It's important to give Lisa an idea of the kinds of portraits you want. We recommend having portraits that show YOUR personality. Do this by taking the portraits in a place or places that reflect who you are and what you like. Also include props that tell a story about you. If you are in sports, include sports equipment and consider taking the photos where you play or practice that sport. If you are in music, include your instrument. If you have a letter jacket or senior ring, definitely include them. Choose Your Session to Fit YOUR Style and Personality and that fits your needs. Lisa wants to make sure you get senior portraits that you just love and she'll work hard to help you get them. PLEASE NOTE: if you change your mind about how many poses you want or the locations where you want your portraits created, we will try to accommodate you, but our scheduling is relatively tight, so call us RIGHT AWAY if you need to change which session you are doing or where you want to take the portraits.
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Think about what your interests are and, after you have read all of this page, I like to have a FREE, NO OBLIGATION, Planning Consultation with you where I can go over all your options and help YOU tell ME what you are looking for and what you like. We will discuss questions I have for you about your portraits like: Where do you want to take your portraits? What props do you want to include? Do you know what clothing you want, or do you need suggestions? What is the best time to create your portrait? How much, if any, soft focus do you like? Do you prefer interactive portraits where you are looking at something? Or, do you like portraits where you are facing the camera? Do you like close up, waist up, three-quarter length, or full length portraits, or a mixture depending on the portrait? And many other things that can make your portrait be just what you want.
During the Planning Session I will answer all of your questions and go over all of the costs and options. I will ask you lots of question and help you find the answers to them. I want to know what will make your portraits special to you, make them unique to you. What will give them emotional impact for you?
After all this planning, I GUARANTEE you will receive portraits that you will treasure for a lifetime.
You can choose one, two, or three locations for your portraits, depending on the session you chose. These can be from 15 minutes from the studio to a 90 minute round trip from the studio to each location and back to the studio, depending on the session. (The studio is near Rayford-Sawdust & I-45 in The Woodlands), The location of your portrait may indicate your personality: a lake, park, sports field, your yard, home, or my studio with your props. Having your portrait made in more than one location may make your portraits show more aspects of your personality and senior year. See Choose Your Session to Fit YOUR Style and Personality.
WHAT DO I WEAR?When choosing your outfits, keep in mind that you'll want a lot of variety. You may wear as many outfits as you want, limited by the time allowed for the session you choose. Most senior wear about six outfits. Don't forget shoes and jewelry for your outfits and your specialty stuff like your letter jacket, uniform, etc. We have cap and gowns.
For more classic or traditional portraits, and to keep the attention focused on your face, solid-colored fabrics photograph best. Outfits that have opposite colors or hues in them will attract more attention than your face in the portrait. Also avoid bold patterns such as plaids, stripes, polka dots, flowers, etc. Choose a color and style of clothing (either dressy or casual) that will fit into the room in which your parents plan on displaying the portrait. Full-length poses may be included in your session, thus emphasizing the importance of shoes, socks, and skirts or pants that are NOT lighter or brighter than your top. Sandals and flip-flops photograph well. Sleeveless or short-sleeved outfits may show distracting bare arms in closer portraits. Three-quarter length and long sleeves can hide heavier upper arms.
Clothing that is similar in lightness or darkness blends the best, like all dark, or all medium, or all light. It is also best if the lightness or darkness of the portraits is similar to where the portraits are being taken. For outdoors, medium and dark colors photograph best if you want your face to stand out before your clothing.
For the rest of your portraits, anything goes -- bring the colors and outfits you feel best in. If you like an outfit, it's probably because you look good in it, so make sure you bring it.
It is important in a GROUP PORTRAIT that colors and styles of clothing be compatible so they do not clash or distract. The person in a group dressed differently will stick out.
Your family will get the most viewing enjoyment from your portraits if they hang in the room where they spend most of their leisure time. For most people, this is the family or living room. When selecting a location, consider a wall that is within a comfortable viewing distance and angle from the main seating areas. If you have to get up to see the portrait, you probably won't (at least after awhile). The most popular places for hanging portraits include over the fireplace, above a sofa or love seat, above a TV or piano, or in the dining room. Places that generally don't work well are: in a hallway, foyer, bedroom (except for more personal portraits), or in conjunction with a grouping of other photographs.
HOW
CAN I LOOK MORE TANNED?You can LOOK tanned without having to BE tanned just wear a white or off-white outfit and be photographed with a white background. Light colors make your skin appear darker in your portraits. DON'T overdo it in the sun or tanning bed just before your session it's costly to remove a peeling nose or a bright red sunburn.
