The Artona Group Inc.

Omg im so scared of myself on the photo.
The studio design looks so great.
The photographer that took my picture was a weirdo and uncomfortable to be with this person alone. Anyway, when i preview my pictures on the tablet i cant believe how trouble i look ! My eyes were close on some of the photo, and the photographer said nothing then good! Hey i paid for this shit 75 $ take a good photo at least.
The flash and lighting in the room is another issue. If i took a picture of myself on my bathroom, i would look way much better.
They adjust the photo but make me looks more trouble, there was a lines under my eyes that doesn’t exit, only because their photo adjustment. Made me look like im in my mid 50 :) where im still in my 20s.
for sure i will not order the pictures and will fight for refund. Im not going to pay for pictures they made me look like a ghost :(.

Artona is a total scam and totally monopolizing the whole graduation photography industry!!! Their photographers are not professionally trained (a friend of mine works there as a photographer) and whenever you choose to enhance your photo for $ 11 something they actually ask photoshop professional in China to get those retouched for not even ¹⁄₁₀^th of the cost. Worst thing is, that price the same kind of combo for different prices for different account!!! That is what I call scam and even fraud. Me and my friend are from the same school and took the same set of photos and when we checked online for the price of the electronic version, my price is double the amount of hers. So I called in and they adjusted the price right away for me without asking any other questions. This has got to stop at some point, people cannot live under such scam much longer in our modern society. If schools do not force students to take photos with Artona, this business is going to die.

Oh yeah!
Tengo el gran lujo de hablar de este lugar desde sus entrañas. Soy fotógrafa en este establecimiento desde el 16 de septiembre y he tenido una grandiosa evolución en mi trabajo de estudio que me parece sorprendente. Para algunos, el ritmo de Artona, como cliente o como empleado, puede llegar a ser un poco intenso. Pero esto sólo depende de la temporada en la que estés yendo al estudio, entre septiembre y principios de diciembre el estudio puede parecer una locura, teníamos muchas citas, casi 40 alumnos por turno y mucho trabajo coordinando fotografías grupales. A mi eso me encanta, el ritmo rápido en la fotografía de estudio te permite sacar lo mejor de ti y del cliente para que tenga retratos maravillosos, además de un trato cordial y profesional.
Pero una vez que pasa la temporada de preparatorias llegan los universitarios, uy que maravilla es trabajar con ellos. Artona es una empresa innovadora, que arriesga en ser no sólo los mejores sino también pioneros en tecnología y auténtico profesionalismo. Los fotógrafos, ya sea en estudio o en móvil, hemos sido entrenados y capacitados para recrear retratos que se adaptan al cliente, buscando enaltecer la figura y la estética con poses pertinentes para cada cliente.

I wish I had read the reviews before going to Artona. I would have known more about their deposits and hidden contract information and wouldn’t have lost my 60 $. I used Artona in high school and was pretty satisfied with there services. I have a big family and we all have graduation prints from Artona. So to keep it unified I decided to take my college graduation picture at Artona.
The photo shoot did go well the photographer was nice, and I was excited to see the photos. A month went by and I had yet to receive the proofs and at this time of my life things started getting busy. I emailed them asking for the proofs and they were able to email me a login for the online proofs. I have yet to receive a booklet. These pictures were take Oct 3, 2014.
Since I had no indication that my deposit was going to expire, (apparently it in the contract they make you sign at the shoot) it wasn’t a priority to get the pictures right away. I was given no warning that my deposit has expired and if I wanted to order images and get my deposit back it would cost 200 $ …umm ya no thanks.
This is disappointing because not only did I trust in Artona but now that all my siblings are graduating I will have to look for service else were… any recommendations anyone?

Okay … I’m on the fence with this place. When my son had his grad photos done three years ago I had the same experience that I’m having now with my daughter.
The photos turned out great however, I felt a bit resentful due to over pricing for their service. I have a strong feeling they raised their prices because most of the lower mainland schools have contracts with Artona. Forcing parents to be obligated to use them.
Parking (or lack there of) is a nightmare.
Years ago they started to offer a digital shot on CD. Then they started sending out a link to download the photo for the same price. The quality of the digital print cannot be printed larger than a 5×7 or you’ll end up with a fuzzy picture.
Unless Artona changes how they do business … when it’s time to hire a company for wedding photos … It will not be with Artona

Would give negative stars if I could, poor service and confusing products are not the way to success.

