Sears Vs. Portrait Innovations

I like Studio 101 at the Great Mall. We've had pics taken there yearly for about 6 years and have always had good pics with them. They are reasonably priced, easy to work with and they print on site so you can get them the same day.

i find portrait innovations to be VERY inexpensive! when my kids were babies, they went monthly until they turned 1 - many months i bought only the $9.95 package, and that was a TON of pics! i've never spent more than about $90 - i always just get whatever free big pics come with it, and basically just spend until i've bought enough to get the CD. i did sears once, and NEVER will i do it again - bad pics, very expensive, and it took several weeks to get the pics...

I would suggest googling photographers in your area. They usually have their own websites to check out there work. I used to go to Sears and have some impatient kid take pics of my kids and I got sick of it. Spent way too much money on so-so pics.

I found a wonderful photographer and the photos of my kids brought tears to my eyes. He took about 200 photos of them, charged me $150 for the session and a cd. It sounded high at first, but those 200 photos are MINE forever to do whatever I want with.

Last time we went to FL I hired a photographer down there to take pics of us on the beach, again, Amazing!!

I will never go to one of those silly studios again!

I LOVE Portrait Innovations. I never buy more than I need, do you take a count of who will want what and only order those? I love the way they have the whole thing set up. I have never overbought from there, but have had issues at other places. I have not tried Sears, was not a fan of JCPenny or Walmart or Target and I stopped trying once I found PI ... my MIL used to take the kids to the one inside Babys RUS and my sister likes the Picture People ... good luck.

I've been VERY lucky with JCPenney's.

I love every photographer that works there and they are always happy to see us. My son LOVES the entire process. Clothing changes, props and posing. We actually love going to have his pictures done.

I have learned to be the first appointment of the day. They are on time and the studio isn't hot from the lights being on all day long.

We used to do Sears for my daughter. We started going for her 1 month pictures. They were fantastatic, and we were thrilled with the lady that took her photos. It seemed to only go downhill from there and we stopped using them when she was two. We had to wait 1 hour beyond our appointment time and the lady that took our pictures--1-didn't take good pictures of her and 2-more importantly told us we needed to HOLD HER DOWN! That was it for us, we have never gone back!
I've always had good look with PI. We have had to wait a little beyond our appointment time before, but that was on a weekend before Christmas. I try and have a general idea of the pictures I truly need for family and I try and schedule the appointment during the morning preferably on a weekday. We've used the one at the Great Mall before as well, we have had good and not so good pictures from there. So far, we have had great luck with PI.
Good luck to you! J.

We have had great experiences and great portraits at Target Portrait Studio. They treat you like you are the only ones there. They take their time and have awesome specials on pictures. It has been a couple of years since we have been but they were absolutely the BEST pictures I have ever had made of my family. They were even better than my wedding pictures that were taken by a professional photographer.

it probably depends alot on your area, I haven't tried Pic Inv but I have heard great things about them.
We purchased a membership with JCP about 7 years ago and it was great had a lot of nice perks and for the most part the staff was ok and took some ok picts. I never buy more than $30 and thats only if hubby is along. I'm very ummmm dicriminating so if the photographer didn't center it or if they didn't get a true relaxed expression, i usually just pick the best pose and go with that ONE. I was going every 6 mo ro so and felt like i was getting different outfits and poses so i didn't have to buy a huge package. And so far I haven't bought any Huge 20x20's or anything. Oh and I like that you can book your appointment on line.

I've tried sears but didn't like them because at the time the pricing wasn't as straight forwards as penney's and was more expensive. but again this was before most of the places switched to digital and that has probably sped things up and improved the editing.

Good Luck and If you can swing it, try to be the first appointment of the day. or go at a really off time.

Portrait innovations by FAR!!!!!!! I have always gotten the best pictures from portrait innovations just figure out how many of what size of pics you need and stick with that you'll have to forego some poses but i usually can get in and out for less than 100 bucks and i dont have too many extras!

I've used both at different times over the years. I LOVE Portrait Innovations. I her much dislike Sears. I think the photos from there are nothing special, they take too long to come in (printed off site), the staff (at 2 different locations) comes off rude because they are often understaffed so they seem disinterested and they rush you.

I definitely think PI is the best value around.

-L.

My son has never had a good experience at Portrait Innovations. The photographers I got were expecting me to pick all the poses, interact with my son, get him to smile, all while they stood there and clicked the button. Not to mention having to wait a half hour after my appointment time (first one of the day!) to get back there for 10 minutes of picture time. This happened twice and I wasn't going to give them a third chance. This may be good for kids that naturally want to pose and take pictures, but that is not my son. At all!

I've had some really good photographers at Sears that really interact with both of us to get some good shots. Plus as a member of their portrait club, I get a free 8x10 every trip and buy one get one free sheets Monday - Thursday. I only order the 8x10 and the two sheets. When they come in, the lab always sends 5 sheets, usually 2 10x13, 2 8x10, and 1 5x7 with 4 wallets that you can buy for $25. So total I get 7 sheets for about $40. This is perfect for us.