Edit proofs? How much?

Hi all,

Wondering how many of you edit the proofs you send to customers to choose from, and how much?

I will generally let Adobe Camera Raw auto correct all the files. If there are any color treatments I want to do I will apply them globally to all the files using the synchronize function in ACR. I don't bother with fixing blemishes or anything that requires detailed work on any one image. From there I export a PDF contact sheet of all the images and wait for them to send me the ones they want. It takes no more than 15 minutes to batch and export 400 files like this.

Once I get their selections I do quick individual edits to each image and upload them to my exposure manager account for purchase. It should take no more than 1 - 2 minutes per image.

My motto on proofs is "Done is better than good." Everyone hates waiting on photographers to send proofs and we all know photogs are notorious for sitting on images for weeks or months. I like to send them proofs and push them to the order process ASAP while they are still excited about the shoot. If I can get them a PDF contact sheet same day it really puts pressure on the next photographer they hire.

If they actually purchase anything Exposure Manager will ask for a high res file and from there I will crop and edit to the degree needed for whatever they ordered.

My clients are very happy with this workflow. The PDF contact sheets work great for commercial clients. If it was a school or other large volume portrait session I would skip the step 1 PDF and send the proofs straight to EM with minor edits until they actually order something.

Ah perfect!
I shall have to try that. Will have to look at Camera Raw. Haven't actually used it yet.

I usually just upload small high res watermarked versions to Zenfolio and they pick from there but I think I like the contact sheet idea better!

Edit:
Ah that is because for some reason I do not have it installed on my computer... that's a pain!

potn_momma2 wrote in post #8520467
Hi all,

Wondering how many of you edit the proofs you send to customers to choose from, and how much?

Depends on what you're ultimately selling. I have found that it's best never to present the client with an unhappy moment during the preview. Every image should be a pleasure, no image should require any explanations ("I'll fix that later") or self-recriminations from the client. If I know I will Liquify a bit of the flab on a client's arm in the final, I will do that in the preview.

Generally, I remove any fault that will be visible in the format that I present the previews. "See no evil."

However, I also ruthlessly cull my images down to a small selection of the very best. I don't show three images that vary only a little. I'll normally show only the best shot of a particular pose--my artistic eye is part of what they're paying me for. I don't show anything I wouldn't want them to choose.

RDKirk wrote in post #8522468
Depends on what you're ultimately selling. I have found that it's best never to present the client with an unhappy moment during the preview. Every image should be a pleasure, no image should require any explanations ("I'll fix that later") or self-recriminations from the client. If I know I will Liquify a bit of the flab on a client's arm in the final, I will do that in the preview.

Generally, I remove any fault that will be visible in the format that I present the previews. "See no evil."

However, I also ruthlessly cull my images down to a small selection of the very best. I don't show three images that vary only a little. I'll normally show only the best shot of a particular pose--my artistic eye is part of what they're paying me for. I don't show anything I wouldn't want them to choose.

I really agree with this.


A while ago I began making changes to the way I do business in order to better adapt to the "new photography market". Part of those changes included looking at how I made my money. I decided to make more money off of sessions and editing, and less off of "prints" which many customers are wising up to and don't necessarily want to pay for expensive print packages. So I upped my amount for, say, a senior portrait session and that includes 15-20 high quality finished images, and an album if they select one for the price.

Instead of allowing them to get lost in 120 proofs from the session online and selecting a few, I present them with the 15 to 20 that are fully edited and in final format. If they're not satisfied, I allow them to access the full DB of raw images to select others. However, in two years, I've never had this happen.

In fact, I've noticed something curious. The less images I present them with (20 as opposed to 120), the happier the client seems to be. And further, the more they buy. It seems like having all the proofs to sort through actually causes it's own version of indecision and lack of commitment to the purchasing.

If I were still putting up hundreds of images, I wouldn't be editing them all. But in my current system, I do.

hkhorn10 wrote in post #8523928
Instead of allowing them to get lost in 120 proofs from the session online and selecting a few, I present them with the 15 to 20 that are fully edited and in final format. If they're not satisfied, I allow them to access the full DB of raw images to select others. However, in two years, I've never had this happen.

In fact, I've noticed something curious. The less images I present them with (20 as opposed to 120), the happier the client seems to be. And further, the more they buy. It seems like having all the proofs to sort through actually causes it's own version of indecision and lack of commitment to the purchasing.

If I were still putting up hundreds of images, I wouldn't be editing them all. But in my current system, I do.

I was talking about this approach with my father the other day.
He's spent 40 years in sales and marketing, working on offering more choice, bigger selections, wider range, more options etc.
Recently however, there has been interest from distrubutors in reducing the choice and range of options and offering only a limited selection of products.

Lots of options means lots of over head for everyone involved in the supply chain, it means more stock to carry, more product codes, larger, more complex data bases etc, and most importantly, it means more data for customers to shift through, more decisions that the customer has to make and each one is an opertunity for them to walk away.

As photographers we are not over whelmed by the increased overheads as working digitally our "products" are virtual, but our customers still have to make choices. Depending on your market and customer base, there maybe an advantage to reducing the number of choices they have to make.
It would certianly be inline with emerging trends in other business types.

The problem is it's all theory. With selling photos, I don't see an easy way to do a controlled test. One photographer saying he is selling more photos now that he offers less may simply be getting higher end clients, may be getting better at his work, or may simply feel he's selling more since he has far more clients now than he did 20 years ago.

You could do a test by offering 10 clients 200 photos and another 10 clients 20 photos and see which sells more on average, however those numbers really aren't large enough to scale up. We'd need at least 100 clients on each side with each client being offered identical services except in different quantities. A moderately large studio could probably do a test like that in a few weeks.

My take regarding non-pro clients (moms, dads, seniors, models as opposed to commercial work for ad agencies) is everyone has different photos they like. What son or daughter likes is rarely the same photo mom and dad likes. What the model likes is rarely the same photo the make up artist likes. What I like is rarely what everyone agrees on. So by offering a large variety I can help assure mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, and all the cousins get what they want.

That's my theory.