Baffled that school continues to use this company. Poor experience year on year. Very difficult to choose from individual photo options as the photos are so blurred and you cannot select them to show... See more
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Founded by Horace Tempest over 80 years ago, Tempest Photography has been at the forefront of the photographic industry for nearly a century. As the first school photography company in the UK to move to full digital processing, with a digital laboratory that is the most state-of-the-art in Europe, you can be sure of first-class images, every time.
H TEMPEST LIMITED, TR26 3HU, ST IVES, CORNWALL , United Kingdom
Replied to 97% of negative reviews
Typically replies within 48 hours
My granddaughter's school used this company for the first time this year to take student portraits, having previously worked with a local photographer who consistently delivered excellent results. Unfortunately, the photos taken this year were awful.
My granddaughter's images reflected a lack of care and attention—her hair was messy, her uniform untidy, and her expressions poorly captured. It’s clear that the photos were rushed and that minimal effort was made to ensure a presentable final product.
Regrettably, we will not be purchasing any of the photos this year.
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Dear Olly,
Thank you for your response.
While I understand the limitations around photographer interaction, the results this year were clearly substandard. A basic level of care and attention—ensuring children are reasonably presentable and capturing a natural expression—should not be too much to expect from a professional service.
Compared to the consistently high standard delivered by the school’s previous photographer, this year’s effort felt rushed and careless. I hope serious consideration is given to improving both quality and process going forward.
Reply from Tempest Photography
Easy to order and actually had a pack that I wanted at a decent price. All I wanted was 4 desk photos without all the other sizes and they had it. £14. Could add other children’s photos to the same order too. Thanks.
Reply from Tempest Photography
Extremely poor quality and extortionate prices of my daughter's recent graduation photos. Tempest photography purport to use "highly trained" and professional photographers however the delivered photographs are extremely poor quality, over-exposed and washed-out. We paid almost GBP150 for just 5 photos, ridiculous considering the end quality. I would certainly not recommend using this company.
Reply from Tempest Photography
I have had issues purchasing the digital download for my son the last two years. The digital download wasn't available fir his individual photo. I called last year and a customer service advisor assured me that the problem had been resolved and the image would be emailed. After two weeks, I contacted them again as I hadnt recmy image. I was assured that it had been sent and the advisor confirmed the date that it was sent. As I hadnt received it, I can only assume that the image of my son, in his school uniform, was sent to somebody else! I did eventually receive it.
This year I am having exactly the same problem! I am writing this review whilst waiting for customer services to answer my call. Ive currently been waiting for 17 minutes!
Reply from Tempest Photography
Absolutely impossible to contact them.
Have been waiting on this call for over 45minutes, previously 15, 26 and 38 minutes.
They should not be in business.
Shocking.
Will share with school to add to growing number of parents complaints, with the aim of stopping them (Tempest) from upsetting more parents.
Reply from Tempest Photography
Awful company. I cannot understand why this company have the monopoly on school/graduation photos. Poor quality, unappealing photos and extortionate prices, yet we are forced to pay for this rubbish as there is no other option. They didn’t even have the decency to respond to my complaint which I emailed. Three lots of graduation photos in the last year nearly £150 just to have official photos of my children that I don’t like. Someone please offer a better experience than this company, they have had a monopoly for way too long
Reply from Tempest Photography
Zero stars, 10 out of 10 for expensive prices. It's the year 2025 yet the experience, quality and prices are that of 1985. I can only assume schools use Tempest as they get commission and don't work in the private commercial world. Better quality from a phone. It would be better for schools to use a local photographer, pay a reasonable day rate, and provide every child with a usb stick of all their photos for a reasonable price. That way it would be cheaper, supporting local photographers, better quality photos, images provided instantly, cheaper for parents and no need for the photographer to store any personal details or even the images. I'm expecting a standard response to say sorry you're disappointed, contact us, all of our photographers are carefully selected, and the process I've described isn't possible.
