Keane Studios

We were told that we had to go online and make an appt right away for my son’s senior pictures. So I paid online and made the appt. We got there 20 minutes early and stood outside in the hot sun waiting to have pictures taken for a 6:30 appt and no one was there. The door was locked and no one answered the phone. We waited until 7:00 and then left, a total of 50 minutes! Not sure what happened, but we are not happy! It is not a good start to having to pay an exorbitant price for pictures.

This place is a huge scam and a big rip off! The cheapest thing is $ 295 for one digital image… thats crazy

Bill Keane does not prioritize customer satisfaction.
Good luck trying to get a phone call into the store answered.
The only silver lining in this business is his head photographer, David. David is knowledgeable, caring, and friendly.
Other than David, how does this place stay in business?
If customer service and responsiveness is important to you, I would not choose this company.

For a better idea of how much of a ripoff this place is, look at Kathy B.‘s review. It does an excellent job of showing how exorbitant the prices are here.
While the pictures here look nice, the partnership this place has with SDUHSD is ridiculous. We are required to get our senior photos taken here for the yearbook due to their contract. The most affordable option is available for the deceptively cheap price of $ 49. You are given a sales pitch days after the photoshoot when you are finally allowed to view your photos — thankfully, you can skip the sales pitch for $ 125!
The only other option for students who are unable to afford Keane Studios or refuse to buy into their cheap business tactics are to get their picture taken for free without editing or the option to personally select the picture that they want to be included in the yearbook.

I have to say that I am completely shocked that there is even one negative review of Keane Studios on Unilocal!Bill Keane is an incredibly gifted photographer. He takes his work seriously and is a talented artist as well as a genuinely nice man.
I have used Bill repeatedly to photograph my entire family, for two rounds of senior portraits, for bunny/​duck photos (I took my teenagers to do this and it was great!). Bill has personally gone out of his way to accommodate me with photography sessions at my home, at a horse ranch, and at a variety of other not-​so-​easy locations with no extra charge and always with a smile. I have also worked with his staff photographers who are professional, friendly, and good at what they do.
In the age of digital photography, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for photographers to sell their service and products. Many people would prefer to snap and print their own photos. I do my fair share of this, as my background is in graphic design and art (including digital imaging). Also, I don’t have an unlimited budget. However, when I want a truly professional photograph, I always use Keane Studios. Of course it’s more expensive to have a professional photographer, professional retouching, and high quality printing. I feel that Bill charges a reasonable price for the level of professionalism and quality that I have always received from his studio. Everyone who comes to my home comments on the photos that he has taken and I never hesitate to recommend Keane Studios.
I respect that others may have different opinions of Keane Studios, but please don’t hesitate to give this studio a chance to provide you with beautiful photos at industry standard (or below) pricing. This is a family business and they truly care about what they do. They connect with other families and go out of their way to ensure complete satisfaction with their products and services.

We have been working with Bill since 2012. We have loved every single piece of work he has produced of our boys. He is incredibly professional and very easy to work with.
One of my favorite photo shoots he does is during Easter time with the baby bunnies and chicks. The boys absolutely love this photo shoot and the pictures turn out great. Most people who see these photos of my boys ask me where we took them and I always say Keane Studios! I would highly recommend.

I took my son for the Easter special to take pictures with the bunnies and ducks. The pictures turned out ok. It was a cute memory, something unique (2 stars), but the quality wasn’t anything better than I would have received at another studio at a much cheaper price (–2 stars).
Especially when dealing with kids, a toddler in my case, you shouldn’t be rushed and should be experienced at making children feel comfortable. It was not a warm or welcoming environment (–1 star).

Keane Studios is a wonderful picturesque studio with talented people. They took my son’s angel baby pictures and mother and son portraits almost 20 years ago. I came back to have them do my son’s graduation photos last year and a family portrait (dog included.) I drove from Santee as I was not going to get the same quality from the local photographer. They did a beautiful, inspirational layout. It was worth every penny, trust me. If you want artful work, this is your studio. Thank you Bill Keane for all of your dedication.

