How to handle this...

Hey guys ,

Here is the story :

A client hired me for a weekend to take photo's of their Branch of hotels. I was hired to take pictures from their Bedrooms to their kitchens etc etc.

Anyways after delivering 3,000 pictures they tell me they HATE the shots of the rooms because the bed is a mess. attached is a pic .
Then they tell me they hate the shots of the food...it is too "raw" (the meat) am I supposed to cook the food too????

Anyways the location is 150miles away.
I told them I will charge them , they refused and said that I had a job to do and I never did it blah blah blah and it is normal business practice that if I stuff up on a Job I must be the one to fix it. cmon that room looks fine. their reason is , is the bed is messy. I was hired to take pictures not to do the bed.

Anyways I said ok and they will cover my fuel and any expenses. But in future how should I handle this type of situation? feeling a bit taken advantage of right now....and really angry. im leaving tommorow to retake these photo's of this room.

thanks guys

Did they mention the lamps as well ? That was the first thing that sprung out at me, looks a bit flat and boring with no light from them.

I don't do commercial but if I shot this sort of thing I would have a representative of the client with me to make sure the room looks exactly like they want it in the pictures. The bed does look messy, but that's the sort of thing I would expect a client to set just how they want it.

Your definitly right about the lights , Should have turned them on in the one.

They did have a person styling the room FOR me....they never got the blame though..I did

I would think it's your job to stage the shot. That includes the bed and anything else in it.
As mentioned above, the lamps are off and it's not a very inviting image. It's totally FLAT.
IMO, they're right. The bed looks terrible and I certainly wouldn't pay for an image like this.

please be specific. which bed? they say both...?
I will reiterate , they had a woman styling for me , as she knew "exactly" what the client wanted....

porky101 wrote in post #15838041
Your definitly right about the lights , Should have turned them on in the one.

They did have a person styling the room FOR me....they never got the blame though..I did

You're ultimately responsible, so don't blame others for your lack of perception.

porky101 wrote in post #15838059
please be specific. which bed? they say both...?
I will reiterate , they had a woman styling for me , as she knew "exactly" what the client wanted....

Both! The second one is godawful.

I will defend that image. I never wanted the bed to look "too made up". I was going for a natural and inviting shot in the second image, It was not taken in 1 second , i spent a few minutes making the bed in the second shot look inviting. Ironically the first image I wanted a neater shot but they complained about that too. Clearly my perception is mismatching theirs.

The second bed shot falls off to the left and the curtains are terrible too. The window has a huge reflecting GLARE and the top of the headboard is chopped off.

Nothing personal, but you don't have much forethought in these images. A tilted looking image is basis's 101. The glare is hideous and you should remove bits of items sticking out into the images.

what you mean falls off to the left?
What must I do about the curtains? remove them?

How would you deal with that glare? its a glare thats there...cant really make it just disappear can I? (if so how)

The food shot is quite disgusting. You don't show the plate and table with a nice background and it's up too close, IMO. The colors are flat and it looks like someone piled up some scraps.

well its that size cos its on a big screen...once its in their brochure it will be much much smaller. I doubt they will give that a double page spread (hope they dont , I will advise against that)

heres it a bit more to scale

It's not about the size of the food shot, it's just an unflattering angle and unflattering light.

The meat looks amazing and that is what it is supposed to look like!!! However, the DOF is way too shallow to get an idea for what you are eating/ordering.

as to the bed pics, I would have to agree with the others in so far as the lighting in the first picture and the messy bed in the second picture. In the first I may have backed up a bit to get the entire second chair in the photo.

As to the person they assigned you, I would have serious issues with that. they sent someone to acompany you and to set the room up. That person failed you. i don't think your job should be vacuuming or making the bed. Your job is to take professional quality photos. people who shoot models aren't expected to put makeup on them...

Was the stylist provided by the hotel? If so, then I would want a conference call with the three of you, to try and pin down why she fell down in her task. If she just happened to come along for some reason, then she should not be at the reshoot.

The sheet at the foot of the first bed isn't even tucked in, so that couldn't be classified as neat.

There won't be any glare if you close the left curtain. I'd move back to get the headboard, and remove the chest or whatever it is that's peeking in from the left.

For the food, even if the pic is small, it should still show the entire presentation, plate and all. Otherwise it could just be a buffet, and no one wants that in their brochure. The food itself could use more light, as being darker is less appealing for food.

It seems like they don't want a "comfy surroundings" shoot, but a "miltary-perfect" shoot.