Clients chosing bad photographs.

[adamfromperth]

Hi guys,

i am just wondering if anybody else does what i am considering or if anyone has any opinions on this.

I'll start out by saying that i am only starting out in wedding photography (1 year) part time. I am the first to admit that my photograhpy needs a lot of improvement i get some great shots but i feel i need more consistancy.

Anyways moving on, i recently shot a wedding for a couple and gave the clients proofs for them to select what they wanted for their album. I was suprised at some of the images that they selected (i felt that out of the images they picked they were missing what i believed to be the best photographs.)

I feel that some of the photographs that were selected doesn't represent my quality of work. (I know you are going to say that i should cull anything that doesn't work, but i provided all images as i supplied all images on a cd aswell an album. *With obvious bad photographs culled )

Anywas it really got me thinking in that as a photographer we are sometimes giving into the client. I know that wedding videographers don't sit there and ask the client every shot that they want included in the album so why should we. I understand that all clients will want different types of images such as including family photograhs in their album which i can understand...

Do you think that as a photographer it would be acceptable to inform the client that you will design the album for them after the day rather than allowing them to select their desired images. IMO i believe that most clients would be more impressed by you providing them with the best possible album that you could rather than when some images are selected but might have technical faults.

Anyways thats my rant... so what do you think

[welkcar]

I used to let them pick. It works much better selecting the photos and working them into an album design myself. I then give it to the customer and have them let me know what they might want changed. For most customers, they like the entire album and might just want a few photos changed. Much faster, better results, and for the most part, the album has the better photos.

[dreamcatcher23]

The more choice you give them the harder they'll be to handle. Decide what service you're offering - if you consider this interchange good customer service then stick with it, if you consider it timewasting then change to what welkcar says - would suggest allowing 1 alteration for free and further alterations at $x

[shaggymatt]

I don't even list albums on my pricing sheet, I do say if interested we can create an album package.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I disagree with SO many photographers on this point. What does and doesn't make it to the client... Like everyone else, I go through and double rate my images in Lightroom. Many so-so images get three stars, 1 star is deleted, and 2 is a worst case can be fixed. Five stars to me is portfolio worthy, and I don't give many 5's. Go through the 3's a second time to see if any get bumped or dumped.

I will admit that I totally overshoot a wedding, but I do it on purpose. My reasoning is this, how often do you get everyone in the family dressed up in one location? Not very often, not family reunions, not holidays if everyone is geographically spread out. I know of a couple people and have read of countless others where the last good pictures they may have of grandparents/great grandparents is from their wedding. This alone is what makes those images priceless. If you never showed the couple the picture because it was more of a snapshot or wasn't a good display of your talent, they'll never know that you just might be holding that priceless image to them.

It is for that reason, I don't limit (obviously within reason) or chose the shots I give to a customer.

[adam8080]

Hi guys,

i am just wondering if anybody else does what i am considering or if anyone has any opinions on this.

I'll start out by saying that i am only starting out in wedding photography (1 year) part time. I am the first to admit that my photograhpy needs a lot of improvement i get some great shots but i feel i need more consistancy.

Anyways moving on, i recently shot a wedding for a couple and gave the clients proofs for them to select what they wanted for their album. I was suprised at some of the images that they selected (i felt that out of the images they picked they were missing what i believed to be the best photographs.)

I feel that some of the photographs that were selected doesn't represent my quality of work. (I know you are going to say that i should cull anything that doesn't work, but i provided all images as i supplied all images on a cd aswell an album. *With obvious bad photographs culled )

Anywas it really got me thinking in that as a photographer we are sometimes giving into the client. I know that wedding videographers don't sit there and ask the client every shot that they want included in the album so why should we. I understand that all clients will want different types of images such as including family photograhs in their album which i can understand...

Do you think that as a photographer it would be acceptable to inform the client that you will design the album for them after the day rather than allowing them to select their desired images. IMO i believe that most clients would be more impressed by you providing them with the best possible album that you could rather than when some images are selected but might have technical faults.

Anyways thats my rant... so what do you think

A photograph is more than just subjects in a certain composition. There is the actual emotion behind the photograph which means a lot to the person buying it.

[tim]

I predesign albums, but I let customers alter them.

[Mark II Shooter]

I don't even list albums on my pricing sheet, I do say if interested we can create an album package.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I disagree with SO many photographers on this point. What does and doesn't make it to the client... Like everyone else, I go through and double rate my images in Lightroom. Many so-so images get three stars, 1 star is deleted, and 2 is a worst case can be fixed. Five stars to me is portfolio worthy, and I don't give many 5's. Go through the 3's a second time to see if any get bumped or dumped.