The 1 star is not based on the quality of the photos, it is for their prices and sales tactic. In short, they offer reasonable sitting fees to suck you in, then charge you outrageous prices for prints and digital images and because they are contracted with SDUHSD there is no other choice for senior yearbook photos.
They also had a contract with my church for my son’s First Communion and I ordered 20 regular prints, 4×4 or 5×5 I forget which, which were supposed to be of my son standing out front of the church.
What they sent me was 20 candid unretouched, unflattering prints of my son at the altar. It was my bad on the form but in my defense the form was very confusing. This was 10 years ago and I spent $ 500 on prints that I did not want but they wouldn’t budge, I was hoping for a discount on the prints I had intended to order but they offered nothing and it was just too much money to order a second time.
Keane Studios takes photos of graduating seniors at all 6 SDUHSD high schools. They’ve had an exclusive contract since 1995. Once your student completes their junior year you will receive an email telling you to reserve your photo session right away, offering a discount on the sitting fee if you reserve early.
The sitting fees are reasonable and vary from $ 24 (for unretouched photos taken in the studio) to $ 149(½ hour in the studio + ½ hour session taken at a preselected location of your choice after July 15). There is a free option if you want an unretouched yearbook photo only with no prints, but this information is not obvious and most parents don’t realize this option is available.
After your session they try hard to get you into the studio to order, and they charge you for not placing your order in person. If you want to view your photos online before the face-​to-​face meeting, there is an $ 80 charge. If you want to order without the face-​to-​face meeting, you must pay $ 125 for the privilege. Both of these charges can be applied to your order.
On the Keane Seniors website session reservation form, it states:
«The most efficient method to view and order is at the studio ten days after your session. We will guide you through the process of selecting your images, show you available sizes and help create the best combination for your family.
If you prefer to see the images online before your appointment, please add an $ 80 deposit (applicable to your order) to your session fee. If you’d prefer to view online for ten days, then place your order by phone, please select the $ 125 deposit option below.»
So you have to pay $ 125 if you want to avoid their sales presentation.
Giclee quality print price range:
$ 395 ea 11×14
$ 545 ea 12×16
up to…
$ 1895 ea 30×50
Collage:
$ 295 for 10×20
$ 795 for 17×30
Classic quality prints:
$ 295 for 3 8×10 or smaller from 1 image
$ 75 each additional 8×10
$ 45 to change poses
$ 195 ea for 9×12
$ 295 ea for 11×14
$ 45 add-​on for 8 wallets
Downloadable low-​res retouched digital images:
$ 295 for 12 low-​res images suitable for profile pics
$ 30 ea additional low-​res image
Downloadable hi-​res retouched digital images 2400×3000 (not full camera resolution):
$ 495 for 3 images
$ 695 for 6 images
$ 75 ea additional unretouched image
$ 95 ea additional retouched image
$ 995 for all session images
Keane offers a small discount if you purchase your prints sight unseen at the time of the sitting.
At graduation, Keane sets up directly in front of the stage so they are able to get photos of your graduate receiving their diploma. The schools sell all of the good seats for $ 50 a seat so no matter how early you get there, if you didn’t buy yourself a seat there is pretty much no chance you will be able to take photos of your graduate unless you bring a telephoto and a ladder. From where I was sitting, the Keane photographer was directly in my line of sight to the state so that even with a telephoto I was unable to get an unobstructed photo of the stage. On the plus side, I had a great view of the photographer’s back.
After graduation you will get an email from Keane offering you the option to purchase a candid unretouched digital photo of your graduate receiving their diploma, the price for this downloadable single image in 2012 was $ 42.12 with tax.
There are over 2000 seniors in SDUHSD at any given time so do the math, with a captive audience and no competion, this is a cash cow for Keane, they’ve held this exclusive contract now for 20 years.

WHAT AN AMAZING PLACE! I have been working with Bill and his team since my first son was born. I love pictures and take a lot of them and Keane studios has taken the most adorable pictures of our babies. The staff is so easy to work with. They are great with children and take amazing pictures. I highly recommend them if you are looking to capture your life’s sweetest moments!!!
With all due respect — the comments left by other reflecting a negative experience. I cannot imagine any of that happening.
This place and Bill are truly amazing and worth every penny!

Can you say «rip off» … this place is way too expensive for what you get. And they are very unreasonable on negotiating a solution to problems. Save yourself a big hassle and go somewhere else.

STOP!!! First, you do NOT have to use them for your senior pictures!
It is not easy to find out especially with all their propaganda but you can have your picture taken in October by them, at the school. You do NOT have to buy their pictures.
now the real review:
Pros:
I guess located in the middle of SD county (Del Mar). If you do go there so you can grossly overpay for pictures they have a beautiful outdoor setting. Basically a well kept hotel courtyard setting.
Cons:
1 picture= $ 375-​. I got suckered into the $ 85 sitting fee before knowing I didn’t have to use them (my fault). Amateur photography. Picture of my son sitting down on a chair left a foot of empty space above him and cut off his Letterman jacket. That’s photo 101. A 45 min session is 44min and get out…
No joke, Sears, Target, Walmart would do a better job. Keane Studios gives a financial kickback to the schools for using them.
Any positive feedback, is from someone connected to Keane.

