Selection Appointment Tip Sheet
You will be looking at your portraits projected on a screen as 72"x72" images. During the appointment, you will choose your favorites and decide on sizes, quantities, cropping, retouching, finishes, and frames. There are no proofs to take home.
Allow Enough Time...
Most people spend four hours making their selection - even those choosing just a few images. Allow for four hours in case it takes that long. To avoid conflicts, please do not schedule activities immediately following the selection appointment. You will be making important decisions on portraits that will be in your family for generations and you won't want to feel rushed or pressured.
Take Time to Eat...
If you get a meal or snack beforehand, you will be happier, more alert, and more comfortable. You can always ask us to order in some food for you as well.
Come Without the Children...
Selecting images requires undivided attention. Bringing your children will make it difficult for you, will be hard for the children, and will lengthen the appointment. If your child care arrangements fall through, be sure to call us to reschedule.
Bring the Decision Makers ...
In most relationships, both members have at least some input (either financial or aesthetic) in the selection process. Come with your spouse; you will feel much more confident of your choices and you will not have to explain your decisions afterwards. If both of you cannot come, please call us to reschedule.
Arrive Together ...
Differing arrival and departure times lengthen your appointment and make decision-making difficult.
Schedule a Separate Time for Non-Decision Makers...
If there are relatives or friends you would like to share the images with but who will not be paying for or choosing the images for you, a separate time can be arranged for them to see the portraits.
Don't Concentrate on Your Own Appearance ...
It is quite natural to be a bit uncomfortable with how one looks in portraits. Concentrating on how good everyone else looks will increase your enjoyment of the images.
Plan in Advance...
To shorten your appointment, make some decisions before coming in:
- Do you want to display portraits in your office, bedroom, children's bedrooms, living room, or family room?
- Will you be displaying the portraits on the wall, as tabletop portraits, or both?
- What are the vertical and horizontal measurements of the possible wall display areas? (Bringing a photograph and the dimensions of these areas is very helpful. Include a yardstick in the image.)
- Do you have a preferred medium: MasterWork, oil, watercolor, photographic?
- Do you want your portraits bonded onto canvas for a richer, more painterly look?
- Do you want your favorites as a wall grouping or as a collection of images in a First Edition Book?
- Will you want to give portraits to parents or adult children? Books or framed portraits?
- What do other family members want you to select for them?
- Would you like portraits to enclose with your greeting cards?
Plan to make your decisions while here...
As there are no proofs to take home, making decisions after you leave is not possible. Returning for a second selection appointment also can be difficult as our appointment times are often reserved months in advance. (Return visits are billed at $600 per hour.)
When to reschedule...
Please don't reschedule unless necessary as it may be several weeks or months before there is another opening. However, in the following situations, it would be best for you to make a new appointment:
- Your spouse is unable to come
- You are feeling tired or ill
- You would have to come with your child/children
- You are unable to stay at least four hours