Top Class Portraits™

Bring your own digital camera and photograph family and friends.

Portrait Club

Top Class Portraits™ | Portrait Club Athens Tennessee

Portrait Club, full service portrait & wedding photography studio & digital photo lab

Photography and portrait club in Athens, Tennessee.

SCHEDULE APPOINTMENT FORM

John is a full-time professional photographer with full service studio & digital photo lab.

BBB Rating A+ over 22 years.

Portrait Club membership entitles you to these member benefits:

All your chosen portrait sessions at 10% discount.
All photographic prints from the Top Class Portraits™ digital design photo lab so you may pick-up print order at studio next business day at 10% discount.
Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Portrait Session for club members only. Use your own digital slr or mirrorless camera and have one full hour to shoot in the studio and/or Portrait Park outdoors behind the studio. John will be your assistant and if needed your on-site trainer. Photograph family and friends and save $$ with the DIY portrait session! As many poses and clothing changes which can be fit in one hour. (You may shoot with the green screen but green screen processing includes one green screen shot). FIRST Do-It-Yourself portrait session INCLUDED free with membership. Each DIY Portrait Session priced at $50.
Certain fine-art portrait props & backgrounds are made exclusively available to Portrait Club members only.
Also with membership, ordering of photographic prints from your own JPEGs you upload to Top Class Portraits™ with next business day service at 10% discount off regular prices. These may be images you have shot outdoors while on vacation or whatever.
Portrait club members may also schedule Portrait Training Sessions. Each session up to one hour. Must be at least three portrait club members participating per session. This may be scheduled once a month at no extra charge. Included with your Portrait Club membership.
Save family and friends 10% off their very first Deluxe Portrait Session when you refer them to us. This Introductory discount available only through Portrait Club members.
Option to participate in the Top Class Portraits™ PHOTON Rewards Program.
Option to participate as an assistant or 2nd shooter wedding photographer for training purposes when John is booked to photograph a wedding and bride gives permission for wedding photography training.

Portrait Club membership $120 annually.

(Your $120 annual membership fee is invested in the studio so all our portrait club members may enjoy NEW props and backgrounds throughout the year. Membership fee also helps pay for maintenance and other operational expenses). PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS who wish to RENT THE STUDIO per portrait session may do so through Portrait Club membership. No monthly studio rental fee. You are simply sharing a studio and everyone just pays towards rent per each portrait session we shoot. ($50 an hour includes photo assistant).

ONE green screen post-production processing is available without additional charge with the DIY Portrait Session. You may select from among hundreds of digital backgrounds for one green screen shot during the DIY Portrait Session. Any additional green screen shots processed by John are $10 each. Processed and delivered to you via your personal Portrait Club online gallery where you may view and download. You may upload your green screen shots for processing using the Contact Form.

Portrait Club members may have your own photographer page hosted here on the Top Class Portraits™ website. This is done for Top Class Portraits™ photographers, amateur photographers as well as professional photographers working under your own business license. Example photographer webpage.

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Session for Portrait Club Members Only

DIY Session in the studio only. Do you have a serious shutterbug in the family? Think you might like to let him or her do family portraits for you at our portrait studio? Top Class Portraits™ is available for studio rental per session as a shared studio.

One hour you get use of the studio camera room, backgrounds, studio flash, pro photographer assisting you with your shoot. Just have to bring and use your own camera. No other fees. All images stay on your own camera card so we don't take your images or provide any enhancements and do not post on a Google Drive album. The images are all yours. Portrait Club members do not use the computer in office to show photos. You may shoot with the green screen but green screen post-production processing is NOT included except for ONE image. Any additional green screen shots you would like processed by John are $10 each.

Shoot as many shots and poses as you want during the Do-It-Yourself session! So you can also save money and get high quality photos if you have a friend or family member who enjoys photographing people.

DIY Portrait Session Price $50.