I find this company truly egregious in their efforts to fleece students and their families for photos. I don’t know how they have been able to lock up the contract for the San Dieguito school system. I hope the school board will reconsider their contract and based on the extremely poor reviews for this company, there are many more parents that agree with me.
First off, their prices are so high that only the most obsessive parents (or those emotionally vulnerable) are likely to order the senior portraits. For my daughter’s senior picture, she took the required photo for the yearbook at Keane but rather than pay the exorbitant price to order a set of prints, we hired a professional photographer to come to our house for a complete photo session. We then ordered a set of prints and the total cost was still less that Keane’s price for a comparable set of prints! And with a private photographer, we got an hour-​long session with multiple settings, indoor and out. At Keane, it’s like a cattle call where they usher kids in and out with about a 5 minute session with only one backdrop. I would urge parents to explore alternate options before booking senior portraits with Keane (and I can even recommend a photographer if you send me a request!).
The latest example of their egregious behavior is with the graduation pictures taken at the ceremony this last Friday. Since you have to sit so far away at the Torrey Pines ceremony, it’s virtually impossible to get a photo of your kid receiving their diploma. The only way to get the photo, of course, is through Keane. So I went to order the photo this morning and the lowest priced option for the one photo is $ 18. OK that seemed fairly reasonable and since it’s a once in a lifetime thing, I figure it’s worth it. But when you go to check out on their website, they make the minimum order $ 20. So in other words, the minimum order is $ 36. This is a perfect example of the behavior I find so distasteful. In their effort to appear reasonable, they make the photo packages $ 18 but by making the minimum order $ 2 more than that, they are using a backhanded approach to make the lowest priced package $ 36. Why be so sneaky? Why not be up front with the actual price to order? The answer, I firmly believe, is that they are fully aware of the outrageous price for their photos and have found an effective tactic to convince emotionally vulnerable parents into indulging in photos of their child’s achievement. While this practice is perfectly legal, I find it morally wrong.
This company has a dishonorable approach to business. I urge all parents to boycott buying their photos and make their displeasure known so the school board reviews their practices.

My daughter loves bunnies so last year I was beyond excited when I saw the bunny photo shoot offer for Easter time. The staff was friendly and we ended up with amazing pictures for the grandparents.
I decided to do it again this year and had a much different experience. Even though we were repeat customers (who spent way too much in the past), we were not treated nearly as well this time. I felt like we were rushed out the door and the photographer did not take as many pictures as he did last year. When I came in to pick out the prints, I asked for the same package that I had ordered the previous year. They did not tell me that it no longer included the disc with the ten images I liked which was half the reason I went back to them. After paying a lot of money two years in a row, I had thought that maybe they would offer me a discount so I could get the disc. Nope. I will never go back to them after this. Way to let down a repeat customer.

I was suckered into going here for a bunny session with a Groupon offer. I will not be going back nor will I recommend this studio to my friends.
The session was a little fun and lasted all of 15 – 20 minutes. My daughter was enjoying the bunnies and ducks. But, the PRICES are outrageous! I almost didn’t buy anything, but how could I resist my cute daughter with cute baby animals?! Anyway, I didn’t want to spend more than $ 250 and all I got were 5 PRINTS of 2 poses. I would have rather had the digital photos but they were only offered with higher priced packages with all the junk I didn’t want or need. And the price for all of the digitals…$ 850!
I paid $ 250 to have my daughter’s 6 month photos done on location and received a disc of all edited images. I have also since noticed another studio has discs for $ 150 for all images.
Keane studios needs to get with the times and offer more affordable digital options!

It’s hard to review these guys because I’m so in the middle.
Pros: Really cute pictures with amazing little Easter animals. My girls had an amazing time holding a duckling, a chick, and a baby bunny. The pictures captured the joy they felt.
Cons: The price! I had no idea that pictures could be this much. To get all of pics. on a CD is in the thousands. Seriously. That much. If you get the original, untouched pics. on a CD it’s right around $ 850. I did not know this going in.
The building is absolutely gorgeous, the people were nice, and the pics. are adorable. If I were made of money, I’d break ‘em off some and buy all sorts of packages here at Keane. If you are not looking to spend a couple grand, you best keep on shopping for a photographer.