Reply from Tempest Photography
If i could give 0 stars i would. I paid for a digital download at my daughters graduation ceremony, i received an email saying the photos were ready to order but no info on the actually order already paid for, i have contacted them three times using the online form via the website and recieved the same generic response twice stating there are issues with links on the website and the tech team are working on it and to clear my browser history and this should work. I havent got a link issue, i have an issue with not recieving my order but this is being ignored. It takes a matter of minutes to send a pdf via email so im not sure whats taking so long. The third time i made contact i have been ignored. Its bad enough the prices you charge being high but when you dont get what you have paid for either and then ignored or fobbed off, its not acceptable.
Reply from Tempest Photography
Whilst I understand the negative reviews and to be honest we did not have a positive experience to begin with. Being rushed around on graduation day and then spending £100+ on 3 photos was not great. HOWEVER, 1 phone call with the lovely Rachel made our experience one of the best. Not only did she apologise for our experience but she helped with the fact we were given the wrong frame for pictures and made sure we got a package deal with the money we paid. I can’t thank her customer service enough and how she personally made sure that we were happy in the end. Thank you tempest photography and most importantly Rachel W at customer service.
Reply from Tempest Photography
Beyond bad. Raising with the school board why on earth do they continue with appealing quality of the pictures. AVOID AT ALL COST
Reply from Tempest Photography
Packages designed to trap you into spending too much on more photos than you need. Delivery also overpriced unless you again spend more. They also invest in Isreal through their use of Barclays Bank so they’re supporting a genocide. Shame on them. Thankfully this is the last year I will feel impelled to use them as my son leaves school.
Reply from Tempest Photography
As a professional photographer, I was very disappointed with the images produced by Tempest Photography at my son’s school. The composition is poor, the lighting is far from flattering, and the overall quality of the product feels rushed and generic. For families who want a lasting memory, this falls short of what should be a simple but important service.
On top of this, the pricing is extremely high. A single digital download is borderline extortionate, and the print prices are equally excessive when compared to the actual costs of reputable professional print labs. Parents are being charged a premium price for a product that simply doesn’t justify it in terms of craftsmanship or presentation.
In short, this feels like a missed opportunity to provide families with affordable, well-crafted portraits.
Reply from Tempest Photography
The quality of the photograph of my son is appalling. Extremely not happy as I've bought from them over the past few years hoping the quality would get better. They are the Temu of the photography world. Please get your photos elsewhere. I cant beleive schools still use them.
Reply from Tempest Photography
Baffled that school continues to use this company. Poor experience year on year. Very difficult to choose from individual photo options as the photos are so blurred and you cannot select them to show full screen to improve the clarity. Pricing system is bonkers with massive bulk buy choices that aren’t actually what anyone would want.
Reply from Tempest Photography
Negatives: Expensive, sometimes awkward pictures, more flexibility with packs and proving needed.
Positives: Quick and easy to order online with the QR code, no faffing around like there used to be!
Reply from Tempest Photography
Easy and quick to order. Great looking photos.
Reply from Tempest Photography
Massively expensive and the staff are rude. Wouldn’t recommend.
Reply from Tempest Photography
Horrendous prices, ridiculous collection of various sized photos causing us to buy some that we don't need. My family would love one but I can't afford their prices to buy any extra but what I find disgraceful after paying over and above what we should - the audacity to make the photos a stupid size means they won't fit in a standard frame making them look awful in our favourite frames.
Reply from Tempest Photography
65% or reviewers give 1 star & reading them, it's clear they fall into one of two categories. Either the quality of the photo or the extortionate pricing for the weird combination of photos offered. This time around, I'm OK with the quality, but once again it's impossible to buy exactly what I want. Having 'split'families must be a God-send to Tempest, as it's impossible to get two, large portraits. And who really wants passport size photos!?
It's about time schools fought back and broke this monopoly.
Tempest, please don't copy & paste your usual reply as I'm not interested.
Reply from Tempest Photography
So another year goes by without getting school photos. Absolute rip off. £45 for a triple image pack . trying to say its in a sale down from £65. use any on line or high street photo company and you can get a ton of pictures developed for that. even photo books and large prints all top quality. There is nothing your company offers that warrants such high charges, the paper and process is no different to anyone else. I imagine your sales would increase if you charged realistic prices.
Reply from Tempest Photography
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