CasteloportraitartReviews of casteloportraitart.com

Please read before participating in Castelo Portrait Art's “complimentary” magazine promotions. We entered their Children of the South project after an ad said they were looking for children to photograph for a new magazine and that, “If chosen,” they would receive a “GIFTED fine art children's portrait session including artwork.” We were then told, “Good News—you were selected!” Because this required a 4-hour round trip and taking off work, I specifically contacted them BEFORE attending, stated that we would not be purchasing anything, and asked for reassurance that this wasn't a sales ploy. Laura assured me it was not, that this was a real magazine being published, and no purchase was required. The photographer, Sarah, was wonderful—talented, patient and kind. Our issue is not with her photography. Only AFTER the session did we learn that the digital photographs were not included. When we asked to go home and think about purchasing them, we were told the images would not remain available. Most importantly, we were told our daughter would only be featured in the magazine—the entire reason we made the trip—if we made a purchase. We were told we had “misunderstood.” I strongly disagree. I had specifically raised this exact concern beforehand and attended only after being reassured. We ultimately purchased three digital images because we understood this was the only way to preserve any of our daughter's photographs and her magazine opportunity. The documents the company later relied upon were presented after the session, not before we traveled there. There was another concerning issue: our written purchase stated that the digital files were printable up to 10 inches. When I attempted to print one at only 8×8, the resolution was too low. I am a photographer myself and am very familiar with image resolution and print requirements. In my experience, the files provided did not meet the print use that was represented. They did issue a full refund after I complained, which I appreciate, but refused to provide the remaining photographs. I have since found other public complaints/reviews describing surprisingly similar experiences, which makes it difficult for me to accept that this is simply an isolated “misunderstanding.” When multiple unrelated consumers walk away from similar promotions with similar understandings, I believe it's reasonable to question whether the promotion itself is sufficiently clear. My advice: Get everything in writing BEFORE attending. Ask exactly what digital images you receive for free, whether purchasing anything is required for the magazine FEATURE, whether your images remain available if you don't purchase that day, and what the pricing is. Had those terms been clearly disclosed when I specifically asked, we never would have made the trip.

This woman is a disgusting human being that is out for money, please do not make the mistake we did and fall for her preying tactics. She looks for children or military members or “cancer survivors” and acts like you have a credited photo shoot to be featured in her “portfolio”. Once seeing the photos she is charging over $5000 for extremely low quality work and then using pressure tactics and cruelty to bully you into buying these supposed works of art of hers. She needs to be shut down, truly one of the lowest humans I’ve sadly come across that claims to run a business.

Ai editing is incredibly obvious and tells me that these “artists” do not value other artists and would rather sell their subjects likeness to a machine than learn or support someone who can. Do not trust these people with images of your children, they will end up in Grok without clothes.

She works from her own home with the side garage made into a studio. They tell you won child of the month and have a chance for your child of the month to be on their magazine and picture on site . There’s a lot of recordings of what they own on using your child’s pictures. There is no free pictures of your child . They put you in the sales room of the garage and show pictures that costs thousands. One picture of my child was 6 thousand dollars and it wasn’t even to be a painting . It was just a print . She wants to paint a story have she just found her photograph life. She’s cold and didn’t even what here my son story as he was adopted and a survivor