My wife and I took them up on a promotional offer and we were really impressed with the some of the «playdate» photos they took with an Easter theme. However, the user experience and business processes they use for actually selecting and ordering the photos are pretty ridiculous.
We had to use some special code to log into an archaic website and only had a limited time to view our portraits before ordering.
When my wife tried repeatedly to call the studio about getting a new code, she was constantly sent to voicemail and her calls were almost never returned. Then, when they finally gave us a new access code, it still didn’t work.
Remember, we were at the point in the purchase process where we were sitting at our computer with our credit card out ready to spend money. This should have been mind-​numbingly easy at this point.
Once we finally did order the prints we wanted (which were pretty expensive in my opinion), we were told it would take a couple of months to get them. We won’t even have them in time to use for our annual family calendar.
I mean… 2 months???
Please.
1982 called and it wants its portrait purchasing process back.
Anyway, we liked the pictures, but will never use this studio again because of their poor customer service and painful ordering process. The level of inefficiency in every phase was stunning.

I had a poor experience with this studio from beginning to end.
1) I was asked to choose from 3 dates for my daughter’s sitting. This was at the beginning of Febuary. Even though I was told they would tell me my date in a few days, I didn’t receive an e-​mail until *March*.
2) We arrived a few minutes early for my appointment, and when we arrived they were still photographing the family of three before us. This continued for another twenty minutes into my session time while I tried to keep my curious 3 year old occupied and from messing up her dress. Bill did not acknowledge me once even though he kept looking at me. When it was my turn, no one apologized for keeping me waiting for almost 30 minutes. Finally, the real insult was that my daughter’s shoot was barely 10 minutes because they were running behind!
3) Their prices are OUTRAGEOUS! I worked at a high-​end studio for years, and the profit margin this studio is making is over the moon. I say that a business has the right to charge whatever they want, but Keane studios also uses aggressive and underhanded techniques to try and force your hand. Each of their highly overpriced packages are generally only for one pose, forcing you to buy mulitiple ones. If you spend $ 70 for a single digital file ($ 400 for all your session photos), what you receive are low-​res images that are only good for Facebook, again forcing you to purchase prints. Prints, btw, start at $ 95! My photos were only online for five days and they don’t allow you to order from their website. You have to call them or what they really want is for you to come in for a session with their salesman so they can upsell you on their larger packages. I was badgered on the phone when I tried to place a small order since I wasn’t about to pay their crazy prices.
(For a regular photoshoot, you apparently have to pay $ 195 to have your images put online for a week, btw.)
4) After everything, my image is completely unretouched with muddy colors and obvious smudge marks on the floor. Color correction is the bare minimum that should be done for all photos and takes less than a moment. As would removing the smudges. I know, it’s what I do professionally. Oh, and they charged me $ 10 to mail one photo that apparently they assume weighs as much as a dictionary.
Easily the worst experience I have ever had having portraits taken, and I’ve had them done everywhere. Perhaps I’m over-​sensitive, but we just did a large family (10 people) shoot with an amazing photographer named Alex Calegari. Alex shot us for an extra thirty minutes without charging more, gave us all our beautiful images on dvd, and put them on a website charging very fair prices for prints (about $ 9 for an 8×10). All this for $ 99. It’s hard to go from that to an experience like I had with Keane Studios.
All I’m saying is shop around. You can do SO much better, even at very well established studios.

I would not recommend this studio or use them again.
I did the bunny portrait sitting for Easter. Got a call saturday (the day before easter) that my portraits would be ready for pickup in the next three hours or I could come in sometime next week. Seriously? Why book a bunny portrait sitting if you can’t deliver the product prior to easter? When I asked at the time of order if they would be ready prior to the holiday she looked at me like I was asking for the impossible. My advice is if you use them for a christmas photo be sure to book it sometime in september.
The pricing is outrageous. It’s the most I have ever paid and I walked away not ordering half of what I wanted. Would have spent more money if the pricing schedule was not so skewed towards expensive packages with touchups.
I had to make three trips to the studio– one for the sitting, one to view and order (can’t you do this online?), and then one to pick up the three photos I ordered (I spent nearly $ 200).
The photographer and his wife are great with kids, they are very nice, and they take their time, but after I was kept waiting for over 15 min for the sitting and then the viewing, I took some time to look at the work. It’s standard portrait work. And nice does not make up for everything else.
Please work with your office staff, I found them to be as the other reviewer mentioned, pretentious. Like it’s an honor for me to do business with you.
I thought long and hard about leaving a negative review– it’s my first, but my overall experience really left me feeling like I was treated poorly and just did not receive the level of service/​product for the effort and money.

WOW! WOW! WOW!!!
I love Keane Studios.
They are so professional and so incredibly nice and amazing here! they do such a wonderful job handling their customers and making themselves so presentable.
This studio is so nice since they moved and got a new location. don’t get me wrong, the old location was nice as well, but this new location is just set in a wonderful building.
Bill Keane is an amazing photographer and just an incredible man to work with.