If Client did not like your photo and decides not to pay you, is that right?

nedomik

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Can others edit my Photos
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I work as an assistant wedding photographer and the bride did not like the color of her hair on some of the photos because she said it is "lighter than it should be". She demands to get the original copies of the photos but unfortunately, it was my mistake I did not have any of the original copies after editing them (which was basically brightness/contrast). I told my photographer boss that since the bride isn't happy he could deduct money from my paycheck for that wedding. I only get paid $11/hour. A wedding is usually 10-15 hours. So, I get about $100-150 per wedding. I don't get paid for the editing work I have to do after the wedding. Apparently, editing work is included already on that $100-150/wedding. My photographer boss said that since I could not get him the original photos, he needs to go to someone else to fix my photos who is good in photoshop and it would cost him $100. I would end up getting paid only between $0-50. Is that right? Is that fair? They still have my photos. Not all of the photos are bad. Besides, taking photos is only half of the work and editing is the other half. I am only willing to deduct maximum 50% of my paycheck. What should I do?
 
No. It is not fair. It's not possible to fix a non-RAW image.
 
Let this be a harsh lesson to never destructively edit your originals. Always keep originals separate from edits no matter what. $100 or whatever inconsequential sum is a small price to pay to learn this lesson.
 
You should have burned a copy of all the images before doing any work on them. The brides hair would have to be pretty screwed up if it can't be fixed with a few simple tweeks in photoshop, if it's just a little light. As far as not getting paid, you may just have to bite the bullet on this one, doesn't sound like the person that hired you is being very fair, but if you are going to accept work for hire, then you also have to be prepared to deliver what the client wants, everytime.
 
I would give them all the files I had and walk away from the whole mess and ask him not to call me anymore.

One, if your 'mentor' needs to outsource his Photoshop work, he probably shouldn't be your mentor. Two, if your mentor isn't editing every image before the bride sees them so he can make sure they all match his style and he is happy with them, he shouldn't be your mentor. Three, as an assistant, IMO, you shouldn't be giving images directly to the bride specifically because of situations like this.

Four, well, I could go on and on, but this entire situation sounds like a mess.

FWIW, when I assist in a wedding, I have a contract with the primary shooter. I know how much I will be getting paid. I know what shots are expected of me. I transfer all of my images to the primary either that night, or burn a DVD and mail it to her(all RAW files). Then she culls and edits ALL of the images from the night to make sure they all flow together, she makes the picks of which ones go to the client, and she usually shares the username and password to her upload site so I can see which ones she selected and how they were edited. I am free to edit(my RAW files) and use the images I took for my own portfolio(if I ever decide to make one).

Perhaps, I am just very lucky in the arrangement that I have, but your arrangement just seems horrible to me. If I were you, I would find another photog to shoot with.
 
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Let this be a harsh lesson to never destructively edit your originals. Always keep originals separate from edits no matter what. $100 or whatever inconsequential sum is a small price to pay to learn this lesson.
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Agree with above, really believe it is not your problem you should have turned over a disc to the main photographer to edit. I can't see why you would want different edits that would raise an eyebrow from the client, you guys were asking for this to happen.
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Believe that is why alot of folks use lightroom, it keeps the original file intact. HMMMMM something to consider.
Shoot RAW and do not alter the RAW files is a second option.

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Shoot well and learn from it, Joe
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Next time shoot the event and hand over a copy of your originals to the LEAD photographer to edit. Why would you want more work.
 
Let this be a harsh lesson to never destructively edit your originals. Always keep originals separate from edits no matter what. $100 or whatever inconsequential sum is a small price to pay to learn this lesson.

They preach that to us at the University over and over and over
 
This is not right. You did what was asked of you without the proper instructions. The "professional" you worked for is taking advantage of you. To him you are slave labor and he knows he can walk all over you. You put in the time, he has to pay you. If the bride did not like some of the images then it is up to him to fix them. She may have not liked any of his either and he is not telling you.

Your employers way of doing business is despicable and not the normal way of doing things as far as I have been doing this. Yes, you made some mistakes but they could have been avoided if the photographer was not so stingy and edited his own photos or paid to have all the photos edited at once.

Tell him on second thought you will need to be paid in full. If he has any questions you will have your lawyer contact him directly. I am so angry for you right now because when I first graduated college I was happy to have any job and it took me 2 years to finally realize my boss was walking all over me and I was making less than minimum wage. Don't be a dormat.
 
This is not right. You did what was asked of you without the proper instructions. The "professional" you worked for is taking advantage of you. To him you are slave labor and he knows he can walk all over you. You put in the time, he has to pay you. If the bride did not like some of the images then it is up to him to fix them. She may have not liked any of his either and he is not telling you.

Your employers way of doing business is despicable and not the normal way of doing things as far as I have been doing this. Yes, you made some mistakes but they could have been avoided if the photographer was not so stingy and edited his own photos or paid to have all the photos edited at once.

Tell him on second thought you will need to be paid in full. If he has any questions you will have your lawyer contact him directly. I am so angry for you right now because when I first graduated college I was happy to have any job and it took me 2 years to finally realize my boss was walking all over me and I was making less than minimum wage. Don't be a dormat.

If you're going to play photographer/photoshop editor then you are going to have to learn from the basic mistakes you made.
 
This is not right. You did what was asked of you without the proper instructions. The "professional" you worked for is taking advantage of you. To him you are slave labor and he knows he can walk all over you. You put in the time, he has to pay you. If the bride did not like some of the images then it is up to him to fix them. She may have not liked any of his either and he is not telling you.

Your employers way of doing business is despicable and not the normal way of doing things as far as I have been doing this. Yes, you made some mistakes but they could have been avoided if the photographer was not so stingy and edited his own photos or paid to have all the photos edited at once.

Tell him on second thought you will need to be paid in full. If he has any questions you will have your lawyer contact him directly. I am so angry for you right now because when I first graduated college I was happy to have any job and it took me 2 years to finally realize my boss was walking all over me and I was making less than minimum wage. Don't be a dormat.

If you're going to play photographer/photoshop editor then you are going to have to learn from the basic mistakes you made.

I totally agree. The Professional photographer made several mistakes and has to learn from them. You do not try to skip out on paying people.
 
Before I start, I want to make it absolutely clear I am not a professional photographer. I am a graphic artist.

It depends on the contract. I spell things out entirely BEFORE doing anything. I happen to like doing everything on spec, you win most and on occasion you loose some. If you don't spell this out then it's pretty grey and ultimately might depend on a judge's opinion.

If you're not willing to work on spec, this is why you have a startup or sitting fee, just in case they don't approve any proofs. This should be the absolute minimum you'll need to break even. If they don't want any prints, or walk away from the work you can just say "that sucks" and not "I just worked entirely for free"!

It's a balance between minimizing the clients risk while minimizing your own and still getting paid if things don't work out. From their perspective, you're saying "no matter how much you suck or screw up I'm stuck paying you", while there are a zillion analogies of why this is fair in your mind, the client might be uneasy with this arrangement. A non-refundable sitting fee, paid upfront is good a compromise.

But if you don't spell this out, my guess is (without any legal expertise) that the client has no obligation to you. No, it's not fair, but you didn't have a contract either - and that's what contracts are for, to make this crappy unfair world fair.
 

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