Here's where the fun really begins. Part of what makes Lisa's Portraits so much better is that she works very hard to bring out the various facets of your personality. So make sure you have in your portraits your favorite hat, musical instrument, friends, pet, sunglasses, hobby, wheels, sports gear, etc. Plan on using lots of props to add variety to your portraits. Use your imagination whatever ideas you come up with, Lisa will do them for you!
Sure. Try to make the preparations and any travel as relaxed as possible so your pet does not get tense and over excited. When pets are included, it is often best to consider as first choice for the portrait location your home, yard, or a location your pets are familiar with.
When you schedule your session you will pay either a Session Fee OR a Minimum Purchase Fee. We can take Visa, Master Card, American Express, Discover, or checks over the phone. We can only hold your session time for 24 hours without your payment.
When you place your order, your Minimum Purchase Fee (not a Session Fee) will be subtracted from your total order, and the remaining balance may be paid all when you order, or in two installments -- one-half when the order is placed, and the final balance when the finished portraits are delivered. Or, you may put your portraits on layaway. With a personalized layaway you pay 10% or more down and set up with us to make a regular payment every 30 days. Your payment can be any amount you want. On a layaway your portraits are ordered from the lab when you make your final payment. If you want unique, personalized portraits, then I want to help you get them.
NONE!! Your session fee or minimum purchase will be paid when you schedule so there is no need to bring any money with you! All you have to do is show up with your stuff and get ready to have fun!!
YES, Because we want to give you, and each of our clients, uninterrupted, individual attention for your Planning Session, Portrait Session, projection your images and helping you place your order, and delivering your final portraits, we ask that you have an appointment for each and EVERY time you come to see us. Even if you think it will only take a couple of minutes for us to help you when you drop off a payment or pick up your photographs, it still may interrupt the individualized help we are trying to give someone who has an appointment. Please call us if you don't have an appointment and need one on short notice, so we can let you know when we have an opening. If you get the answering machine, we are either with a client or on location. PLEASE leave a message where you can be reached then and later. We'll call you as soon as we are free to return your call, it may only be a very short time.
Besides always making an appointment, please try to be on time, not early or late, to each of your appointments so as not to overlap someone else's appointment. We want to give you our undivided attention, but can only do that if you come at the time reserved just for you. Please call us to reschedule if you will be late or cannot make it to your appointment. If you come without an appointment, or late to your appointment, we probably will have to schedule an appointment for you to return. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.
If you planned to have your portraits created outdoors, but it looks like rain, call us. Sometimes it is raining where you are but not where the portraits are going to be taken. Also, some showers come and go quickly, so we may be able to rearrange the order of the locations of your portraits and miss the rain. If we cannot take your outdoor portraits at the scheduled time, we can still take your indoor portraits. Our schedule won't allow too many additions, so we need to do as many of your poses as possible and postpone only the necessary ones.
If for some reason you need to reschedule your Session appointment time, your Session Fee, Minimum Portrait Purchase Fee, or Reservation Fee can reserve a new appointment, if we get 24 hours notice of the change. With less than 24 hours notice, the Fee will be forfeited because we turn down other appointments at your time and may not be able to fill your appointment on such short notice.
If you need to reschedule one of your other appointments, please just call us as soon as you know you can't make it.
If you wish to cancel your session appointment, we will refund your Fee, if we get 72 hours (3 days) notice of the cancellation. With less than 72 hours notice, we can only reschedule your appointment. Cancellation of Saturday Appointments will not have the Fees refunded.
Any fees paid to reserve the session time will be forfeited.
If you are going to get your hair cut and/or permed, try to do it at least one week before your session, to give it a chance to calm down a little. Don't try a radically different haircut or style chances are you won't feel it expresses the real you.
Here's a quick hint that will greatly enhance your portraits: just before your session, stand two feet in front of the mirror. Dab a small amount of cover-up makeup on any noticeable blemishes. That's it if they're gone in the mirror, they'll be gone in your photographs! Otherwise, they can be computer retouched.
