Unhappy E-Session

Most are very soft, especially in the eyes. The backgrounds are all distracting as well.

I think some of the advice given here is good.
Still, if they are not experienced photographers in their personal lives, clients usually don`t bother with problems only photographers see.

In a world where smartphones have secondary cameras where you can see yourself while taking a selfie, people usually try to find the best angle for their faces. That results in a overrated self image. Shortly, people began to think they look better than they actually do.

So, the biggest problem is that in front of a photographer, people with "flaws" won`t have much control over the posing and the facial expression. They care just about this fact, usually. About how good they look in the picture. Not about the fact focus wasn`t right on the eye, about the background being distracting or other things.

Just my 2 cents.

You could reshoot and Photoshop her nose. Make her happy no matter what anyone else thinks.

Her nose is her nose (which there is nothing wrong with BTW)...regardless there's not much you can do to change it. Did she mention to you before the shoot that she was sensitive about it?

I think overall (technical details aside) they are nice shots and she just needs to get over herself. If they aren't complaining about anything that you have direct control over then I say you don't need to do anything. Don't get sucked into trying to manage peoples personal insecurities...it will make your job incredibly more difficult.

If you don't mind my asking, what camera body were you using for this shoot? It just seems odd that with that lens, so many shots had missed focus.
One of the things you want to do on something like this is pay attention to the details. It looks like they picked mid day for their shoot, which always makes it tough since you lighting is going to be a challenge.
On many of these, there are a few things I would not have liked. On most of the shots, her right cheek was pretty red, whether it is makeup, or something else, it is not even with the other cheek. I would have used a brush to tone it down at least a little bit.
#1 would have been better if you had taken one step to your left to get rid of the leaves right across her hair.
#2 would have been better just a bit wider to get his head and arm in the shot, while also moving up a little as you almost get a view of her girl bits. Also, he needs to be looking somewhere besides out into space.
#3 Focus is no where in the frame that I can see, and again that leaf in the upper right hand corner makes it a no go.
#4 focus and probably would have been better zoomed out a touch. There is just not a lot of context on the shot.
#5 Too close again. His arm, as mentioned looks awkward, and there appears to be a circle on her left cheek that should have been evened out to not appear as stark.
#6 her looking off somewhere other than the camera is part of why this one doesn't work. One other thing to help the ladies is show them how to walk with one foot in front of another. As thoug they are walking with both feet touching an imaginary line on the ground. It will help with the way the figure looks in the image. The way it looks now it appears she has a large gap between her legs.
#7 by far, the best shot of the mix. Still has an issue with the brightness of the background. It it also right on the line of where heads are, so it makes it look much worse than it really is. If you have moved the axis another foot or so higher, it would not have been as pronounced, and you could have also darkened it pretty easily if it were not across their heads.
#8 another shot that is not bad, the background being blown out makes it a little tough, but the bigger issue to me is the almost upskirt view of her dress. You could have alleviated that by moving and getting a different angle not so almost revealing.
I would offert them a reshoot, but suggest the time of day be more of a time where the light will be complimentary instead of being so stark. If they balk at that, offer a refund and a discount for future shoots.

helloagain36 wrote in post #17222931
Her nose is her nose (which there is nothing wrong with BTW)...regardless there's not much you can do to change it. Did she mention to you before the shoot that she was sensitive about it?

I think overall (technical details aside) they are nice shots and she just needs to get over herself. If they aren't complaining about anything that you have direct control over then I say you don't need to do anything. Don't get sucked into trying to manage peoples personal insecurities...it will make your job incredibly more difficult.

There's a lot you can do to change it if that's what she really wants. Not much different from avoiding certain angles for fat people. Or cloning out zits. Or tucking some arm flab. Or smoothing cellulose.

cdifoto wrote in post #17224805
There's a lot you can do to change it if that's what she really wants. Not much different from avoiding certain angles for fat people. Or cloning out zits. Or tucking some arm flab. Or smoothing cellulose.