I will admit that I totally overshoot a wedding, but I do it on purpose. My reasoning is this, how often do you get everyone in the family dressed up in one location? Not very often, not family reunions, not holidays if everyone is geographically spread out. I know of a couple people and have read of countless others where the last good pictures they may have of grandparents/great grandparents is from their wedding. This alone is what makes those images priceless. If you never showed the couple the picture because it was more of a snapshot or wasn't a good display of your talent, they'll never know that you just might be holding that priceless image to them.

It is for that reason, I don't limit (obviously within reason) or chose the shots I give to a customer.

Damn well put! bw!

[asysin2leads]

I don't even list albums on my pricing sheet, I do say if interested we can create an album package.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I disagree with SO many photographers on this point. What does and doesn't make it to the client... Like everyone else, I go through and double rate my images in Lightroom. Many so-so images get three stars, 1 star is deleted, and 2 is a worst case can be fixed. Five stars to me is portfolio worthy, and I don't give many 5's. Go through the 3's a second time to see if any get bumped or dumped.

I will admit that I totally overshoot a wedding, but I do it on purpose. My reasoning is this, how often do you get everyone in the family dressed up in one location? Not very often, not family reunions, not holidays if everyone is geographically spread out. I know of a couple people and have read of countless others where the last good pictures they may have of grandparents/great grandparents is from their wedding. This alone is what makes those images priceless. If you never showed the couple the picture because it was more of a snapshot or wasn't a good display of your talent, they'll never know that you just might be holding that priceless image to them.

It is for that reason, I don't limit (obviously within reason) or chose the shots I give to a customer.

Good point.

A photograph is more than just subjects in a certain composition. There is the actual emotion behind the photograph which means a lot to the person buying it.

Exactly. The customer is seeing something that we don't see. Perhaps it is a little blurry of a shot; therefore we dump it, but it's of an aunt that they haven't seen in 20 years.

[adamfromperth]

A photograph is more than just subjects in a certain composition. There is the actual emotion behind the photograph which means a lot to the person buying it.


I totally agree with that point i am more talking about photographs that are posed formals rather than candid shots where there would be emotion in the images.

[rx7speed]

my own opinion on this but then again I'm not a pro photog and have never done a wedding shoot, just a consumer. I would like to see most of the shots. sure that shot where hit the button by accident and took a picture of the carpet I can understnd being dumped out of there it serves no point, but if grandma emma's face is partially chopped off and is slightly under exposed I would want that as this was her last outting since she has cancer and could go at any moment.

I'm paying for memories and that is what I want. it's your job to make sure that the pictures come out right sure but it's the memory I'm after nto the fact that your picture is perfect techincally.

sorry about my little rant here it just seems I've seen a few times photogs complaining because a picture that a customer likes isn't one that the photo likes due to some flaw, and that they should of chosen a better picture.
who is the judge of what is a good picture or not? me the consumer who is paying for the work due to some sentimental value that will be attached to the pictures or you the photog who generally has no emotional attachment to the pictures? sorry just my own opinion here but as I said I'm no a pro (lol wonder why) so take it with a grain of salt.

[tlc]

just because you dont like it, doesnt mean they wont. a plain picture of grandma could mean more than anything to the bride.

how can you have an emotional attachment to anyone in these photographs when they really mean nothing to you? you havent spent your entire life with some of the people in these photographs so yeah, you may think they are boring and plain, but they mean a whole other world to the clients.

[RDKirk]

Decide what service you're offering

This is the key. Decide what service you're offering. If you're offering them every aspect of every moment of every person in the wedding, then you're going to be giving them every possible image.

If you're offering them the "story of the wedding," then you're actually doing an artistic documentary that may not, for instance, include someone who was not an integral part of that story. This is more like "Life goes to a wedding" or "National Geographic goes to a wedding."

Or you could do both.

But you have to decide what you're gong to do up front, contract accordingly, shoot accordingly, and edit accordingly.

[mgrover]

Last summer I shot a wedding and had several shots with the bride's parents that I thought were not that great. Well after several attempts to get the bride back in to select her prints, she informed me that her father had passed away unexpectedly and she was finding it difficult to view the photos with her dad in them. After several months she finally came in to select her photos and she purchased every photo I took with her dad in it - regardless of the quality. She just wanted to remember the happy time she had with her dad that day.

I imagine someone looking at the photos not knowing the story behind them would think that some of them are not very good. They might make me look like a lesser photographer, but after seeing and feeling the emotion, I'm OK with that.

To the bride, they are all priceless.