Anyone heard of these ?

Been out to them today to talk to the boss about a managed service/support contract for the PC's

Seems like a good setup, they are a franchise with 83 sites around the UK, and have sites in Hong Kong and Korea too, head office is in Winsford

Franchise isnt cheap though sadly :D

- Contemporary family portrait photography - Ventue New Generation Portraits (http://www.thisisventure.co.uk)

Some of the products are quite expensive but still look pretty good but the images of the products on the web site doesnt really do them justice, they look much better in person

Their style is really only just a few choice photoshop actions, coupled with a 'hard-sell' sales technique. Some of their print packages are really expensive!

Very expensive and hard sell to get you to buy product. Put it this way, they offer finance to help you to pay for your £1000 framed portrait. Overrated in my view.

^^^
what they said, very successful but I've seen a few sets of output and as mentioned already - their "style" is just a set of actions applied to ordinary pics shot in a certain environment, not convinced the branches I've seen output from could be very creative beyond what they do.

But - if you can afford it and it's what you want, go for it.

I know 3 people who all went for their cheap £25 sitting and all 3 spent over £2k - madness !

Lots of 'togs offer this kind of portraiture without the Venture price tag. eg: Scoobynet's own Paul Whittle (Contemporary lifestyle portraits, weddings and events photography, Engagement photos, Commercial Photography (http://www.bestside.co.uk)) amongst others.

I know 3 people who all went for their cheap £25 sitting and all 3 spent over £2k - madness !


Exactly. It is madness.

It probably does other photographers offering this sort of style a disservice, people will assume that they're going to be similarly priced - or if they're so much cheaper will assume that because they're hundreds of pounds cheaper must be rubbish.

Rip-off merchants:rolleyes:, screw them for every penny you can :thumb:

Cheers for the comments, its not a place I would look at going to have images done, especially after they mentioned a few of the prices

But hopefully we can win the support contract with them

They use Capture One, and Portrait One (which actually looks like it is now obsolete, yet it will be used for new franchises too) and some software called nVision

One thing that surprised me is that they do not release the images in electronic form at all, and in fact actually sacked a member of staff last week for copying them to CD's and selling them to the clients

It's possibly because they'd probably keep the originals and thus if you want another copy, you have to go back to them and pay for one, whereas if they gave you the digi of the picture you could print as many copies as you like, and possibly do so far, far cheaper than the service they offer.

Capture One = raw converter
Portrait One (now Studioplus Software) is a workflow suite, including image cataloging plus business tools - accounting / contact / scheduling

Not sure what nvision is.

Yeah they explained what Portrait One is, just thought they would have updated it

nVision is the Application they use to show the clients their images in the product range to show exactly how it would look once finished, not sure who supplies that though

A little off topic, but of you go to the Gallery on their site, the "Kids" thumbnail is a shot of my two nieces. My brother got a free 36" wide print from them for use of the image in promotional materials. He's even seen it on billboards in various parts of the country :)

http://www.thisisventure.co.uk/getattachment/32b3c6b2-c7aa-4db5-9c9c-df5080820be0/17n.aspx

Lots of 'togs offer this kind of portraiture without the Venture price tag. eg: Scoobynet's own Paul Whittle (Contemporary lifestyle portraits, weddings and events photography, Engagement photos, Commercial Photography (http://www.bestside.co.uk)) amongst others.

:thumb:

We have one round the corner. most people like their stuff, but can't afford it.
We went 3 years ago, sold a kidney to pay for some photos, then I bought a camera, and built a studio. But then I am a tight-ar$e!

Excellent work Paul:thumb:

Much better than that commercial production line stuff :)

We got one bought for us as a gift experience last year. Unlike the young lady being served whilst we waited (arranging her finance for £1200!) we just had the 'free' one we were entitled to as part of the gift.

Excellent work Paul:thumb:

Much better than that commercial production line stuff :)

I have to make do with a 2m wide studio which isn't ideal, but usually works.
Funny thing is, I process a shot or 2 in a venture style to show clients, and they ALWAYS choose the more natural look.
Venture are getting more arty, but they really need to keep with the times. If indoor lifestyle shots go out of favour, they're doomed!