This site is Copyright 2009 Digitallure Photography
If the staff lacks policy guidance against which to test decisions, their decisions will be random. ~Donald Rumsfeld
RETAINER: We require a nonrefundable retainer to book your session with Dwain Thomas. Retainer fees amount to fifty percent of the listed session price. After this retainer has been paid, it CANNOT be refunded for ANY REASON. Please be certain that the date you book online is the date you want to shoot. This will help avoid any loss of time and/or money for both parties. Clients can book a session online or by phone. We accept Cash or Paypal as forms of payment for the retainer fee.
BOOKING: We require that all clients electronically sign a BOOKING CONTRACT (Policy Sign-off) with Digitallure/Dwain Thomas Photography before any session is scheduled. This AGREEMENT between photo subject (paying client) and photographer is to ensure that both parties are on the “same page” and that there is never confusion as to who, what, when, why & how Digitallure Photography does business. The requirement is that photo subjects (paying clients) read, understand & agree to the policies & procedures listed on this page.
SESSION FEE BALANCE DUE: The session fee balance is due the day of your session. After the images have been photographed, and you and/or your children are so happy you just can’t take it anymore, we’ll collect this payment.
DAY OF SESSION PAYMENT OPTIONS: We accept cash as payment.
NO CHECKS PLEASE: Please do not bring a check or ask us to take a check as final payment. Digitallure/Dwain Thomas Photography ended its relationship with checks a few years ago after discovering that some checks fibbed about the actual funds connected to them. It’s taken a while to heal from this very unhealthy relationship, but Digitallure Photography has in fact moved on with its business life and feels very good about it. Digitallure Photography relationship with cash & credit cards is as strong as ever.
RESCHEDULING: We require at least 48 business hours (2 full business days) advance notice to reschedule all photo sessions. (i.e. If your session is scheduled for a Monday, you would need to contact us no later the end of business hours the Wednesday before your session). If it is less than 2 full business days, you will, unfortunately, lose your full retainer fee. So please, please, please be very sure that this date works for you and/or your children. (*if you or your child are actors, we request that you contact your representatives and “book out” for the time you are scheduled with us.) If you reschedule within the 2 business day requirement, your full retainer fee will be applied to the rescheduled session.
WE RESCHEDULE: Dwain knows that time is valuable, but so is YOURS! One thing that bugs us is how some professional businesses charge fees for rescheduling , but don’t return the favor if they have to reschedule you. So if I, for whatever reason, have to reschedule your session, you will receive an extra hour with your photographer at your newly scheduled session.
CANCELATIONS/LATE ARRIVALS/NO SHOWS: If you “forget about the session and don’t show”, you “show up late and we don’t have time to shoot”, or for some silly reason “you decide that you’ve changed your mind and don’t want to shoot with Dwain anymore,” you will forfeit your full retainer fee and your remaining balance will become $0.
TURNAROUND TIME: Because of some photography business practices in Columbus, a lot of people now expect access to their images IMMEDIATELY following a session. We do things a little differently. Instead of burning the images he just shot onto a CD or flashdrive and saying, “see ya’ later gater,” we actually take the time to sift through your entire shoot with a fine-toothed ‘editing’ comb. We sharpen, color balance, smooth skin tones, tweak & retweak all of the images to look the way we want them to look…which just so happens to be…fabulous! Digital photography, when done correctly, requires time in a digital darkroom to make the images look their best. We are all about quality. We never let an image leave our studio that doesn’t meet our standards…and our standards are very very high. Your final prepped images will be accessible at www.photos.digitallureonline.net 14 business days for Local & Travel Sessions sessions. It takes time, time, time to work on these images in order to make them perfect. So be patient. It will be worth the wait.
www.photos.digitallureonline.net: Included with every session is a password protected, low resolution gallery hosted on the world wide web at http://photos.digitallureonline.net that expires after 30 days. You can access your low resolution proof images to and from ANY computer as long as you have the appropriate PASSWORD to login. 90% of the time, Photos will be delivered electronically by e-mail in .zip format and in some cases, a cd will be included with your photo package.
OTHER LAB PRINTING: If you decide for whatever reason to have your printing done somewhere OTHER than our labs we print from, Cord Camera or AdoramaPix, we, unfortunately, can NOT and do NOT guarantee the quality of their work. Printing beautiful digital files is an extremely complicated process to achieve when not working with a specific lab. Every lab is different. If you go somewhere to get cheap prints, then that’s what you’ll get…cheap prints. Some labs aren’t necessarily cheap, but have their system set up completely different than what was intended, and the prints will end up looking washed out, too contrasty, green, blue, red, etc… (you get the point). It’s important to know that Digitallure/Dwain Thomas Photography cares about the quality of your images dearly. We have worked tirelessly with Cord Camera and AdoramaPix to ensure that all of your prints look the way Digitallure/Dwain Thomas Photography intends…amazing! Using Cord Camera or AdoramaPix guarantees top-notch quality. So please allow us to use their services. If you do not, you’re on your own.
ARTISTIC COMPOSITION & IN-CAMERA CROPPING: We photograph intriguing, unique fun, and most importantly, ARTISTIC photographs. We DO NOT shoot photographs that look like mugshots, driver’s license photos or class pictures. When we say this, what we really mean is that Digitallure/Dwain Thomas Photography has a definite artistic style of posing, lighting & composing photographs (the way the subject ‘fits’ into the camera’s viewfinder just before the photographer clicks away). When we are shooting a MEDIUM to CLOSE-UP shot of a subject, this style will pretty much always include:
CROPPING THE TOPS OF SUBJECT’S HEADS OUT OF THE FRAME. In our humble opinion, this is part of what makes our photographs rock! If we were to keep the tops of subject’s heads IN the frame in these shots, they would NOT have the Digitallure Photography look & feel. We have had to add this bit to our Policies recently due to some confusion over the absence of tops of heads. If we were to frame the shot to include the top of your head, it would end up looking like a mugshot or a cheezy class picture that would go in a high school yearbook. It would be boring. And we do NOT do boring. It’s important to understand that we are in the business of artistic expression. And that expression is subjective. Not every person likes every type of art, so please look over our portfolio and make sure you like what you see & understand what you are seeing. If you like our art and are ready to have it expressed with you or your kids in the actual images of our cameras, then please continue on. If you still have concerns, please give us a call for a more detailed explanation. This is how we choose to “do it’ and it has seemed to work pretty well for us. In our opinion, the ‘top of your head’ is not as important as how the photographs AFFECTS you when you look at them for the first time. And we want that affect to be of pure amazement at how handsome or beautiful you are.
REFUNDS/CREDITS: We do NOT offer refunds or credits of any kind for any reason.
RESHOOT REQUESTS: If there happens to be one of those rare, out-of-nowhere, technical malfunctions during the session and the images become unsalvageable or the shoot cannot continue, a free reshoot will be offered and scheduled as quickly as possible. We do not offer reshoots for any other reasons.
SUPERVISION: If you are booking a session for a Child (17 & Under), we require that you or another grown adult accompany your child to his/her session and help supervise at all times. We also ask that if you are able to bring ONLY the child being photographed, that would be even better. If you are not able to bring only the photo subject, we require that you have another grown adult to supervise the other children at all times. Safety always comes first.