Portrait sessions are tailored for each individual and his or her needs. The first step is a free consultation with Krish to discuss the goals of your photo session, and which kind of session is right for you. At this meeting, he will walk you through the entire process.

An Overview of the Experience

The time and duration of the session itself will depend on what you and Krish decide together. He will work with your schedule, and can meet you at your home, at a park, or in studio with time reserved especially for you. You’ll discuss display options, and talk with Krish about your home, your family, and the space you have reserved for beautiful wall art. Krish only uses high-quality photo paper, archival mats, and elegant frames and materials to showcase all final art, and prefers to deliver it to your home personally.

Types of Sessions

Children & Families

Kids grow up so fast! Before you know it, your child goes from feisty toddler, to energetic young athlete, to high school graduate. Treasure each memory by preserving your child’s and family’s milestones as beautiful photographs. While clients often have tons of informal snapshots taken on a phone or digital camera, they usually don’t have photographs worthy of recognizing and celebrating the milestones and precious moments in their family’s lives.

Krish’s children’s and family portrait sessions aim to artistically and thoughtfully capture those images for fine heirloom quality prints. Having a visual timeline of you, your kids, your parents, or your grandparents blessing the walls, dressers, hallways, and mantle of your home is priceless beyond mere words. Krish will take the same care in creating images, just as you care for your family. The prints, framing, and other products used by Krish are fine, archival quality, and meant to last for generations.

Session fees start at $150. Contact Krish for custom pricing options.

A Personal Branding session with Krish can take two possible forms, Basic Headshots and Signature Sessions.

Basic Headshots

Basic Headshots have been used for decades by actors and models to get work and apply for roles. Now, headshots are increasingly needed by all professionals and executives across industries for social media profiles, speaking engagements, and website bio photos. This package includes a session focused on the head area with 3-6 traditional poses, one outfit, and one lighting setup. Sessions start at $150 for a ½ hour session and includes basic retouching for one image you select out after your session. A final, high resolution digital image file is delivered that can be printed at your local lab or at home along with a file suitable for use on social media channels such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Clients may extend their Basic Headshot session with other options.

Signature Session

Krish’s Signature Session goes beyond the traditional headshot. These images allow you to establish your personal brand. With this session, Krish offers expert brand styling and guides you with wardrobe, props, and setting choices that will convey your unique brand to the world. The Signature Session is the equivalent of a magazine cover shot, where a person is spotlighted for an interview. In addition to use on social media, websites, or promotional materials, many of these images also work well for wall office or home wall portraits if combined with framing and mounting services that Krish also offers.

It includes:

  • Up to one hour of shooting time
  • Unlimited poses, focusing on the head, and extending to bust- and full-length
  • 2 outfits (i.e, 1 outfit change)
  • Multiple locations if possible
  • Varied lighting setups as needed
  • 3 final images
  • Detailed retouching for each final image

Session fees start at $150. Contact Krish for custom pricing options.

Women’s sessions can take two possible forms: Beauty & Glamour portraits, and Boudoir sessions.

Beauty & Glamour Portraits

More and more people are turning to glamour portraits as a way to express their personal image in this age of digital and social media. They are seeking something far more sophisticated than the selfie shot to present themselves to the world. No longer is a professional photo shoot reserved for aristocrats, socialites, and the like. We can all be “stars” in the movies of our lives. Glamour images are conceptual in nature and truly showcase your inner self. In your initial consultation with Krish, he will learn about you, your personality, and your goals about what story you want to tell with your images. Beauty & Glamour portraits are all about capturing your sexy & sultry look, like the smokey-eyed blond from a noir film.

Boudoir Portraits

Boudoir sessions are similar to Glamour, but are more sensual and typically intended for intimate, personal use. These portraits can be a fun gift to yourself or your partner and an elegant way to express your seductive side. Black and white or color, the process is essentially the same: Krish will guide your wardrobe and room decoration choices, discuss the setting and purpose, try to understand your motivation for this special session, and discuss options for displaying such intimate imagery. When you see yourself at the end, you will never doubt how beautiful you truly are!

Session fees start at $150. Contact Krish for custom pricing options.

