For weddings, do you let clients pick their own pictures?

[eilla05]

Are you 100% sure that they agreed to let the photographer choose their images? That just does not sound right to me for a wedding. Who in their right mind would agree to that for their wedding?

Personally I think you need to suck up the attitude give them what they want and move on. Your killing yourself for future business by word of mouth and also run the chance that this couple will bad mouth you all over town, facebook and anywhere else it is possible which will kill your image in the long run.

While I would probably be upset about the whole deal business is business and at the end of the day your in this business TO MAKE YOUR CUSTOMERS HAPPY so do bare minimum editing on a couple hundred uplaod and then let them choose which 100 you do more editing on.

Is all this really worth the potential backlash and negative image you could receive? I mean really? Lessened learned and move on.

 

[MohaimenK]

Are you 100% sure that they agreed to let the photographer choose their images? That just does not sound right to me for a wedding. Who in their right mind would agree to that for their wedding?

Personally I think you need to suck up the attitude give them what they want and move on. Your killing yourself for future business by word of mouth and also run the chance that this couple will bad mouth you all over town, facebook and anywhere else it is possible which will kill your image in the long run.

While I would probably be upset about the whole deal business is business and at the end of the day your in this business TO MAKE YOUR CUSTOMERS HAPPY so do bare minimum editing on a couple hundred uplaod and then let them choose which 100 you do more editing on.

Is all this really worth the potential backlash and negative image you could receive? I mean really? Lessened learned and move on.

Thanks, if you haven't read from one of the few times I've mentioned, that's EXACTLY what I'm doing. Letting them chose the images and calling it a day. Thanks for your suggession anyway.

Oh and yeah, I probably won't get much referrels from these folks anyway because most likely they will go and tell their friends they paid $300 for them. They'll call me and I'll tell them $1300 starting and most likely they'll say "no way!"

I've calm down a lot since my initial talk w/ them and found out it was reasonable. But they should have told me this before, that's all I'm saying. Anyway, done deal. I'm done bout it. Thanks for looking guys!

 

[gsgary]

haha yeah I know. It's one of those thngs that you think would be a piece of cake the first time then you realize it wasn't worth it. I didn't care about the $300 till today when I get a acll saying "ohh so we wanna chose the photos now" and I'm like "wth? we already discussed this originally that I was going to take 100 pix from there and give you" anyway, yeah, talked to some wedding photographers that I know on FB, they simply told me to tell them to shove it and deal with it because a contract is a contract. But I told him I didn't want to deal w/ it anymore so I'll just let them chose upto 100 pix then $3 per pic (which is just about right looking at different wedding websites) there after.

In a way its a good thing because after going through the images quickly and looking at them, there are still a TON of images so they'll get confused on which 100 to pick out of them and will probably end up getting 200

It just pisses me off that I was supposed to give them the images this weekend and they just change it at the last moment. Thank God I didn't have them printed then I'd have just hung up the phone.

Thisis another reason i don't want to get into weddings, if i did i would not do them for less than £800

 

[MohaimenK]

Thisis another reason i don't want to get into weddings, if i did i would not do them for less than £800

Ohh yeah, my ideal wedding would go like this: Sit w/ the couple and see what they want, show them few ideas and prices. Find out who the main people are in the wedding (family members). Then ORGANIZE everything before hand. Make a contract, write it down, have them sign and end of story. No more weddings less than $1000 for me. Screw it!

 

[SwissJ]

Well, I know I posted about this wedding before but basically I was the 2nd photographer to be at the wedding. The first photographer said he couldn't make it a few days before so I had to step in. At this point the whole thing became my responsibility. I was first contracted to give my images to him and let him deal w/ it. He spoke to the couple before and contracted it for $300 for 100 4x6 and that's it. Which is exactly what I'm doing myself now.

Were you and the other photographer originally gonna split the $300? Wow, that's rough man. The other photog screwed you big time.

