Difficult client wants all unedited photos... please help

[astroNikon]

Thanks guys. Definitely some really hard lessons have been learned! And yes, I often wonder how the heck I ended up with so many photos. I'm still trigger happy and it's a learning process, that's for sure. I immediately reworded my website to say X number of photos.

Guess I'll get editing.... thank you again.

My first soccer game I shot I took over 1,000 photos. The 2nd one about 500 and it steadily dropped from there as I watched more for the "action" shots. Now I shoot about 300 in general.

The first photo shoot I did I shot around 250 shots. Later ones maybe 50. You learn to know when to take a shot and you have to manage the shot and don't allow the people to manage the photoshoot. ie, being bossy helps.

 

[tirediron]

Agree, you're on the hook for "all photos".

 

[KmH]

Tell them you deleted the other files after you delivered the final edited ones

IMO, that is very bad advice if you didn't actually delete the other files.

 

[Overread]

Certain methods also generate more waste than others; for example you might take a short burst of photos if doing a group shot; so that you can ensure everyone has their eyes open at the same time (or you've got an option to clone eyes from one photo to the other should someone have them shut in every photo).

Small bursts often give the impression that you're taking LOADS of photos; but when most are going to be either duplicate or dumped its not an issue

 

[Peeb]

Tell them you deleted the other files after you delivered the final edited ones

 

[dennybeall]

Gotcha! You shot yourself in both feet and then tried to walk to Calgary.
First!!! Fix the website.
Then delete all the really bad pictures. Now very quickly with minimal effort, work on the remainder.
Copy them to a 3 1/4 inch diskette and hand it to them. Not your fault they don't have a drive to read the disc.

 

[john.margetts]

Gotcha! You shot yourself in both feet and then tried to walk to Calgary.
First!!! Fix the website.
Then delete all the really bad pictures. Now very quickly with minimal effort, work on the remainder.
Copy them to a 3 1/4 inch diskette and hand it to them. Not your fault they don't have a drive to read the disc.

How many images can you fit on a floppy? Less than one, I would have thought.

 

[Scatterbrained]

I'm still agog at the 400 images from a portrait session. Or that you delivered so many group shots.
The fact that you initially delivered 80 images of a shoot involving 8 people. Maybe I'm out of the loop here but that just seems like overkill to me.

 

[Peeb]

Gotcha! You shot yourself in both feet and then tried to walk to Calgary.
First!!! Fix the website.
Then delete all the really bad pictures. Now very quickly with minimal effort, work on the remainder.
Copy them to a 3 1/4 inch diskette and hand it to them. Not your fault they don't have a drive to read the disc.

How many images can you fit on a floppy? Less than one, I would have thought.

Either 720 kb or 1.44mb on a 3.5 floppy

 

[tirediron]

I'm still agog at the 400 images from a portrait session. Or that you delivered so many group shots.
The fact that you initially delivered 80 images of a shoot involving 8 people. Maybe I'm out of the loop here but that just seems like overkill to me.

Missed that... wow... that's a LOT of images from a single session. Unless there are a huge multitude of poses a group of eight people should be wrapped up in less than a dozen images. As an example, I recently did a milestone birthday event for a long-time client's mother. There were about 20 close family members. Between the group shot of everyone and the sub-groups (a total of nine) I think I shot about 60 images and delivered around 35 proofs.

 

[petrochemist]

Then delete all the really bad pictures. Now very quickly with minimal effort, work on the remainder.
Copy them to a 3 1/4 inch diskette and hand it to them. Not your fault they don't have a drive to read the disc.

If you delete ANY it will show clearly in the filenames leaving them with a claim for their money back...
Capacity for a diskette would be woefully inadequate - & you'd need to fit a drive yourself. Unless you have something like an old Jazz drive lying around with spare cartridges making the physical media effectively useless is going to cost you a fortune.
Easier to save them as an unusual digital format (the more proprietary the better) & supply on a several DVDs or CDs. I can't help feeling that even that will be extra work just for spite.

 

[tirediron]

I'm honestly not understanding why this is so complicated. The OP made a promise to the clients; albeit perhaps an unintentional one, but a promise nonetheless. There are two options: (1) Ignore the client's request and suffer; or (2) honour your promise and take the time & work it will cost you as a lesson well learned! This could be the make or break point for a fledgling business, and how you handle this client may well determine your future. A satisfied client will tell a few people. A dissatisfied client will tell everyone he/she knows! Suck it up and do the right thing.

 

[KmH]

The fact that you initially delivered 80 images of a shoot involving 8 people. . . . just seems like overkill to me.

I agree. Massive.
And that is way too common today. Treating, and pricing, retail photos like they are a commodity instead of treating them like the luxury item they actually are.
Doing so kills the value of the photographer's work, and worse, it undermines the value of every retail photographer's work.

 

[Overread]

Delivering a high number is also very demanding on the photographer and I bet of those 80 there's a fair few repeats or shots that are just "soso". Thing is that many people grade a photographer on how much product they get; and for those who are not "arty" minded the value is weighted on the number of shots and little else (they've just no other measuring stick).

I would adjust your pricing and structure to certainly avoid "delivering all" and you could even leave out ANY mention of how many shots. Instead focus on the idea of them paying to get a session with photos; focus on the quality (5 great shots looks better than those same shots within a batch of 30 average shots) and on the overall delivery of the product (prints - yes everyone wants shots for facebook too but price for prints and then throw in digital on top - either as an extra or built into the price for the print*)



*prints cost X and you get a free photo processed for the internet too (ergo reduced size; optimised for facebook; copyright data in the EXIF*; set the dpi to a low value**)

*just set your camera to auto attach this info as default
** has no effect on web quality just on any attempted print quality

 

[table1349]

Looks like the mistake is yours. I would honor what was promised, to the letter of what was promised. Without seeing exactly what your wording is it is hard to advise beyond that. If it promised prints then you are in for an expense. If it only promised the images then give them the images. If you shot in raw give them raw. If in jpg then give them that. Give them exactly what is promised.

I never offered photos for non commercial customers, I only offered prints. Photos were far more expensive than prints.