The Details: What to Expect

Initial Consultation. After you first contact Krish via the site, or by phone, if you decide to move forward, he’ll schedule your free Initial Consultation. You and he will meet face-to-face, and sit down for anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour to discuss your photography session. Krish is happy to come to your home for this, no charge whatsoever. The important thing here is to talk. Really talk. He’ll ask questions, and so should you. He wants to get to know a little bit of your family history, how you view portraiture, whether you’ve ever had a custom photographic experience, and more. During this initial consultation, he’ll walk you through his session options and pricing. Krish will bring samples to give you choices of displaying your final images, and touch and feel the quality materials that Krish uses. Once he’s answered any questions, you and he can schedule a pre-shoot planning, and reserve a time for the actual photo session too.

Pre-Shoot Planning. With the possible exception of basic headshots, this is a very important step. It is the first time that you start to get in-depth with wardrobe, styling, and the final look you’d like to achieve. Armed with the information from your initial consultation, he’ll bring set ideas or locales that he’s researched, and sketch out some options for telling your story. It’s important that you bring your own thoughts and ideas to this session, and be ready to co-design with Krish. This is a collaborative meeting! Before he leaves, Krish will confirm the time you reserved for your actual session.

Your Photo Session. Some time before the day of your session, Krish will call you for a brief chat to make sure you’re ready for the big day. If you’ve reserved a hair and make-up artist, you should arrive with your wardrobe in tow, but dressed in more casual clothes. Otherwise, if you’re doing your own hair and make-up, feel free to show up ready to shoot. Krish may take you through some exercises to help you feel more at ease, loosen up, and to give you a chance to acclimate to being a star! Krish wants you to have fun. Session length is based on the type of session and package you’ve selected, and Krish will attempt to capture an unlimited amount of frames within that time. It’s important to arrive promptly, and help keep the show moving by wrangling your family. The more frames he can capture, the more options there will be to choose from. Sometimes, even the outtakes become classics, and hold a special memory. The session will have a mix of posed and natural interactions, and Krish will work to make sure that he squeezes everything he can from the time you have. Once the session is over, Krish will schedule a time for you to review your images, make final selections, and order products for the package you’ve selected.

Final Image Selection & Ordering Appointment. Between your photo session and the image selection and ordering appointment, Krish is hard at work reviewing your images, making edits, retouching, and creating artwork for your approval. When you meet with him again, it’ll be time to select images for your packages. This is what the design world calls “the big reveal.” There may be more images than your package allotment, but fear not, all options are still available! The image selection and ordering process must be finalized on this day to make sure you get your photos as promised, so be prepared to make some decisions. Afterward, you’ll leave Krish to design your albums, keepsake boxes, or wall portraits, add final artistic touches to the images, and create your final package to be ready for delivery. In between, he may ask you to approve some design decisions so you’re 100% happy with your order. In the end, you can expect a call from him to schedule your delivery.

Delivery. This is the big day! Krish will bring you all the images and products you asked for, packaged with his custom branding and labeling. He likes to be present to see your reaction, and to get feedback on his process. This is the part of the process that he can’t really explain. You just have to be there to experience it!

FAQs

These days there seems to be a strong bias toward beautiful pictures with sun flares. While Krish does enjoy using light leaks and flare to manipulate color and contrast, he is reluctant to follow the crowd, because he wants his images to be unique and special. That’s  not to say that if you like that style, he can’t replicate it for you, but Krish prefers a more classical style of portraiture that evokes the ghosts of Old Hollywood. Romantic blurs, and selective sharpness are used to manipulate the viewer’s attention, with realistic skin tones that are smooth without the shocking appearance of over-retouching.

It’s very simple.  Above, on this page, you’ve probably read about the process; if you haven’t, we suggest you read that first. It just takes a phone call or email letting Krish know which type of session you’re interested in, and what your preferred dates are. From there, he’ll discuss the details, sign a contract and put you on the calendar. To secure your date, he will require a 25% non-refundable security deposit.

It would depend on a couple of things, like the session type you’re booking, and even the season. For example, maternity photos are best taken between the the seventh and eight months of pregnancy because that’s when the belly bump shows best; newborn photos, within the first two weeks of your child’s birth; engagement photos should be taken with enough time to design, print, and mail save-the-date cards and/or invitations. But really, when you book is up to you. You should check with Krish to see when he can fit you in, too. Sometimes it does get a bit busy!

