much?

Custom photography provides a highly personalized experience in which the client gets to pick many pieces of the puzzle that creates a wonderful piece of artwork they can cherish for years to come. That being said, the amount of time and cost to put this together drives the price of this experience.

Chain stores bring in a lot of people for a short cookie cutter experience which creates a product with their artistic stamp. You, as the client, have very little say in what they can actually do with your short period of time and then they go on to the next client.

When you decide on a custom photography experience, the photographer goes through the entire experience with you to bring your vision to life. To do this requires a lot more time and effort from the photographer. Your actual photo session may only take an hour, but your photographer has probably invested around 6-8+ hours for a session per client. They do this to create the stellar customer service you may have come to know. They really want to focus on quality and not quantity. They also have the ability to offer many different high-quality products.

You have also selected your photographer based on their artistic abilities. Like many other professions, there is a great deal of education and artistic exploration to create their vision. Unfortunately, the professional equipment is not cheap either. Have you ever wondered how much time or expense your photographer has invested to accumulate their props? Their gear? All that goes into a photography business? 

You have selected a professional who will execute your vision into a final piece of art that you can enjoy for years to come.