Are you ever unhappy with the outcome of a shoot

And I mean paid shoot, I did some work for someone a while back and wasn't crazy about the pics. They just looked really blah and boring. I didn't even inlcude them in my portfolio in the end. The client was happy but I just was really upset with how they turned out.
A few turned out nice but not all of them. My wife said I was being too hard on myself but I know when I do a good job or not and I really didn't feel good about this one. Re-shooting wasn't an option also.

So anyone else ever felt like this? How did you bounce back from it for the next shoot?

That happens to me occasionally. Usually when I shoot, I try to shoot till the client AND I are happy with the photos.

Sometimes it's just the location that didn't work out well. Sometimes I didn't take enough time to figure out the lighting. To me, I view a shoot as a puzzle. When I get all the pieces, I feel very good about the shoot and everything looks great to me.

Sometimes, there are things that are a bit off and usually I try to push through it and change variables till I get the shot that I'm looking for.

Half the time I forget that I get paid for the work I do, so that takes pressure of me during the shoot, so I can concentrate on the lighting, set-up, and composing the shot, etc.

Yes, when i'm trying something new and I totally bomb it. I say one in 3 shoots hit the web, sometimes I just don't bother even asking for crit

Yup. Most times I can tell whilst shooting, but feel helpless to change the outcome.

Happened to me recently, did a family shoot and thought I would use the clients walls as a backdrop as the wallpaper was very nice and had a real contrast with the furniture, when the pics were uploaded I could have died has they looked nothing like I had envisaged when taking them.
Not shown them to the client yet but not holding my breath.

Chet wrote in post #9181376
Yup. Most times I can tell whilst shooting, but feel helpless to change the outcome.

That happened to me this summer when I was one of the photogs for my second-cousin's second wedding. I had a bit of a headache in the morning and was just not "into it". most of the pics were underexposed but I always shoot RAW so I was able to fix them. They looked alright when i was done editing them and the couple was happy, but I knew deep inside I did a crappy job. I felt like a GWC that didn't know how to properly use his gear.

The next shoot I did months later (and actually charged for it- I'm just amature at this point) went spectacular. The pictures were full of life and very little PP was needed! This got my confidence back.

I've felt the same for some of the shoots, but the truth is everyone sees it through their own perspective, and well the clients always seem to love it. The point is just don't let your clients know you're unhappy with the shots, keep things like that to yourself

I feel all the above, my past 2 shoots were like this even though I got some good shots and necessary, I'm not satisfied with the overall.. But when are we completely satisfied? never. I just tell myself the next shoot will be better and it's true because you learned from your mistake and know how to handle it better next time.

Well its good to hear I'm not the only one. I'm getting through the pictures now but there are some good ones now so I'm feeling more optomistic. I think it was just the first location, I was editing the pics and just not feeling them at all.

Btw genuinerolla, love your work, I have been a fan for a while!

FWIW Anthony, it's even possible to come back feeling this way after eight days at one location.

In my case, looking back, there were thousands more shots I could have/should have bagged while I was up at the big EAA Fly In at Oshkosh earlier this summer.

Sometimes, all you can do is all you can do (until next time!)

great advice Jay! were only human after all!

DonJuanMair wrote in post #9196076
great advice Jay! were only human after all!

Trust me, I came home with the sore flat feet and gear-hauling hunchback that told me anything I missed wasn't on purpose!

I e mailed over some pics today to be used by the client for a magazine ad and they were 'blown away' buy the pics. He was so happy with them he's sending me my whole payment tomorrow! He was going to wait until I had edited and sent them all over. I'm a happy man right now

I'm unhappy about every shoot I do - i just can't reach the fullest extent of the vision I see in my mind and it frustrates me.

It's sort of like the same feeling you get meeting a really hot girl who doesn't speak english. You want to ask her out...but she doesn't understand english, and you don't understand what she's saying...

Is that clear as mud or what?

Every shoot I do I wish I had done something differently but there's only so much little time, maybe the weather sucks, maybe there's something uncontrollable that happens, maybe there's not enough time to plan, or too much time and no communication, or maybe the client cancels and you have an amazing concept in mind and it's working out great....or the client cancels multiple times...or the pitch doesn't get a budget and the people behind it can no longer afford to hire you.

I lack the capability to fuse a conduit between my vision and my hands. It's there. But there's no conduit to carry the message across the channel.

Anyone get that too?

Yep. We're all our own worst critics! Just shot a 5 and 8 year old for their parents Christmas cards. The boys were pretty wound up, as you'd imagine. Got 20 or so 'acceptable,' (read: not good by me!) shots. Gave the parents a zip drive with the shots.

Heard absolutely NOTHING from the parents which indicated to me that they didn't like them either. FF a week later. Saw the dad and he gushed over the pics and they had a hard time deciding between the 5 they liked best for this year's card.

Just goes to show you.

dave