Fine Art Portrait Theme Set-Ups

All Portrait Themes provided exclusively to Portrait Club members. They are not seasonal specific and are good for all year around creative portraiture. Portrait Theme Set-Ups will consist of several props, specific lighting arrangements and the particular background which takes a significant amount of time to get all set-up. For these reasons, Portrait Theme Set-Ups are limited to ONE theme set-up per portrait session. This also is another reason why scheduling portrait appointment in advance is extremely important. It allows the photographer to have your requested Portrait Theme Set-Up ready before start of your portrait session. More themes to be added soon. Portrait Club members merely has to schedule a Do-It-Yourself Portrait Session to take advantage of this membership benefit.

Portrait Club | Theme #1

This theme pictured is available exclusively for Portrait Club members. It may be used in any of the portrait sessions I offer but only for Portrait Club members. For convenience, this Portrait theme is identified as Theme #1.

Photo Credit: Tara Lindley Photography based in Boise, Idaho.

Portrait Theme #2

Cherry Blossom. As you can see in example, this is beautiful for maternity. But also may be used for father & baby, glamour and boudoir. Only our imaginations will limit the creative uses of this background.

Portrait Theme #3

Rusty Brown Door. Depending on how you, your photographer or how I light this background and subject(s), there are a variety of ways of creatively using this for all year around images. (Senior, model and teens among popular uses).

The Background

Example Image

Portrait Theme #4

Balloon Portraits. This theme is available. I already have the backgrounds, floors, cake stands and props to do the "Balloon Portrait" session.

Birthday Cake

Birthday

Birthday Cake Smash

First Year

Photo Credit: Tara Lindley Photography based in Boise, Idaho.

Portrait Theme #5

This theme coming soon. Up to total of five themes to become available.

Package Printing

In order to offer the greatest value in professional portraiture, I've decided to strike a balance between quantity and quality. So I'm offering package printing of images ordered from my Digital Design Studio. The price includes next day service so your order may be picked up at the studio by the next business day. If you plan how you order these photographic package prints, you will have little if any wasted images. But still I hope to be offering a greater value than what you may find elsewhere. Each photo sheet may only be printed from one image. I offer more package printing options than what is pictured below.

While you may find online photo labs and maybe even other local labs which offer lower pricing, you will not receive the custom quality work that I provide you for the price. Attention to detail makes all the difference in the quality photographs you will receive. Another advantage of my Package Printing service for my Portrait Club members is that you don't have to have the JPEG from your session already done. I can usually apply requested "creative filters" later after session was shot. So you may, for example, order a sheet of eight wallets with a creative filter effect that was not included with your portrait session. If I can apply any creative filter(s) within one minute, there is no extra charge. Same for any basic retouching. Less than a minute for me to do, there is no extra charge.

- John

Sepia toned. Blurred vignette. Lens flare. Didn't take over one minute to apply so no extra charge. Lens flare is a filter effect to enhance some studio portraits where a hair light was used.

Photographic Package Printing: All on 8½" x 11" Inkjet Lustre Photo Paper

The Same Digital Photo is Printed Per Sheet. Only ONE digital photo per package sheet.

Sheet of Eight 3½x2½ Wallets

Sheet of One 5x7 & Four 3½x2½ Wallets

Three 4x6s

5x7 & Four Wallets

Three Wallets & Two 4x6s

Sheet of Two 5x7s

Sheet of One 5x7 & Two 4x5s

Black & White Photography

My first photo lab business was purely a black & white photo lab. Serving professional photographers all over the United States. I'm a stickler about printing true black & white images. Back then in my film and chemical days, I was printing with Aristo cold light enlarger heads. The Aristo enlarger heads didn't put out heat which would often cause a film negative to buckle under traditional enlarger light causing focus issues on paper. Also the Aristo light minimized the appearance of dust specks on prints.

Printing color film on Kodak Panalure photo paper and on a variety of multi-contrast b&w papers from various manufacturers. Ansel Adams and the zone system were my heroes. Today, my goal is creating black & white photographic prints with all eleven zones between the whitest whites to the blackest of blacks truly represented where possible. Real B&W. I do NOT like so-called B&W photographs which are muddy zones of grey.

Black & White