Barton Photography

We had a similar experience to OP. I had been wanting to get some portraits done of the family and of my children, had read the positive responses here so took the offer that was going in May. The studio shoot was fine - Julian was kind and patient with the children. The viewing was a week later and the photos were pretty standard. Still, it's our family and we ended up paying over 5000 Dirhams for 3 frames - the largest to be of the family. Well, it took months to get them, many unanswered email and then they got the order wrong - with the large frame being a picture of my children, not the family. They have offered to fix that and will let us have the one we didn't ask for at a discounted price of 2000 dirhams. So, we are still waiting for what we ordered. Other than that, I felt the touch ups were not good, with my children's skin coming out different colours. He did something with our eyes which make your face look weird but I'm just so fed up that I can't be bothered anymore. Really disappointed and will not use them again.

Yes Julian told us the photos would be printed in the UK and should be ready within 21 working days. But he also agreed to send us the proofs to review before the photos were printed. When we ordered and paid he said the proofs would be with us in the next couple of days - a week later no proofs so I e-mailed, no response. A few days later I called and he said he was really busy but I would have them that afternoon. A week later I still didn't have them, so I e-mailed again and again he said he had been busy but I would have them asap. Anyway, many e-mails and phone calls and over a month later I finally got the proofs. At the time I commented on the sizing of the images in relation to one another but he said they were just screengrabs to show the image and he would sort out the positioning of the final photos. It then took another 5 or 6 weeks to get the actual photos. When we finally got them I was disappointed but decided to just draw a line under the whole experience. But the more I looked at them the more disappointed I felt - we were told that they would be chemically printed and they look like blown up grainy images. The framing is flimsy and it is obvious that there was little if any post production work as the images are all different sizes and as mentioned the background of one photo is a completely different shade (not obvious from the proofs as they were all shot against the same background but the lighting must have been different for that shot). If we had paid less I could have accepted it but for AED4500 I expect a better product and service. I have tried to talk to Julian about this but so far no response. It is obvious to me that Barton Portraits is a one man operation and he has taken on more work than he can handle through deals such as the Living Social one that we initially bought. It is fine if you just want a couple of value for money snaps but not if you go outside the deal and pay premium prices for portrait shots. Once we had paid the money the customer service ended, he was too busy taking money from the next punters.

It has been so long since I posted that I have forgotten my old sign in details so am starting over again. But I was motivated to add to this thread because I chose to use Barton Portraits based on the below recommendations and unfortunately I have not had the same positive experience the others did. The photo shoot itself was fine and the photo selection was ok, nothing amazing but we were happy enough and chose three images of our children. We paid cash upfront (big mistake) and spent more than two months chasing to get the photos. I sent e-mail after e-mail and rang at least half a dozen times. Most of my messages were ignored but when I did manage to speak to Julian he kept saying the photos would be with me 'within the week' and then another week would go by before I chased again. When they finally arrrived they were poor quality - grainy shots, printed on cheap board and markedly different coloured backgrounds (two children on dark grey backgrounds and one on light grey - not noticeable when we selected the photos but obvious now that they are 'blown up'). The images are all different sizes too - our youngest son's face fills the frame while his older sister's face is much smaller and the middle child just floats in the middle of the frame, it looks odd. They cost AED4500, so it was an expensive mistake. By contrast we had photos from Stu Williamson a couple of years ago - for AED3600 we got three bigger images, faultless quality and speedy service. I did not want to go back to them as I found them pushy to deal with but I regret not using a better known photographer now. I should say that we also did the Living Social deal for Barton Portraits and I thought that was good value for what we got, it was the extra money that we spent on the other portraits that was the mistake. Never again! You are aware that the photos etc are not printed in Dubai? They are done in the UK hence why there is a wait. The wait time was clearly pointed out to us on ordering and it was several weeks. If you were not happy when you are paying this kind of money then did you not speak to them? I agree that their admin staff do little to help their cause and I was also having to e mail on several occasions. The one thing I did not like was having to pay CASH as opposed to being able to use a card. It seemed odd for that amount of money... <em>edited by spongemonkey on 09/09/2012</em>

I did one of the last offers with living social and it was great, we did in May and the shoot was fun, the kids enjoyed and Julian was patient and helpful and had some good ideas for shots. I went to view and was very happy with the shots, then I was so indecisive re which ones to take I had to go for the digital option. I got a couple small ones in frames for that offer and then the cd too so am very happy. I have also used STU and was happy with them too but of course paid alot more for only a couple of frames, no digital images. So jumped at the Barton offer when I saw it. AM sure it will be fine, especially if you are more decisive than me !!! but I would def use them again. Good luck HTH ;)

It has been so long since I posted that I have forgotten my old sign in details so am starting over again. But I was motivated to add to this thread because I chose to use Barton Portraits based on the below recommendations and unfortunately I have not had the same positive experience the others did. The photo shoot itself was fine and the photo selection was ok, nothing amazing but we were happy enough and chose three images of our children. We paid cash upfront (big mistake) and spent more than two months chasing to get the photos. I sent e-mail after e-mail and rang at least half a dozen times. Most of my messages were ignored but when I did manage to speak to Julian he kept saying the photos would be with me 'within the week' and then another week would go by before I chased again. When they finally arrrived they were poor quality - grainy shots, printed on cheap board and markedly different coloured backgrounds (two children on dark grey backgrounds and one on light grey - not noticeable when we selected the photos but obvious now that they are 'blown up'). The images are all different sizes too - our youngest son's face fills the frame while his older sister's face is much smaller and the middle child just floats in the middle of the frame, it looks odd. They cost AED4500, so it was an expensive mistake. By contrast we had photos from Stu Williamson a couple of years ago - for AED3600 we got three bigger images, faultless quality and speedy service. I did not want to go back to them as I found them pushy to deal with but I regret not using a better known photographer now. I should say that we also did the Living Social deal for Barton Portraits and I thought that was good value for what we got, it was the extra money that we spent on the other portraits that was the mistake. Never again!

I can highly recomend them, we just picked our pictures the other day, they are fab...we had a baby shoot in their studio, so can not comment on outdoor shoot but our baby's pictures are great hth

Barton does the deal of the 20 plus digital images .

We got the studio one from before. It was good. Nice shoot, nothing spectacular in terms of capturing expressions or great poses, but good. The quality of final product was very good. Great service. They gave us what the deal said. If you wanted more, they are very expensive without the deal so its best to have a plan when you go into a viewing if you don't want to be tempted into buying more. They didn't hard sell though to be fair. I have since found a few photographers on here that give you a location shoot for a good deal with 20 or so digital files, which suits us better, so i plan to do one of those next time around. You'll find details if you search for family/baby shoot/photograhy. Not sorry I used Barton though. Have fun.

The studio is fab, you will be shown the best pictures they take. We were given package options which were good value for what we opted for.

it will cost you exactly what the deal says ( have had pics done in the studio on one of the other deals ) unless of course you love all the photos and want to choose more than one in which case it will cost you more!!