Our ES uses Freed and the MS uses LifeTouch. Love Freed. But, I found that if you select the outdoor bokeh background for your LifeTouch photo, you can get almost the same effect as the Freed photos. I did this so that my kids' photos look similar. The grandparents couldn't tell they came from different companies (I could though).

We use Splendid Portraits and they are pretty good. Though my daughter's picture this year wasn't great, because nobody told her to tuck the lining of her dress into her neckline, and her hair had a weird bump that made her look like a conehead. I wish the photographer had told her to straighten her neckline and her hair, since the package was $56.

Our youngest is in a preschool that uses Freed. Our older child is in MCPS, which uses Lifetouch. Freed is amazing. They are more expensive, but the photos are really gorgeous. Am considering having Freed do photos of our older DC so that we can have fantastic pics of both kids.

Hate life touch as well. I never buy the pictures.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our elementary school used Splendid Portraits this year. As a parent I appreciated that they offered less expensive options.

Last year our daycare used Teddy Bear portraits, but went back to Lifetouch this year, so I don't know if that says anything about how easy I was to work with them.

Our old school used Teddy Bear portraits. They generally came out nice but were so expensive. Lifetouch is much more affordable.

Our preschool did Teddy Bear portraits one year. It was HORRIBLE! Our director spent months fighting with them for them to send the pictures that we all paid for. The photographer was great, but it really felt like they were running a scam.

My DD's school switched to http://greatamericanphoto.net/
this year.
SO much better than lifetouch.
DS's school still used lifetouch, so I was able to compare prices directly. The packages were slightly different, but as a rule I would say Great American Photo was a dollar or two more expensive but absolutely worth the difference given the change in quality.

Freed looks amazing. How much more expensive are packages? http://www.freedspirit.com/Gradeschool/

No one buys the Lifetouch photos at our school since they are horrible and the yearbook quality is so bad you can barely make out the faces.

Freed does our photography and they do a fantastic job. They do them outdoors in natural light. No cheesy background. I've loved all the photos they've done.

Another satisfied Splendid Portraits customer. They also send out a photographer to take candids for the yearbook.

Anonymous wrote:Our elementary school used Splendid Portraits this year. As a parent I appreciated that they offered less expensive options.

Last year our daycare used Teddy Bear portraits, but went back to Lifetouch this year, so I don't know if that says anything about how easy I was to work with them.

Our old school used Teddy Bear portraits. They generally came out nice but were so expensive. Lifetouch is much more affordable.

Our elementary school used Splendid Portraits this year. As a parent I appreciated that they offered less expensive options.

Last year our daycare used Teddy Bear portraits, but went back to Lifetouch this year, so I don't know if that says anything about how easy I was to work with them.

We've been at three different private schools, and the Freed photos have always been the best by far.

Freed is showing up in more and more schools. They've been mentioned on DCUM a few times if you do a search. I teach at a school that used them for two years and went back to Lifetouch. I think the Freed pictures were more expensive and that's why they went back.

Our school, Stonegate ES in MoCo, used a different company this year. I'm sure it's on the website. Thing is that the cost was ridiculous.

Our school is looking for another company to work with us after a lot of problems with LifeTouch from issues on-site with photographers to their customer service. Have you had a good experience with any other school photo company?