Photo Studios – There is a Little Bit of Celebrity in Everyone

Though photo studies may exist back home, they certainly don’t exist in as great a variety as they do in Tianjin. Such studios can be found in almost every major shopping area which I have stumbled across so far. Their staff are talented in photography, photoshop, photographic printing and of course, customer service. Many of such shops specialize in wedding photography but not the same kind of wedding photography that one is used to back in the west. Couples come to the studio and purchase photo packages which specify the types of prints which will be made after their photo session. After the arrangements are sorted out, multiple costumes are donned and the couple visits various locales or sets in the studio to have a professional photographer snap shots of them while they pose. The costumes range from traditional asian clothing styles (Chinese, Korean, Indian and etc) to modern, funky and eccentric. These photos are enhanced using photoshop and are then transformed to fit various print formats. Some can be printed on rug-like wall-hangings, large format glossy prints on wood, inset in glass ornaments and countless other presentation styles. A very popular medium is to arrange photos artistically against a backdrop and to print them out in a large format hard-cover book with rigid cardboard pages. I have yet to see photos taken by professional photographers at actual wedding events! Even at the wedding I attended, such a photo studio book was passed around during the ceremony and there were no professional photographers in attendance.

Similar photo studies exist for people who just want to dress up, try a few poses and create albums to help them commemorate their younger years. These studious are capable of churning out final products that are worthy of the glossy pages of fashion magazines. My colleague Yolanda took me to a photo studio which specialized in such albums. Here, she showed me the photos they took – the effects that were applied to them were simply breathtaking! The photo studio was quite an eclectic place. It was located near a major shopping area in a former concession building that had been converted to suite the studio’s purposes. There were even two greyhound dogs that lived in the studio who were often featured in many of the studio’s works to add variety. When we visited, one was away at the at a beach locale for one of the studio’s photography expeditions. The decorations inside were a mix of both the modern and the antiquated with some unique Victorian features that were retained from the original building. Here, Yolanda browsed her album on one of the studio’s computers and recommended some changes to be made. Meanwhile, two employees staffed the computers around us and continued with their work. Here, I was given the chance to see them in action as they enhanced the original photographs. Fingers flew and mouse clicks were abundant as pictures were refined, clipped, shifted and placed into their final artistic templates. After Yolanda was satisfied with her recommendations, I got the chance to chip in an opinion or two before we left the studio. It would take two weeks to make the changes requested and get the final copy printed. In the meantime, Yolanda was given the electronic versions of the photograph which you see up on the blog. The prices of these albums were quite reasonable as well, it seems that looking like a celebrity is not confined only to the realms of the super-rich and famous.