About the makeovers

Questions and Answers

Contents

1. If I have a makeover, will it still look like me?
2. Are you anything to do with Cover Shots in Manchester?
3. Why does the sitting cost £85?
4. Do you use Digital Photography?
5. My friend won a makeover. Is it fair that I should have to pay?

If I have a makeover, will it still look like me?

Unlike many Makeover Studios, at Jayne and Chris Birchall we pride ourselves upon the way we listen to our customers.

Some actually prefer to have more of a fantasy image - in other words something very different. In such cases we strive to produce photographs more like the media style images seen in adverts and fashion magazines.

Other customers wish to have more natural portraits - pictures of themselves looking their best.

All this is determined during the 'image consultation' which takes place prior to the photo shoot.

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Are you anything to do with Cover Shots in Manchester?

Absolutely Not! Jayne & Chris Birchall are an independent family business.

Cover Shots International actually went into liquidation during March 2000. They were a large organization undertaking mass makeovers (some 100 plus a week at Manchester alone) Whilst some of their work was quite good from the customer's point of view, they tended to do much the same for all their customers.

We offer a more personalized service - only one customer is in our studio at a time. (see question 1 for more details)

Other differences are in the quality of the finished product. Cover shots (and many other makeover studios too) provided machine made prints at £55 for a 10x8". All our portraits are individually produced by hand to a very high standard, with specialist shading, retouching and enhancement at just £48 for the same size.

In addition, our Heirloom range of framed portraits boast full artwork cosmetic enhancement to remove blemishes and reduce laughter lines etc.

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Why does the sitting cost £85?

It has become standard practice for family portrait studios not to charge a sitting fee on the basis the customer will be purchasing framed portraits.

We'd love to be able to do the same. However, whereas a family sitting occupies just one photographer for an average of twenty or so minutes, a makeover session involves two people (a stylist and a photographer) for upwards of an hour and a half. Add to that the film and processing costs, plus another hour for the viewing appointment, and it is easy to see that the £60 barely covers the cost even at our modest commercial rates.

So you can see that if if we charged no session fee and customers were to purchase just one portrait at say £48, we would very soon be out of business.

We do have some special deals however. For instance: if you purchase a Gift Voucher (even if you intend it for yourself!) for a framed portrait at £95 (prepaid) we will include a free makeover photo session.

Also available from time to time are special deals on last minute bookings, whereby the session is heavily discounted. See our Special Offer page for full details.

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Do you use digital photography... ?

Things are moving very fast in the digital arena. We have been keeping a close eye on developments over the past three or four years. We have always said we would only embrace the digital technology as and when the quality of the results at least matched that of traditional silver image photography. Inkjet and dye sublimation prints have never quite matched up to conventional photographs - and whilst Kodak offer a Lifetime Guarantee on professionally produced photographs, inkjet have been notorious for fading fast.

All this is changing as we speak. We have just entered into a business relationship with one of the country's leading photographic laboratories. They have invested hundreds of thousands in equipment to print digital files onto real photographic paper.

All this means we can offer retouching and cosmetic enhancement to an even higher level, and enabled us to develop some exciting new products to bring portraiture bang up to date in the twenty-first century.

WATCH THIS SPACE!

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A friend of mine won a makeover from you. Is it fair that I should have to pay?

The £85 fee barely covers the cost of undertaking a makeover and photo session. Your friend won a prize draw which we hold occasionally - particularly during the traditionally quieter times of the year. This is a legitimate business practice, and one which is used by many family portrait studios (who have much lower session costs). We simply divert some of our advertising budget to cover the shooting costs and accept it is better to have a reduced profit rather than no profit at all during these times.

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