Different angles yes, but he would have needed to know that she was sensitive about her nose prior to shooting and of the images posted there is only one profile shot anyway...the others are all pretty straight on. I'm not sure how else you could take a photo of her face that would minimize her insecurities.

If the complaint isn't about exposure, sharpness or color and the delivered images are consistent with the photographers portfolio then I fail to see why someone would reshoot without charging an additional fee. The fact that she doesn't like her nose isn't the photographers fault.

As for "fixing" it in post, sure you could liquify it but honestly some of us are far too busy to do facial reconstruction on 30-50 images. Basic editing and color correction (anything that can be done in LR) is included in my fee. If I am asked to do more intensive editing (especially overly vain requests) then I charge accordingly.

That's just my .02. Everyone runs their business differently so YMMV.

I agree with you completely Dave. In this case, I would still think a reshoot, if they would do that, is in order because of the focus issues and background issues. As you mentioned, if I was having to do something outside of LR basic adjustments, I would definitely charge more. I do include zit and other real quick cloning in my base fee. But anytime someone asks me for full scale refurbishing of images, then that is a per hour fee for modifications. And that per hour fee is a lot higher than my shoot fees.

DThriller wrote in post #17217106
Yea apparently she is self-conscious about her nose and is unhappy with them bc of that...

Rhinoplasty can work wonders.

Seriously, if she's going to blame you for the appearance of her schnozz, well, that's a battle you're just not going to win.

While I can see the technical shortcomings that others here have noted, if she's not happy because of her nose, I would be damned if I offered a reshoot or a refund because of that...

Photoshop's Shake Reduction Filter *sometimes* can be used to tighten up images like these. And sometimes it just makes them look crunchy. It worked sort~of~ok here. (My webhost must be doing some compression because my images always look better on my PC or Flickr than they do when I upload them to my webhost and link to them. This image looks much sharper on my PC, but you get the point.) I touched up a few other things and removed the leaf that was across part of his head. I didn't touch the eyes or the teeth, but they look over-whitened to me. Most folks here will be able to tell this image was heavily processed, but I suspect many clients won't.

Also, as this was an e-session, your DoF should have included the ring in focus. That looks like a nice rock. It should be showcased.

Picture removed. OP you can remove the one from your post below as well if you wish.

helloagain36 wrote in post #17225131
Different angles yes, but he would have needed to know that she was sensitive about her nose prior to shooting and of the images posted there is only one profile shot anyway...the others are all pretty straight on. I'm not sure how else you could take a photo of her face that would minimize her insecurities.

If the complaint isn't about exposure, sharpness or color and the delivered images are consistent with the photographers portfolio then I fail to see why someone would reshoot without charging an additional fee. The fact that she doesn't like her nose isn't the photographers fault.

As for "fixing" it in post, sure you could liquify it but honestly some of us are far too busy to do facial reconstruction on 30-50 images. Basic editing and color correction (anything that can be done in LR) is included in my fee. If I am asked to do more intensive editing (especially overly vain requests) then I charge accordingly.

That's just my .02. Everyone runs their business differently so YMMV.

My fees are high enough to include a little liquify on the images. We're talking about the same amount of time to fiddle the WB sliders to perfection. It's just a nose.

If my sessions were like, 100 bucks though? Nah not gonna happen.

Seriously though just find her Facebook and see what photos of herself she has posted in the Profile album. Make her nose look like that.

If she isn't happy about her nose and you know that to begin with a little touch up would make a huge difference if someone is happy or not.

Also remember it may seem trivial to some but to her maybe it's a very big deal.

OP you do realise you've effectively plastered this woman on the net stating she has self esteem issues... the client will be even more unhappy if they ever find that out.

memoriesoftomorrow wrote in post #17226000
OP you do realise you've effectively plastered this woman on the net stating she has self esteem issues... the client will be even more unhappy if they ever find that out.

This