Giving what shots to clients

Okay, so I just did my first semi-solo studio shoot(my boss emailed me and asked if I wanted to photograph this little girl. I was like, 'sure! Can I bring my own camera and process them?'(I'm trying to learn all I can before I go totally all out into this business)
He's like sure...

Well I just finished going through them, cropping etc.etc. Went to change some to B&W, but then I found this preset that goes[I think] perfect with the little girls outfit.

Now my question is: what do I give the clients? Do I give them all the 'original color' shots along with all the ones I 'edited'? I would think yes, because well...the parents might not like the color preset or this shot in B&W and jazz.

What do you guys do?

Hope I made sense!
Thanks in advance,
Alex

I think most photographers let the client pick their favorites.

your the artist.. pick the one you like.

I pick my favourites, process them the way I see fits the best with the style of the photos and give the edited shots to my clients. Never had a complaint. BUT I do not over-process, they still look natural.

Clients don't really know what they want. When I photography weddings I will always pick out the best photos and edit them for print.
When I first started photographing weddings, I usually let the clients pick out the photos, what I notices. They will pick out the bad ones all the time, such as a group shot and someone in the group has their eyes close. Or a photo of the bride with their feet crop out.

alright.
Thanks so much guys! (:

Cypther wrote in post #11791228
Or a photo of the bride with their feet crop out.

Why would you take a picture and crop her foot? Or even offer that as a possibility if you dont want it printed?

Myself, I would show the approved images, and maybe toss in an edited one as well, but not just the edited.

Within a shoot I usually have a few different sets. You know where there is a change of clothes or location. In my mind before I even shoot the first image I have an idea on how I want to process them. I, generally, try to process the entire set the same way then move on the next set where I may process that set entirely different or the same.

When I first started out I used to process an image and provide the client a few different versions of an image. All that did is confuse the client. The only versions I offer now is a few done in b/w to see what my b/w processing looks like. I tell the client if they see one they want in b/w I can provide a proof in b/w for that image if they like. Rarely does that happen. They usually purchase the b/w's that I've already done.

But like someone already said. You are the artist you decide your vision and how it will be executed.

'Pends. Sometimes one version strikes my art-eye (the one in the middle of my forehead) just right and I'll show only that.

Or I might show both and stress that I really, really like one over the other.

Expressing a definite preference seems to be an option that a lot of photographers don't use. I use it all the time: "This is the one I really love--I knew as soon as I took it that it's the one you should have over your mantle. The others are great, but this one is just wonderful." So they get to see more images, but you point them toward the best choices.

But Cypther is correct in that clients don't usually know what they want and they depend on your eye (which should be the major reason they hired you). You have to give them some definite guidance.

And do not show them anything you don't actually like yourself. Show only those you'd be happy to see exposed to the public. An exception to this rule would be record shots, such as the wedding image of Aunt Tilly that's out of focus because she's really a vampire, but in general, don't show what you would not be happy with them choosing.

So that really was Aunt Tilly I saw at the Blood Bank last week.

I found out long ago when I first went digital, that if you show them too many they feel swamped and get confused.

As stated above, only show the best of the best as your eye sees it!

Thanks so much for the replies, everyone! (: It really helped me a lot. I'm now off to go finish my processing!

I would not do complete processing on all the image.... I'd select the images I felt were the best, do light editing work on those and produce a set of proofs or thumbnails for the client to look at. Once they have done so and made some selections, I'd finish the post processing only the selected images. Otherwise you end up spending a lot of time working images that will never see the light of day.

First quick pass through the images, trash all the ones that are out of focus, poorly composed or incorrectly exposed. Any shots of my toes go straight into the bin.

Next go through and look more closely at composition, subject expressions, etc., selecting the best. Eliminate any close duplicates.... keep just the better one.

Sometimes I'll make suggestions, such as a B&W conversion or some other effect. When I do that I'll show them proofs or thumbnails of both the original and the conversion image. (I use Printroom which makes it easy to do this... you can create as many "virtual copies" of a particular image as you want, with each one a variation on the original with any additional effects that I choose to show.)

It's usually best to show as few images as possible. One recent request I went through some 30,000 images to boil it down to 400 for the client to view. Ultimately they need between 15 and 20 for a project. Another I probably reviewed one or two thousand images, but ultimately sent the customer 36 to select from. They need to make up a brochure with 2 to 4 images.

It's often necessary to let the customer know that these are not finished images, but just for them to make selections and narrow it down further. You don't want them trying to use the images (I've had it happen!). If you are providing thumbnails you would think it's obvious. If providing larger proofs, might be a good idea to watermark them, at least with the word "proof". What happens is they try to use the low rez image, realize they can't, then contact you at the last minute. You end up scrambling, pulling an all-nighter to get the final processing done for them in time for their publication or whatever!

AmandaLeigh wrote in post #11790946
I think most photographers let the client pick their favorites.

Not in my experience.

It's one thing to give options. It's quite another to give away artistic control over the images. If I think an image will work well in B&W, I generally offer both colour and B&W versions to the client. But ultimately, the decision to process in a certain way is mine, and mine alone.

I take a few photos out of each set do various color edits, I let the client know that I can supply a normal version as well if they like. I've never had anyone ask me to remove the effect, and only one person has asked me to do more in a particular style. As was said above, most people don't know what they want.

I don't like doing to many though, because I worry in ten years those photos are going to look dated.