Question on letting clients choose their pictures

[CoRNDoG R6]

I just recently did a pre-wedding shoot for a friends sister, my first paid gig ($50 ). And i went ahead and let them choose the ones they liked.

Here's my concern, they ended up picking some shots that i wasnt to fond of and overlooking others i thought were better choices. Should i worry about this or should i be concerned maybe knowing im gonna be judged on what they thought were good pics?

What do you guys do? Do you guys pick all the pictures or do you let your clients choose what looks good to them?

Just curious!

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[ann]

YOu should pick the ones you know are the best, shown them that and let them choose from there.

Never show anyone everything taken, it is a nightmare.

What did your contract call for (even for that amount of money, you need something in writing)? How many images? Then you edit to that number and they can do the rest.

[Overread]

I don't know if I would do such a shoot with an agreed number of images to produce at the end unless I were very experienced in shooting that kind of event. For sure there are some shots you can agree to before hand, certain poses and key events and groups and such, but there is a lot tobe taken that won't fit on the sheet - so I would far rather be free to shoot freely.

Also I do agree you want to go through first and remove any shots that are clearly substandard ( its your business/work so you want to be known for your best). As for showing shots edited or unedited its a tricky area.
Some shooters will edit a few key shots as a display and show the remaineder without specific editing (barring RAW processing) so that the clients can see the end result and make a choice without you having to work (and charge) for many hours worth of editing only for a handfull of those shots to be chosen
Others will only ever show the final edited works.

Personally I think it depends on the volume of work, the nature of the contract and the client themselves. Also I would say if you are going to do the former do it sitting down with them, whilst the latter you could do through the internet if you chose to to do so

[CoRNDoG R6]

Very good point! Next time I will take the time to go through the pictures and filter out some and present just those that I believe to be better shots.

I took these pictures late afternoon Wednesday and needed them before the wedding this Saturday! So yeah, I was pressed for time on taking these pictures home and editing them asap so I could have them ready for the next day so they could go print them out. That's why I needed them to pick the pictures they liked right off the camera.

[ann]

this is exactly why one can shoot in both jpeg and RAW, as the jpeg can be shipped off quickly, with the raw being better for those necessary corrections for a few images.

[Overread]

I would not use the camera to display your images - tiny screen, no chance for you to properly remove the dud images and heck just tiny screen. Further almost everything looks sharp on the LCD - larger sizes can look dramatically different. I would not use the LCD to show them images at all - if you want on site processing do as Ann suggests and bring a laptop with you and a few more memory cards - transfer the shots over to the laptop and show them the JPEGs - making sure to clearly point out that they are unprocessed and JPEG images. This works well at event shooting where you only have that day to get the clients interest and get them to pay up (often after an event people will find other uses for the money or just never get round to ordering.

In the case of a wedding you often have a decent grace period since the bride and groom are not going to run off without their prints - so take a day or two before presenting the images if you need it.