Quick update on the family portraits we took a few months ago!
(Photo studio experience at the end of the post)
So we took our photos at a small old-fashioned photo studio called Gloria Photo Studio. It's located at 1 Irving Place, The Commerze @ Irving in Singapore and run by an elderly couple and their son. Now, the reason why I went to Gloria Photo Studio was because they were one of the few photo studios who were advertised having Monash University graduation gowns on hand. In addition, I was due to fly off to Melbourne in less than a week and really did not have much time making further enquiries with other photo studios.
So Gloria Photo Studio it was. I describe Gloria Photo Studio as a rather old-fashioned photo studio for a variety of reasons, including the fact that my Dad was encouraged to pose for the photographs in a rather old-fashioned way, with one leg propped up on the other and his hands placed in a certain way. You can see for yourself in the formal shots above. My Mum did express uncertainty as to whether that was a good pose or not, and was repeatedly told that it would look amazing in the photographs. My Dad looks handsome as ever in the photos, but the pose was certainly a little unnatural.
After the photography session, we were informed for the first time that the photos would take 3 months to be processed, developed and framed. 3 months!!! I have to say that I was really surprised, and did ask them for an explanation. They explained that they're a family run photo studio and they do all the editing and processing themselves. Hmm.
The photos turned out alright, although I was disappointed that I wasn't able to obtain more "HD" soft copy photographs from them. I inserted double quotation marks around "HD" because we were assured at the start of the photo session that we would be receiving "low resolution" photos which would be "perfect for posting on blogs and social media".
And oh boy did we receive low resolution photos. In fact, they were REALLY low-resolution. I did make a couple of requests for soft copies with a higher resolution, but was rejected each time. I probably should have put my mind to this potential problem at the start, so my bad. They did mention that the photos were "low res"; I just didn't fully appreciate what their version of "low res" meant.
I later realised that, had I checked out their Facebook page for reviews prior to engaging their services, I would have noted several similar complaints about the soft copy photos they provide (or even don't provide) to their customers. I guess the moral of the story is to always check customer reviews before engaging someone's services!
Credit must given where credit is due. The people at Gloria Photo Studio were indeed quite friendly and patient with us. They were very encouraging throughout the photography session and obliged when I asked for another shot at the end, as I didn't quite like the last photo we took. I truly had a pleasant experience during the photography session, it was the aftermath that did disappoint me quite a bit. Nonetheless, I probably won't be going back again for the main reason that soft copy photographs are way more important to me than printed photographs, and there are many modern photo studios out there which provide soft copy photographs to their customers.
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