All I can say is… avoid this company if you can. Their photography is decent, but be prepared for them to arrange some awkward poses and miss details in amongst the good ones. Be aware that there will be hidden fees and you will pay an exorbitant rate for whatever photos you order. That being said, they are professional and do have very collegial customer service.

If I could give this company a zero, I would. The only reason I would go to this place is because my school leaves me no other option. Photographers were clearly not professionals as the majority of photos turned out looking terrible. Poor lighting, bad direction with poses, etc.
They get you going through different «stations» like they’re herding cows and basically want to get you in and out of there as quickly as possible.
Costs of photos are RIDICULOUS. First off, you need to pay a ridiculous 60 dollar deposit before photos are even taken. Packages start at $ 95 for ONE pose. A single 8×10 is $ 40! I wouldn’t mind paying these prices for QUALITY photos from QUALITY photographers, but seriously? I could probably get better photos if I had asked someone to take them with my phone. On TOP of that, they charge a RIDICULOUS $ 13 «processing and handling» fee. You would think that the $ 60 I am already paying them will cover that. There isn’t even an option for just picking up the photos at the studio.
I don’t understand how they manage to maintain a contract with several schools across the districts. Even my «in-​school» experiences with them have been horrid. The school board really needs to reconsider doing business with this studio and give their students better options.

Its amazing that they have secure contact with the school board to set premium prices for their average quality prints. Its not affordable for students yet there’s no other way of getting the grad pics taken.
Just putting this in perspective for those who haven’t ordered from them before:
I ordered about 6 prints. They say it has to be the S-​A-​M-​E pose for $ 50, and additional $ 18 per pose. Shipping and handling costs another $ 13. With tax, I am looking at a total of about $ 90 for 6 average quality pictures. With better quality and more in quantity, surely it could be accomplished elsewhere for less than half the cost.
VSB, take in consideration of students who can’t afford this & seriously look at other companies who is willing to provide it at a more «reasonable» cost to students. Unless there’s lobbying with additional incentives going on, which does strike many people’s curiosity as to why despite the crazy prices, this company can still secure contracts with the different school districts till this very day.

My review is on their school high school graduation photos. First of all I regret getting my photos taken and then purchasing their digital package which costs over $ 200 dollars. Worst of all, the photos are in JPEG format. To all photographer noobs out there, every one of you all know that JPEG formats are the worst for photos. Having this format means not being able to process photos yourself since data is lost during a compression of the file. No, no! Where is the value in that? Being a cynical bastard, I am immediately pissed off once I leave. The photographers were nice but they all wanted the standard poses and I felt like a number. I had better photos taken by a non-​professional.

Pricing for the pictures are way too high than what they really should be in my opinion. I get that their grad pictures and my niece was happy with hers, however, it was highway robbery. The guy who we initially spoke with was very helpful and the office is gorgeous. There needs to be better pricing hands down.

My daughter’s school district has a contract with them. The price for mediocre photos is outrageous and then to add insult to injury they charge an additional $ 12 processing fee on top of the already over inflated package pricing. Photos looked cheesy and staged, but we wanted a proper cap and gown photo to commemorate our daughter’s big day, so we purchased the smallest package we could.
Our daughter said that the photographer was very unprofessional. I’m writing a letter to the school district to urge them to reconsider the contract and to work with photographers that have more affordable pricing structures. In this day and age we are over run with photography businesses. Time to break away from stodgy old Artona

Bad lighting, bad photos. Not one was straight. The previews on-​line and in the booklet were impossible to judge because the images were so small compared to the backgrounds. Complaints have not been handled well. The sitting was booked for 7 and actually started at 9. They take crappy photos and then have the nerve to charge you for touch-​ups. Scam, scam, scam. You’d be better off going to a photo-​booth.

My review is based on the ‘service’ they provide to the schools. It seems like a bit of a racket — they take the go-​card photo, and you have the option to buy a package. More and more I see people opting out, or opting for the smallest packages. I think that they could sell way more packages if they had some reasonably priced ones! If you have to pinch pennies or more than 1 child in school it really adds up quick.
You don’t get very good value for your money.
Some packages you can get a ‘deal’ if you pre-​purchase, but you can only purchase in advance online by credit card — no paypal, no interac… credit card only…
Photos are good quality and the photographers are friendly and experienced at taking a good photo as you would expect from a professional portrait studio… at least as good as Sears or wherever lol.
They put their watermark on your prints! The largest prints we ordered all had a little annoying ‘artona’ on the front. That’s just wrong.
If they didn’t have this go-​card deal with the high schools they wouldn’t see half the business they do.
I can’t wait til graduation year… I hear that’s when they really sock it to ya.

