Wedding client asking to change my contract?..

Do you guys get a lot of clients who don't like clauses in your wedding contracts and wants you to make them more flexible?

Basically one of my clients didn't like that my contract states that:

- I could use her pictures for online & offline advertising
- How time will be allocated for other people to take pictures, and flashes from other crowd can affect the quality of my photos (hence might have to retake the picture if possible).
- She also wants unedited pictures?.. for example if i take 2-3 retakes of a picture because eyes are closed etc. then she also wants those unedited?

She's going to email me soon and highlight the points which she is concerned about in the contract.. il update this thread further and ask for advice then.. but for now this is it (from the phone conversation I just had with her).

I'm quite new to the wedding scene.. is this normal behaviour for wedding clients?

It doesn't matter if its normal, nobody's normal anymore.
What matters is, are their request deal breakers or how much does any of that REALLY matter to you, if it gets you the job?
You said your new so every gig is a learning experience.

1 is fine if you are not hunting for more Port. sample
2 is also fine
3 is no no. Tell the B&G that if they like your works and trust you then let you make the call on keepers and non-keepers. Explain to them that if you deliver a full story of their wedding day,there is no reason that they would need to have those non-keepers (do not promise the amount of deliver shots though).
My 2 cents. Hope this help. Happy new year and good luck!

https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1254413

If they alter the contract then you have one of two choices. Either tell them no or raise your price.

Contracts can be negotiable if you want them to be. Mine is not negotiable but then again my contract is pretty reasonable. If you put in your contract that it is non negotiable then they shouldn't be asking for changes to it.

I would explain that your vast experience has led you to offer the best service and value per the terms of your contract. Changes to the terms and service will require a change in the price offered, and offer to include any requests for a new fee.

In my experience, consumer clients who see all the unedited photos often will have a lower perception of the quality of your photography than the ones who only see the best final images. You can discourage this by offering a high cost to show them proofs/unedited images.

- I could use her pictures for online & offline advertising . She does not want you to use them for advertising? I can understand that.
- How time will be allocated for other people to take pictures, and flashes from other crowd can affect the quality of my photos (hence might have to retake the picture if possible). This would be open to negotiation but flashes from the crowd can affect quality.
- She also wants unedited pictures?.. for example if i take 2-3 retakes of a picture because eyes are closed etc. then she also wants those unedited? No way!!! So then she will sue you for poor quality. This one is NON NEGOTIABLE for me. There is no reason to give her bad images

the first point I see a lot - some people just don't want to be plastered on your website or facebook or in prints at a wedding show, etc... I usually get a request like this when one or both is in a position that might require this (i.e. a police officer, teacher, etc..) so its really easy to be flexible with this one

the 2nd one - are you referring to that time between ceremony and reception where you're trying to get pictures of the immediate families, wedding party, etc...? Let her know that there is only a limited amount of time here and that it would be best to get through it w/o any other cameras around or other distractions... the quicker you get everyone out of there and to the reception, the better... as for the rest of the day, the guests can do as they please with their cameras - this is a major family event, and family members are going to do all kinds of crazy things with their phones, tablets and cameras...

the unedited pictures... for the most part, this is a definite no... I've had brides ask me for 'everything' as well, and even then I go through and remove stuff I don't want to hand over (watch your filenames...)... you can still reach some sort of agreement where some extras will be handed over (and it will be low-res, watermarked to indicate this is unprocessed / not for distribution) but you will still get to go over and decide which are not getting off your drive...

(watch your filenames) ... Great point... You can always rename them upon export using lightroom.

#3 would be a deal-breaker for me if I was the photographer.

mclaren777 wrote in post #15435035
#3 would be a deal-breaker for me if I was the photographer.

I would have a hard time with that one as well. I could maybe give her a few out-takes but not everything unedited.

hmm.. fair enough.. maybe il just rename them and tell her that these are all the pictures i have taken.. even if there are some other ones which i don't like / where people have their eyes closed / out of focus etc.

Ive never tried renaming the files, so it is possible to rename the entire batch when exporting from lightroom?

yeah, the rename option is in the export dialog.

we had a bride who's father was a contract lawyer and he took it upon himself to rewrite our entire contract, even changing our delivery time from 90 days to 10 days....

i wrote her back and told her we weren't going to change our contract and that we'd be happy to recommend her to another photographer who's contract might be more to her liking.

she apologized and her wedding turned out beautiful.

5W0L3 wrote in post #15435177
Ive never tried renaming the files, so it is possible to rename the entire batch when exporting from lightroom?

Yes, it's one of the panes in the Export dialog.

However, it might be a better practice to rename the files inside of Lightroom - I think that dialog is under Library->Rename Files. That way, if you deliver numbered files, they match what's in your Lightroom library.

If you rename upon export, then exported file #87 will match the library file #219 and you'll have a heck of a time keeping track of anything.

Yep, totally agree. 3) should be a dealbreaker. Any pro photographer who is willing to accept 3) better check their insurance and prepared to be sued.