He does offer mini-sessions for special calendar events, like Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Independence Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and others. Not all mini-sessions are offered every year. Krish likes to send out notices on social media and through his own sign-up list, so if you’re interested, “Like” the Facebook page www.facebook.com/photosbykrish/ or on his instagram at www.instagram.com/photosbykrish/.

Krish can shoot anywhere! In your home, or at a special location you choose; the beach, at your church … the world is your oyster! The only consideration is having enough space for posing the subject, and having enough room for lights and other equipment. Krish shoots in both available natural light, and also using professional, high-power strobes which are battery operated. Light stands, and light modifiers sometimes need “room to breathe” and you don’t want to be squashed up against a wall for your background (unless Krish is going to a certain look). Photographs for pet or newborn photography are ideally done in your home, so that there’s less stress to the animal or baby.

The short answer is … no. In fact, Krish prefers not to do weddings at all, because it detracts from his style of photography, and method of working. There are a great many wedding photographers out there, with pricing from very cheap to very expensive, and just as many styles and levels of experience and service. And for many photographers weddings bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. But to maintain his business policies, and personal lifestyle, and to be true to his real calling, Krish Mandal will only do weddings under very, very special circumstances.

On occasion, Krish may do small events, up to 150 people. Small events allow Krish to get to know the crowd, be introduced to close family and friends. This allows him a better connection to the people he photographs. When he accepts these engagements his style is more photojournalistic. Staying at the periphery of the action or conversations, to start, allows him to use different lenses that help tell the story of the day. Then he gets in closer for more intimate scenes. Since most portraiture can be mainly about the face, this is a departure from his usual style, but one that he is comfortable with because of the other types of photography he has been doing with his street-style rangefinder camera.

Krish accept checks, money orders, and credit card payment via PayPal. And of course, cash too. You’ll leave a 25% deposit to secure your session date and then the remaining 75% of the payment will be due no later than two weeks before your session. You can also pay the full price up front, if you prefer. The studio policy is to have full receipt of payment before he releases any photos.

People get sick sometimes. It happens. And we can’t always control the weather, unless we change venues.

For that reason, Krish typically has a back-up plan. If you or someone in your family gets sick, Krish will reschedule, one time, for another date; the same happens when dealing with bad weather. If rescheduling due to weather isn’t preferred, Krish can do an in-home shoot. Waiting out the bad weather might be an option, but there’s no guarantee that the weather will clear up in time for Krish to capture enough good frames to make the session worth your time and investment. Just realize that “bad weather” doesn’t mean “it’s too cloudy.” If there’s no actual rain, or the weather isn’t dangerous (lightning, temperature, wind, etc.), then he would prefer to move forward as scheduled unless there are real safety concerns. Often times, inclement weather is a fantastic backdrop for a portrait, full of drama and contrast!

What’s a proof? Strictly speaking, you don’t see “proofs.” After your session, Krish will go into his dungeon and take out his magic spell book from the secret panel behind the bubbling flasks, and chant incantations to create beautiful swirls of effervescent color on paper. Of course, that’s just a little bit of tongue-in-cheek fun. Photographers like to have fun, and part of that is the editing and retouching that Krish will do to present your images in the best light, pun intended. Approximately two weeks later, you will be called back to see the edits he has done, and choose the images that you like best for the package you purchased. He’ll always try to work as quickly as possible, but without sacrificing the quality of your images. Depending on the package you’ve purchased, there may be actual physical proofs that are gifted in a special keepsake box, but for most situations, you’ll be choosing your images electronically, and see the final prints at time of delivery.

We understand this concern and are very sensitive to it. No matter what session Krish is photographing, he will always make sure that you have a say in whether or not images are posted to social media or other publicly viewable area. For most portraiture engagements, the contract spells out what your rights are, but for beauty and glamour / boudoir sessions, there is a specific release that will be prepared for you, which you can choose not to sign. That being said, if your images are not too private or too risque for prime time, it’s to your advantage to allow posting, as Krish will gift you extra prints in exchange for your signed release.