HELP! Bad Photo Shoot/Gig: How to deal with the aftermath

Michael79 · Apr 4, 2013

manaheim said:
shelle24 said:

View attachment 41311

Click to expand...

What the hell? Are THESE the pictures she's complaining about?

If so, I think you should tell you friend to logon here so we can give her a dose of reality. Those are FINE... bordering on quite decent. She's got nothing to complain about.

You know, this just adds strength to my #1 rule of pictures of people's kids... never take pictures for anyone that puts a giant bow on their kid's head.

I agree theres not much too complain about.

runnah · Apr 4, 2013

I was expecting terrible photos but those are pretty damn good given the described situation.

She sounds like a high maintenance ***** honestly. Is she stay at home mom with a Pinterest account? If so dump some ****ty filters on there and that will make her happy.

But I 100% agree. Never ever never ever never ever ever show your unedited images to clients. Not even under threat of torture.

kundalini · Apr 4, 2013

My suggestion is to change your status to My Photos Are OK to Edit. You're asking for help and many members here are wizards at post processing.

dbvirago · Apr 4, 2013

I think your 'friend' is getting inside your head. Turn it around. Ask her if it would be ok to use that collage to market your event photography to potential clients. Like others have said, I was expecting something horrible. These are fine.

shelle24 · Apr 4, 2013

Kundalini - thanks! I changed it to edit

Everyone, I really, really do appreciate all the help, assurances, and some much needed boost of confidence. She is really a lovely girl and a good friend. She didn't say anything in a mean matter and didn't mean to hurt my feelings, but I just wanted verification that I wasn't going crazy. As I said, it's not my best and I knew that as soon as I got home and started to look over them, but I didn't think they were as bad as she feels they are. Dbvirago, you're right, I think she got in my head and I just lost all sense of my abilities. I am still very new at this, doing portraits/people for just over a year and only doing about a total of 4-5 shoots, so I'm still learning!!

You all are awesome and made me feel better. I am going through and deleting some of the pictures that are really blurry or just salvageable and still going to give her the hard drive tomorrow since I already said I would. However, definitely not doing that again. It's way too stressful and I'm embarrassed for her to look over the 'bad' shots. However, you live and you learn and thanks for everything!!

~Shelle

runnah · Apr 4, 2013

Maybe do something worse like breaking an expensive appliance. That way focus will shift off the photos.

Steve5D · Apr 4, 2013

Hmmm... A couple of things:

Were you paid? If so, then you shouldn't have been helping her to set up as guests were arriving. That's her problem, not yours. If you were paid, she wasn't your friend, she was your client.

Second, the photos you've posted are fine. When you meet with her, log on to TPF and show her this thread.

Thirdly, if she didn't pay you, I'd give her nothing further. She's clearly not happy with what you've shown her, so it's profoundly unlikely she'll be all too pleased with anything you haven't shown her. If she has paid you, then she needs to be able to show you in a contract where it says you will provide her copies of the unedited images. If she can't do that, tell her to piss up a rope.

A "friend" wouldn't be giving you this much grief over pictures which are actually pretty good...

manaheim · Apr 4, 2013

Yeah, I'm sort of trying to avoid giving personal "advice" here, but... if someone were giving me this much of a hard time over photos I'd be wondering a bit... and if they were giving me this much of a hard time over THESE photos I'd REALLY be wondering.

Steve5D · Apr 4, 2013

shelle24 said:
I am going through and deleting some of the pictures that are really blurry or just salvageable and still going to give her the hard drive tomorrow since I already said I would.

DO NOT DO THAT.

I cannot state that emphatically enough. Do not give her a hard drive with unedited pictures on it. Don't do it.

Do not.

Just don't.

Seriously. You've gotten some good advice here. I'm offering you some more.

TAKE IT...

ewick · Apr 4, 2013

Maybe I got this wrong, but it seems you are not getting paid for this shoot, there was no contract and she is getting up tight about it. Don't ever shoot with out some type of written agreement (even and especially to friends and family). Like everyone else, I expected HORRIBLE photos but they are not too bad. If there was no contract you should just tell her you would be glad to sit down with her and go thru them (after you dump all the bad ones) but that your time is valuable and that you need to be compensated for your time and editing time.

runnah · Apr 4, 2013

manaheim said:
Yeah, I'm sort of trying to avoid giving personal "advice" here, but... if someone were giving me this much of a hard time over photos I'd be wondering a bit... and if they were giving me this much of a hard time over THESE photos I'd REALLY be wondering.

I blame etsy and Pinterest.

kathyt · Apr 4, 2013

DO NOT let her see ANY unedited images! This is a golden rule in photography. That is like me walking around downtown Chicago naked. Professionals do not do that, and she is walking all over you. Stick up for yourself, and take control of this situation. Let HER know what you are going to do from here on out, not the other way around. Friend or not, if you do not take the lead here this will happen again. I can assure you.

dbvirago · Apr 4, 2013

kathythorson said:
That is like me walking around downtown Chicago naked.

I'm not sure that's a good comparison. Could you post some pictures?

shelle24 · Apr 4, 2013

So, one thing I never really gave thought to was a contract - especially for family and friends. 99.99% of the time, my friends and family are just so grateful for anything, so I never really thought of writing a contract. This is the one time that I wish I had something, but how do you get around doing it without it being awkward? I think I would feel weird asking for them to sign something.

None of my photoshoots are paid, at least by money. I always tell them that we're both doing each other a favor because they get their prints and I get some practice. I usually get paid in food - yum! Yesterday, I actually did an engagement shoot and was paid with lunch and dinner.

This is the first time that I've been pressed into a corner.

So instead of handing over the hard drive, I should ask her to sit down with me this weekend and we both can go through the hard drive together?

Thanks again everyone!!

AaronLLockhart · Apr 4, 2013

I had a family friend of ours pull this crap with some photographs I did of her newborn. I told her I would stop by for a quick shoot and give her 3-5 keepers for about 10 minutes worth of shoot time. I ended up taking 200 or so photographs. Once I edited the ones we gave her she tried to con my fiance into passing over to her all of the unedited ones. Sad part is, my fiance almost did it. I quickly told her no, that wasn't part of the agreement, and a photographer NEVER shows their unedited photographs.