Arrgg..how to handle this...

Hi guys....

So I am just getting started with my photography business and already its not as "pleasant" as I would have hoped....

Heres the situation...

I got hired to do a surprise birthday shoot for a 21st birthday girl. her friends organised the shoot and 4 of them including the birthday girl came and I did a shoot with them.

I delivered the pictures to the person who organised the shoot and she loved them, paid me and everything was great.

I get a call this morning from the birthday girl saying the photo's are terrible.......the compisition is bad, I have over photoshopped it so much that it looks like I have put her eye brow in her eye and her friends eye color's are different and I changed the eye color (I never touch eye color) Although I do always process my photo's in photoshop.


She then says I took hundreds of photo's and only gave 27 pictures. (in my oppinion 27 fully edited pics in an hour is good going)

Anyways she says she wants all the unedited RAW files....over the phone I told her that could be arranged but also asked for her email...so I can put it down onto writing etc etc....

how do I handle this? as I said I am new to the business side of things.....I really really dont want to give my raw files to her....they look like crap!!! ill post a few of the pictures I delivered, the girl who is unhappy with the pictures is the one in the black dress or the "chubby" one with black hair. (they changed outfit once or twice)

Thanks for your help guys and I appreciate all input!

I cant embed the pictures for some reason, so here they are on flicker....they the first couple of pictures numbered 1-15 although flicker starts at number 15.

Tell her raw files are $10.00 each, paid in advance and no refunds and no rights to print.

I would not sell the RAW files no matter what. Especially for $10 like w9trb suggested. Tell her that you only release edited photos. Did you have a contract with the person who hired you? You worked for the person who hired you, not the birthday girl. The client (person who hired you) is happy. Nothing more needs to be done on your part.

Back to the contact thing. In your contract, assuming you had one, did you state how many pictures would be delivered? Whenever I shoot an event or do a portrait session, I detail it out in my contract that a minimum of X images will be delivered in Jpeg format. Any extras are at my discretion.

Do you have a link to your Flickr account so we can see the images in question?

I never had a "written" contract....but I dealt with the blond girl...she paid me, I delivered the pictures to her...she was happy.

Without seeing the photos its difficult to know whether her complaints about quality have any merit. putting that aside for now. A) Despite her being the birthday girl, she wasnt your client. The person who made the appointment and paid you is your client. B) What did you promise the client that you deliver? Were you clear upfront that you would edit only the shots you felt had any merit and did you specify any amount? A few thoughts here. The client doesnt get any Raw files. They probably dont even know what Raw files are, thinking raw means unretouched. Jpeg files. If you feel you need to satisfy this person you could offer to fix her concerns with the editing of the photos you delivered, but find some method where you dont surrender.

Can you link to some of the photos? Its hard to know if her complaints are even worth worrying about.

What cought my interest, is she sounded like she was "an expert" with photo's...

She said specific things that only people who know photography would say, she did use the word "raw" photo's. I almost got the feeling someone else was telling her to say certain things....anyways plz let me know if you can see my link

If you don't mind sharing, how much did you charge them?

The only thing I can see in some of the images (and this is all IMO) is that some of the skin seems a bit overdone and looks a bit plasticy, and some of their eyes are brightened up too much.

But overall, the girl should not be complaining. With the type of pictures you were doing, 27 is more than enough for 1 hour of time. It's not like you were doing candids or something.

In the future though, I would be sure to get a written contract. It really helps detail things out to set expectations for both sides.

As far as the unhappy birthday girl, you are just going to have to tell her that you do not release anything other than the edited Jpegs. You can pretty much tell her "sorry, you were not my client". You were in agreement with the other girl. You fulfilled your duties.

ok thanks man, I appreciate your advice. I have never been in this situation so I am unsure how to handle it.

I charged them way to little....as I said I am just starting out, I charged them $60 for 27 edited photo's...I know nothing right? anyways I just need to get rolling and I will increase my price. They did pay for a makeup artist aswell, she was $130 for like 30 minutes....I was jealous haha

***I did specify an amount with the client, at the time it was a pure thumbsuck as I don't have much experience with shooting in a studio and how many pics I could do in an hour, I said over the phone 30-50 fully edited pictures.....it came out to 27 so I was close They not worried about the quantity though, the birthday girl just said my pictures were crap. Oh well this is life ill deal with it

Can't imagine why they would not be happy with these, especially at the price you charged. I'd tell her that you picked out the best and that there are no more to give (well maybe 3 more since you promised 30-50) May be you could send her a few where they were caught mid expression or eyes closed to show her what you mean. Then I would just chalk this up to experience and walk away. I know it is hard though to let something like this go when you did your best and offered up what you considered to be good images. I have to say, I would have been proud to sho those images, especially as you are just starting out.

You had no contract, charged too little and you're letting someone that didn't pay the bill give you a hard time. Forget them, you will never please them and do not make that mistake again. Tell them the cards have been formatted and the RAW files are gone.

porky101 wrote in post #16779064
I delivered the pictures to the person who organised the shoot and she loved them, paid me and everything was great.

That is all that matters. Birthday girl does not have a dog in this fight, so she can go pound sand.

tcphoto1 wrote in post #16779229
You had no contract, charged too little and you're letting someone that didn't pay the bill give you a hard time. Forget them, you will never please them and do not make that mistake again. Tell them the cards have been formatted and the RAW files are gone.

This^

And 2 other things that jump out at me:

If you were the birthday girl would you be happy? She certainly doesn't look as good as her friends, that'd bother most women.

How are your Raw files crappy? I appreciate that your studio experience is limited, but this is the kind of shoot you ought to be able to deliver SOOC JPEGs.

My thinking was to simply make it too expensive for the Birthday Girl. She seems to want something for nothing.

When I say crappy, I mean they are unfinished..sure you could do SOC, but honestly once I push them through lightroom, increase the blacks a bit etc etc...the image looks waaay better!

See a photo attached SOOC. My backdrop was too small for all 4...so a lot of the pics look like that SOOC

First, you must understand that regardless of the quality of your work you will have some unhappy clients for factors often completely out of your control. Second, young females are difficult clients who have very high and unrealistic expectations about their appearance. Third, being responsive and diffusing customer problems is often more important than standing up for principle.

In this case, you will probably have a happier customer if you just provide the unedited jpegs. It will be far less effort and leaves her nothing else to complain about.