 

[MohaimenK]

Well, I know I posted about this wedding before but basically I was the 2nd photographer to be at the wedding. The first photographer said he couldn't make it a few days before so I had to step in. At this point the whole thing became my responsibility. I was first contracted to give my images to him and let him deal w/ it. He spoke to the couple before and contracted it for $300 for 100 4x6 and that's it. Which is exactly what I'm doing myself now.

Were you and the other photographer originally gonna split the $300? Wow, that's rough man. The other photog screwed you big time.

Yeah, and I was just supposed to hand him the files so I was happy. At first it wasn't even about the money. His thing was it's first time shooting at a church for him because he does most weddings that are not American so in our culture it's totally different wedding. This one was different because they're Christian so it was in a church which he thought would be a good opportunity. My thing was since it's my first wedding, I'd love to get the experience. I got the experience it's just sad that the agreement could have been done better. Yup next time it will be for sure :thumbup:

 

[sobolik]

I shoot the event and then edit. I shoot about 2500 or so with 600 or so making the final cut. About 20-30% depending.

I upload to Walgreens as 4x6 size and they can do what ever they want with them. I make it clear that if they want other than 4x6 I will recrop the original and upload to another album on Walgreens.

The price for the shoot gets that product. No fuss no muss. They can scrap book their own album or what ever they want. Like plaster the fridge with magnetic 4x6 photo frames. Order CD,s Whatever. I don't care. I am done and moving on.

I have a sign up sheet for any at the event that wants to give me an email address. They will get a link to the photos and they likewise can do whatever they want.

I don't water mark anything. I really find watermarks to be pompous annoying bragging stamps. (I understand if some make money off the prints that they don't want them hijacked) For me better to get the money up front and I'll give you several hundred photos to do with as you please.

The email sign up is great advertising as well. Dozens and dozens of people may view the results at peoples work, homes etc.

 

[MohaimenK]

I shoot the event and then edit. I shoot about 2500 or so with 600 or so making the final cut. About 20-30% depending.

I upload to Walgreens as 4x6 size and they can do what ever they want with them. I make it clear that if they want other than 4x6 I will recrop the original and upload to another album on Walgreens.

The price for the shoot gets that product. No fuss no muss. They can scrap book their own album or what ever they want. Like plaster the fridge with magnetic 4x6 photo frames. Order CD,s Whatever. I don't care. I am done and moving on.

I have a sign up sheet for any at the event that wants to give me an email address. They will get a link to the photos and they likewise can do whatever they want.

I don't water mark anything. I really find watermarks to be pompous annoying bragging stamps. (I understand if some make money off the prints that they don't want them hijacked) For me better to get the money up front and I'll give you several hundred photos to do with as you please.

The email sign up is great advertising as well. Dozens and dozens of people may view the results at peoples work, homes etc.

OMG I freakin love you for this suggession!!! Yeah I am not worried bout watermark crap for these, only do that for posting stuff on forums and TFCD model shoots for portfolios. But damn what an idea! Especially about the whole email address thing! I will do that for organized weddings. This wedding was so unorganized. The couple didn't even freakin wanna take some nice pix around the church, like alone or anything. I went to their house and they ahd me take pix of them in their backyard, which was a total mess!

 

[UUilliam]

What you could do is say "well, I have chosen 50 I think are really good and you would like, but I will let you choose the last 50 that mean most to you!"

that way, you aren't re-doing work, your just letting them choose what you have left.

but I wouldn't think anyone would agree to let the photographer choose which memories they keep, common sense would seem to me to let the person who paid for their memories to pick which they want.

I hope you work it out (Y)

just read your last post, looks like everything is worked out, nvm. @

 

[MohaimenK]

What you could do is say "well, I have chosen 50 I think are really good and you would like, but I will let you choose the last 50 that mean most to you!"

that way, you aren't re-doing work, your just letting them choose what you have left.

but I wouldn't think anyone would agree to let the photographer choose which memories they keep, common sense would seem to me to let the person who paid for their memories to pick which they want.

