Portrait Options

To provide you with the absolute best portrait possibilities we offer a number of portrait options you may consider. Each option is intended to provide an effective way for you to customize the look, composition, and presentation of your portraits..

Retouching

We provide cropping and minor retouching of all of our portrait images without additional charge. It is our way of ensuring that you are pleased with your portraits. Cropping creates images that are the size of the prints you have ordered. When you view images in your private gallery they will have been cropped to fit a 4x5 (4x5, 8x10, 16x20, etc.) format frame. Minor retouching includes removal of any obvious blemishes and slight whitening of the teeth and eyes. If there are any other minor changes that will make the portrait more pleasing, we may make those changes as well.

Retouching that goes beyond these standard retouching practices can take a significant amount of time. Efforts such as removing wrinkles, smoothing the overall texture or tone of the skin, removal of stretch marks, altering the appearance of clothing, slimming the body, or making changes to a hairstyle can all be done and can make dramatic improvements in the final portrait image. These are often time consuming tasks so we must charge an additional fee for these services. In many cases the overall benefits, especially on large display prints, can be well worth the added cost. Please contact us for a specific quote if you are interested in additional retouching services..

Soft and Sharp Focus

We normally take portraits that have a mixture of images in sharp focus and in soft focus. Sharp focus images capture the image in a way that reproduces every fine detail in your clothing, hair and face. Soft focus offers a slight artistic (and quite attractive) blurring of the portrait. This helps to soften and smooth small wrinkles and age lines and can offer a dream-like quality to many images. By taking some images in sharp focus and some in soft focus, you have the option while reviewing your portrait proofs to select the appearance you feel is the most complimentary.

By default we take about 50% of the images in sharp focus and the remaining images in soft focus. This usually provides a good selection of portrait possibilities from which you can select. If you have a strong preference for one style of image over the other, please let us know at the time of your portrait session and we will take most or all of the images in your preferred style.

Print Finishes

Standard portrait prints are offered on high quality matte paper for a traditional portrait appearance. We can provide prints on other papers (for example, high gloss papers) for an additional fee.

We can also coat your portrait prints to help protect them from moisture, humidity, and scratches. This coating also offers a slight sheen to the matte images. If you would like this coating to be applied to your images, we charge an additional $15.00 per portrait package, or $1.00 per individual portrait print for this service.

Canvas Prints

Since we do our own printing we are able to produce portrait prints on a wide variety of papers and materials. We can print any selected portrait images on canvas to produce an outstanding display piece for that prominent location in your home. Canvas offers a distinctive professional look to portrait images that is hard to match with any other type of print. Our canvas prints are fully coated on the front and back to help protect them from moisture, sunlight, and dust. We can produce canvas prints in any size up to 44 inches by 50 feet, so your size requirements will not normally be an issue. If you would like a custom canvas print, then give us a call at (509) 465-1641 to discuss your size and display requirements. We will be happy to provide you with a quote for your specific needs.