Pros: Super friendly, awesome photographers!
Cons: Super unfriendly receptionist.
The quality of service at the front desk was awful. They were very rude, were chatting loudly to each other while there were customers waiting for them to finish. They spoke of personal affairs and gossiped, it was like out of a tv show. Very unprofessional.
However, the photographers were amazing, very knowledgeable, friendly, and good at their jobs. They always made sure you would look your best, fixing your tie or a stray strand of hair without you having to ask. They would also show you a preview of your photos to see if you liked them. They were also efficient and quick, but did not sacrifice quality in any way. They’ve been working all day to 11pm, but were still very happy and pleasant, though I’m sure they were very tired.
Front desk, please learn a thing or two from the photographers.

I graduated from the University of Calgary, and like all people who graduated that year, Artona photographed us. I did an additional sitting with them for $ 15 plus a $ 60 deposit. As a photographer myself, I know a thing or two about how pictures should be taken. They had an umbrella, but they shot with the lens open about half way. In the technical jargon, they shot with a mid-​range aperture instead of a wide aperture. Portraits are best shot with wide aperture, or with the lens wide open. The flash reversed any softening (of shadows) that was present as the result of the umbrella. The lighting was so bad that I had to photoshop in my degree, (it was illegible without changing the colour tones. When I changed the colour tones, the whole image became posterized, meaning there were discreet bands of colour instead of a continuous blend. This happens when you need to do too much manipulation of colours. I will move on to other problems with their post processing later, but I have more gripes about the shots, and a ton about how they are packaged. They shot every grad walking across the stage, but we stood on an X on the stage and got our picture taken holding the diploma. There were no instructions for how to pose so that we actually looked good with our diplomas, and everyone was shot with exactly the same settings. How do I know? The exposure was completely wrong! If they had metered correctly (a process that photographers use to determine what settings they need on their cameras for any given picture,) they would not have needed a flash, reducing hard shadows, and my pictures on the stage wouldn’t have been completely overexposed (that is, having a whitish glow to them.) I also shook the president’s hand. No picture of that. No picture of shaking the chancellor’s hand either. Just one of me standing doe-​eyed on a mark, and one of me standing against a tie-​dye backdrop. Honestly, have these people not heard of continuous auto-​focus, or at worse focus bracketing (taking multiple exposures at slightly different focal lengths to zero in the focus) and manual focus? They did this for every other graduating class but mine.
Next, I had to actually buy the prints, because I already had a deposit down and they had the only shots of me on the stage. I figured I could work with a couple shots of the sitting, and a shot of me on the stage. However, I was given two codes to log in to their website and order prints. I had a little trouble logging in to either of them at first, but was ultimately able to see them both. On each one of them, there were only either the sitting shots or the shots they took while I was crossing the stage. I didn’t want to pay them for prints or to do post-​processing that I could do myself, so I wanted to order all the shots on one CD. I was never given an option to do this, nor to combine shots from both sessions, which by the way I was told I would be able to do when I paid for the sitting. I talked to customer service a number of times. While I got a prompt reply in each case it was clear that their primary concern was with their bottom line and not my experience or the quality of the end product I received. I asked them about a $ 13 fee for processing that they tacked onto my order, (and I now realize it was a mistake to give them any money at all.) I was just ordering a CD and I wanted it shipped with standard mail as I wouldn’t see it for at least a month anyway. I was told that they charged the $ 13 fee to everybody because it covers the cost of post-​processing (or basic photo editing.) When I opened my CD, it said right on it that no post-​processing was done. I should have sent it back then, but by that time my deposit was non-​refundable. I don’t know what their actual studio in Vancouver is like, but judging by my experiences, they are unprofessional and not as artistic as the name Artona would seem to suggest. I think you could train a chimp to take better shots. For whatever reason you’re there, if you decide to go there after what I hope was a scathing review, be prepared to be overcharged and disappointed. The only memories you will get from these people are just how much you resent their low quality shots. If ever a company deserved to go out of business, this is one.
If you are a decision maker at a high-​school or university and these guys are competing for a contract, I urge you to strongly consider my review. You will be dealing with amateurs who charge like pros.

Parking is a nightmare, use transit instead. Book your appointment early in the day before its invaded by highschoolers. Bring an assertive friend you trust to coach you– the photogs and props tend toward the 90’s-chic so having someone there to say, «no, you are NOT going to hold a giant crayon» can make or break your session.