GLASSES?If you wear glasses most of the time, you'll want to wear them in your portraits. To eliminate glare and reflections, if you can see fairly well without them, you can call your optician and arrange to either borrow a pair of empty frames like yours or have the lenses removed from your own frames. Most opticians will gladly do this for free (make sure you give them plenty of notice, though.) This totally eliminates glare and distortions and is the most effective way to improve your portraits if you wear glasses. BUT, if you can't see without your glasses we recommend you WEAR your glasses. Your expressions will be much more natural if you can see what I am doing by the camera. If there is glass glare, it can be removed for a reasonable additional charge and you will still look like everyone sees you and you will be able to see during your session.
You decide how many and which portraits to buy. First, you choose your favorite poses. Then, you may purchase your portraits individually or in flexible packages. The packages contain multiple poses and you choose the sizes. You may buy as many or as few photographs as you want. There are even Special Senior Packages that include wall portraits.
And, we have Special Senior Wallet prices, so you can get wallets for all your friends, family, and graduation invitations.
You get to see your portraits BEFORE they are printed. At which time you get to choose which ones YOU like, how many you want of each, and in what sizes. We will be glad to assist you and make recommendations, if you desire.
There is a WIDE variety of frame styles and prices. There is also a wide variety of mat styles, prices, and matting methods. There are also lots of place where you can have matting and framing done. We don't presume to choose this for you, so we don't add this to your portrait prices. But, WE DO OFFER FRAMING & MATTING and just FRAMING. You get to choose who does this for you and what you like and how much you are willing to spend. We have an expertly trained staff to help you decide what will look best with your portrait to make YOU stand out in your portrait, not the framing. We will assist you with this for FREE, even if you choose to have someone else do your framing. But, if you do have us frame your portraits before you take them home, we Unconditionally Guarantee both the photographs and the frames for Life!
If before the day of your portrait session you have a Planning Session with us, I GUARANTEE your portraits will meet or exceed your expectations, or I will reprint, rephotograph, or replace them.
If, for any reason you are unhappy with your original images, just tell us when we are projecting your images for you (before you place your order.) Lots of times there are things we can retouch, crop, or do in printing that will make the portraits EXACTLY what you want. If not, we will schedule a time to take additional portraits to your liking of those concepts at no extra cost to you, or refund your entire session fee, PLUS FIVE DOLLARS!
Plus, if your finished portraits don't turn out exactly as you thought they would, let us know and we will make them over to your liking, or your money will be refunded, PLUS FIVE DOLLARS!
AND, if you have us frame your portrait(s) before you take them home, we Unconditionally Guarantee both the photograph(s) and the frame(s) for Life!
If you usually DON'T LIKE YOUR PORTRAITS, be sure to let me know what you don't like BEFORE the portrait session. There are countless techniques and special methods which I can use to minimize many problems. This will save you the time and aggravation of having to have retakes or portraits you don't really like. The secret here to success is communication. I want to help you, and my objective is to create an outstanding portrait, which you will treasure forever!
Try to make sure you are WELL RESTED and NOT HUNGRY. It is hare to relax and enjoy yourself when your stomach is growling or you are tired. Have a snack before your session or bring one with you. Bring water or a drink too for outdoor portraits.
Our address is 211 Rye St., The Woodlands, TX 77380. Take Interstate-45 to the Rayford-Sawdust exit (exit #76). Go West into the Woodlands on Sawdust one block from I-45 and turn Right at the light by HEB onto Borough Park. Go North two blocks on Borough Park until it ends in a "T" with Valley Wood. Turn Left onto Valley Wood and then immediately (like a jog in the road) turn Right onto Oak Ridge Dr. Take the first Left (after the second house) onto RYE St. Rye is three houses long and we are in the middle on the LEFT. You can see our big white sign from the corner.
When we take your portraits we will schedule you, and anyone
involved with the decision of purchasing your portraits an appointment
to view and order your portraits, approximately 4-7 days after
your session. With our unique projection viewing system, we will
show you your portraits in all the available sizes so you can
see how they will look in the sizes you are considering. You will
be able to compare multiple images, see and choose cropping, and
even choose matting and framing. And we will be there to answer
all your questions so you will know exactly how your portraits
can be enhanced and the way to get the best prices.
It usually takes 2-3 weeks for finished portraits to be ready from when they are ordered. If you need them faster, please let us know. RUSH is usually available for an extra charge and can be as fast as 48 hrs.
Contact us NOW to Schedule Your FREE, NO-OBLIGATION Planning Session and to Schedule your Portrait Session: email: lisa@lisasportraits.com or call 281-419-7444 or toll free in Texas 1-800-558-LISA(5472). We are located at 211 Rye St., The Woodlands, TX 77380.