I hope you work it out (Y)

just read your last post, looks like everything is worked out, nvm. @

I don't want to sound like an a-hole but an honest question. Have you done any wedding photography? I just ask because, only to know why you'd think to let them chose the photos vs most wedding photographers choosing the photos themselves? Again, I am not trying to be a prick, ahole or anything, I just wanted to know beccause you seem to be the only one telling me to let them chose their own photos. That's all

 

[UUilliam]

nope I haven't But I know if my aunt or uncle or mum or w/e
wanted wedding photos taken.
they would want to choose their favourites, so I am pretty much giving a Consumers perspective on it

and D/w if you don't ask questions...
(by that I mean, you don't sound like an a hole.)

 

[MohaimenK]

nope I haven't But I know if my aunt or uncle or mum or w/e
wanted wedding photos taken.
they would want to choose their favourites, so I am pretty much giving a Consumers perspective on it

and D/w if you don't ask questions...
(by that I mean, you don't sound like an a hole.)

Ok cool, see you're looking it at it from your pov, as sentimental but in real world, it's not uncommon at all for the photogs to chose the photos. The main reason, they want to make money off them and it makes it a lot easier for the photogs. But again, anything can change w/ the right price, which becomes an issue for budget weddings. When I got married I talked to the photog/videographer and I didn't change my mind afterwards and told them something different you know? Now as a photog, I know why. Anyway, next time I do a wedding I will have an actual contract w/ pricing done and signed. I will b very firm. This was first and last on a situation like this.

On the bright side, now I get to relax and give them the pic another couple weeks later because my schedule has changed and since they're doing their own picking, I can relax and I'm going to FL next week so they'll have to accept it after I come back

 

[ababysean]

I made the mistake of showing someone a few pictures from my viewfinder before I went home and looked/edit them. It ruined the rest of the shots. She always wanted to see, and she got real self concious about her rear and her arms, and double chin, and.......

If you've done 50, tell them they can pick 50 more? but they have to keep the 50 you've done because you selected these for (insert technical photograph reasons)

 

[ababysean]

bahahahahaha! just read your post to the person above about letting them choose! I've never shot a wedding so there is my uneducated and inexperienced answer!

 

[Aayria]

Why not just edit as many as you can and present as many nice images as possible?

Tell them.. "I promised at least 100 images, but here are (insert number exceeding 100) that really turned out nicely and I thought you might like to have.

As much of a hard time you've had with this situation, it's still important to come out of it on a positive note, especially as a starting photographer. Their satisfaction with your service (reluctantly given or not) *IS* going to effect your future success.

I would just fix up as many pictures as I could from the wedding, and suprise them with more than they expected to get. Surely they were a little perturbed that their original photographer put them in the situation of having to change their plans. Why not make the best of it, and end up with a happy couple who are *GLAD* in the end that they got YOUR work instead?

If they still say "well didn't you take thousands of pictures? Can't we see them all?" Just kindly inform them that you took as many pictures as possible so that you'd be able to present a good final collection for them. I've posted this before, but just as a recap, here is what I include in all of my contracts in case this question arises:

What about the "original copies" of all the other pictures?

Aayria.Bella.Photography strives to provide high quality, lasting artwork that you will treasure for years to come. Many hours behind the scenes are put into editing and making your pictures really shine. For this reason, I very rarely ever show the original copies of any of my work. My goal as an artist is to take your breath away with your images, and a large part of what makes my work unique is the care I put into the final process.


Something to that extent is ussually all it takes to help people understand why they aren't getting every single picture you took. Especially if you over deliver and edit more than 100 pictures for them...

You can't go wrong putting your absolute best into every shoot and every interaction with your clients, whether they are paying you a great deal of money or if you were working for free. I'd personally use this as an opportunity to practice my buisiness skills, customer relations, and service.

Best of luck!