Promised 8+ photos from a half-hour shoot. I have 37 good takes. How many do I deliver?

I offered some affordable holiday mini-sessions on my photography facebook page promising 8+ digital/retouched images from a half-hour shoot. The "8+" really just serves as a safety for me should the shoot go terribly. I figured I'd promise 8, deliver 15-20 and the client is thrilled. 37 just seems like too many.

I guess a reasonable solution would be to give her a selection of 15-20 from 37 proofs?

I'm not opposed to narrowing it down to the 30 best and delivering them all, but I would be setting a precedent, right? She did tip me 30%, so I'm happy to over-deliver.

What's protocol here? I'm very new to the business end of things.

Thanks all!

EDIT: Should have mentioned, this was a shoot with a family of five + two dogs. I ended up delivering 20 pictures, being careful not to be redundant or deliver anything I'm not proud to put my name on. Thanks all!

chexjc wrote in post #17332770
I offered some affordable holiday mini-sessions on my photography facebook page promising 8+ digital/retouched images from a half-hour shoot. The "8+" really just serves as a safety for me should the shoot go terribly. I figured I'd promise 8, deliver 15-20 and the client is thrilled. 37 just seems like too many.

First thing you didn't promise 8. 8 and 8+ are not the same thing. All you did was establish a minimum delivery, you did not specify a maximum. Whatever you show as proofs the client would be well within their rights to expect to receive the same number of digital/retouched images.

Personally I'd give them all you intend to give them fully retouched and not show any of the others (they don't exist).

memoriesoftomorrow wrote in post #17332843
Whatever you show as proofs the client would be well within their rights to expect to receive the same number of digital/retouched images.

Personally I'd give them all you intend to give them fully retouched and not show any of the others (they don't exist).

Good point. That's what I'll do! Thanks.

Deliver what you promised 8+ but not all 37.

agree ..

Would you mind telling how many different poses/looks you got in that 30 minutes session? It just seems like having that many keepers in that short amount of time would have many with almost exactly the same poses. When I do shoots of people, I try to limit the number of shots to no more than two presented of each pose. If I had 10 taken in the same minute, they could all be keepers, but why would they want 10 of the same pose?
Just trying to figure out how many different poses you got in that short a period of time.

No more than 10. Unless it's a professional model, you're going to have a LOT of repetition in those 37 shots, and repetition gets boring.

Also, your quality is generally judged by the worst shot you show. If you deliver 37, and 36 of them are perfect but there's one that's out-of-focus or unflattering, guess which one the client is going to remember?


If you're not sure, maybe narrow it down to 20 to show as low-res proofs, and have the client pick 10 of those.
Also, pick two of your favorites to do your expected full retouch, and show those along with the proofs, so the client can know what level of retouching to expect on the 10 that she picks.

Thanks for all the input! I'm thinking I will try to narrow it down to the best of the best and whatever amount that is, I'll deliver. I probably should have mentioned that this was a family of five, so I have shots of the whole family, siblings, brothers, etc. I took about 160 shots, so it's safe to say I did get 37 keepers. That's not to say a couple of those 37 aren't redundant. Back to editing!

chexjc wrote in post #17334194
Thanks for all the input! I'm thinking I will try to narrow it down to the best of the best and whatever amount that is, I'll deliver. I probably should have mentioned that this was a family of five, so I have shots of the whole family, siblings, brothers, etc. I took about 160 shots, so it's safe to say I did get 37 keepers. That's not to say a couple of those 37 aren't redundant. Back to editing!

Ah, I was under the impression that it was a single person.

Maybe change my opinion to: two good shots of each individual, and three or four group shots.

nathancarter wrote in post #17334621
Ah, I was under the impression that it was a single person.

Maybe change my opinion to: two good shots of each individual, and three or four group shots.

Yeah, I really should have mentioned that in the first post. This is pretty much what I did. I made sure there were no two photos from the same pose (with the exception of one group shot) and that there was a good mix of everybody. I ended up with 20 photos and she loved them.

This is the response I got: "I have tears...I love them so much!!! What an amazing job you did! Thank you so so so much!!"

So awesome to hear that . Thanks for the advice guys. Here's a couple from the shoot. I'll tell you, it was not easy to get seven eyes looking my way at the same time!

chexjc wrote in post #17335672
I'll tell you, it was not easy to get seven eyes looking my way at the same time!

Apart from the dogs it can be very easy... get everyone to close their eyes and open on a count of three. You shoot a burst just after saying three.

I do this with groups up of up to 200 people at weddings and get everyone looking my way easily. Family groupings at weddings I shoot in under 1 minute per grouping using the same technique... e.g. ~50 family groupings shot in under 40 minutes. Eyes open first time, 99% of the time.

memoriesoftomorrow wrote in post #17336526
get everyone to close their eyes and open on a count of three.

Great tip.

PineBomb wrote in post #17336533
Great tip.

This is what I have customers do in the studio to get their irises to open up a bit more and get a more natural smile. I tell them to relax and close their eyes, then on the count of three open their eyes and smile for the camera. Or ask them to make a silly face - usually either gets a laugh or at worst gets their smile out of the 'frozen' look.

10 and tell them you're being generous.

Make the rest available at x amount each.

We're in this to make money!

If I run a headshot shoot, I take 100-150 images and select 20-30 with the client for proofs, they then select 5 images which I provide in black and white and colour.

Add up your time for travel, the shoot, post processing. Then cost out the use of your kit and any wear and tear. Then add the cost of the training you will undertake each year.

I keep seeing people giving away work and feeling guilty for charging. If it's good work, charge for it, if it's not good work and you don't think it's worth money, then don't do it for customers at all, ever, period, because all you are doing is screwing up the photography business.

Sorry, but I just saw the photos. I am glad your client is pleased, but why do so many of the subjects look so damn miserable? None of those men have teeth?