What to do when...

[kellylindseyphotography]

a client says they want to see pictures that they know you took, but didn't come out very well?

I mean, its not that they are horrible, but they just aren't as good as the others I've showed her. In her words:
"I would love to see all the pictures you took (good or bad) if that is possible. They of course do not have to be touched up or anything. Just curious. "

I want to make her happy of course, but I don't want to show subpar work either.

 

[ScottS]

The only time my clients get to see unedited pictures is when they are on the back of the camera. Other than that, I edit everything before I let them see it.

 

[rubbertree]

I agree. I would never show a client unedited work. why does she want to see it anyway? Sounds strange for her to be so curious...

 

[Sw1tchFX]

The only time I can imagine the client wants to see the other images, good or bad, is if they're not happy with the processed ones and want to see more options, they might want to see if there are any better ones with their own eyes.

or

The images were so good that they really want to see more and don't care what they look like because they're so happy with what the processed ones look like.

 

[Big Mike]

Actually, I get this request quite often when I do kids & baby portraits. With kids and especially babies...each photo is different because they are pretty much doing their own thing. Each one is a different expression and the parents will love some of the ones that we don't think are the best.

If I'm selling them the files, I will just burn a CD of the other files...not including any test shots or ones that are really bad.

For weddings, I will probably not give then any of the other shots and just tell them that these are the ones that are up to my high standards...and the others are not.

 

[kellylindseyphotography]

Actually, I get this request quite often when I do kids & baby portraits. With kids and especially babies...each photo is different because they are pretty much doing their own thing. Each one is a different expression and the parents will love some of the ones that we don't think are the best.

Yup not strange to me at all. There were some shots that I had taken of her son when we asked him "where's your belly?" and he was lifting up his shirt with a huge grin on his face. Only, he would grin looking straight at the ground, then take off running. So I took like 3 or 4 shots, and it was a cute idea, but no good expressions and you can't see his face since he kept staring straight down.

Those were the ones she was specifically asking about... I told her I'd share them with her, but that he wasn't looking at the camera so thats why I hadn't shared in the first place.

 

[AprilRamone]

Since I don't want to show clients unedited proofs ever and since I take too many to show all of them, I tell them that they will see between 20-30 retouched proofs and only show these.
I used to try and please them by going down that path and editing more and in the end they realize that you really have already chosen the very best ones and don't even want the ones that you spent time editing!
So, I make it very clear that the ones that they are seeing are the very best ones and that I'm not holding back any great ones for them.
If they are being very persistant, you can always pick out a couple where they look awful and show them and they will probably leave it alone after that lol
Also, you can always say that you charge $xx per hour to do additional retouching work beyond the original proofs presented. Upon hearing this, they usually realize that they are actually quite happy with the proofs already presented to them!
-April

 

[nicfargo]

I don't even show my own family unedited pictures. Example: Yesterday I took pictures of my nephew for his 18 month (didn't realize we celebrate half birthdays but whatever). My sister wanted to see the pictures right away and I told her I needed to edit them. She asked about three or four times and I told her there had to be some sort of processing before they even look like pictures because of the format they're in. Since I shoot in RAW, I could have just told her they are in a digital negative format and tell her to think of film negatives and what those look like before they're processed (we all know this isn't exactly how digital works, but I still hate showing unprocessed work to anyone.)

 

[kellylindseyphotography]

Funny enough, I Decided to give the shots one more look over and looked more closely at the belly ones. I started working on one and really ended up liking it. I though it was bad and skipped right over it at first..

 

[3of11]

Great ideas everyone! I am so new at this and am soaking up everyone's advice.

 

[391615]

Interesting, I was about to send a model 50 unedited photos, made me rethink, yes, I wouldn't want her to see shocking photos, would do me more harm than good. Best to work on the good ones.