Help, angry customers and bad word of mouth...

[Liz Caldwell]

Originally Posted by katsclass

lputnam- I require payment upfront the day of the shoot, but I haven't cashed the check yet b/c she asked me to hold the check til the 15th. I don't spend it til I know people are happy anyways, but just want to make sure they order asap. I won't contact them first.

Um, How well do you know these people? Is there a chance they could be setting you up? It's just that if they asked you to hold the check in the first place, maybe they had plans to cancel the check or to get you to return it by complaining from the beginning.

If it were me however, I wouldn't have charged for that to begin with. It's obvious that you're still learning, and though you're making great progress, there's a lot of meaning that comes with the word "Professional" , and part of that is knowing how to remove distractions (mom), knowing not only about posing but also knowing if the pose is right for the person, anticipating what the customer will and won't like about each image and so much more. I recommend doing a few more free practice shoots first.

I've been shooting for 10 years but only recently started charging.

That being said, I would offer a free reshoot IF they do call and complain (since this is all hearsay anyway) as well as a free 8x10 or two. Take extra care in the reshoot and give it your best!

[Pauli]

Originally Posted by Skubagirl

I still don't know what he's referring to when he mentions a "fixed lens digital camera" .. is he referring to a point and shoot?

- Lise

He might be referring to fixed focal length lenses, or prime lenses, i.e non-zoom lenses. I don't know the book, so can't help much beyond that. Ken is right when he says you should be looking at those shutter speeds where possible. 1/125th will be fine on a 50mm lens. 1/60th is about the lowest you want to go handheld. Anyone who says they can get as sharp less than that is probably kidding themselves Lise.

[Pauli]

Hi Kat,

I just had a look through your flickr account and you have some nice shots in there, but, and there's no way to be nice about this particular subject - they just don't work for me. I think someone has already mentioned 'no excuses' and that's bang on the money. As a photographer it's your job to make the shoot work. That's what seperates good professional photographers from semi-pro's or amatuers.

I think your first thought must be to protect your 'name' or 'brand'. You have to be pro-active, always. Get in contact with the people (leaving it just makes you anxious and lets stuff fester on both sides). Discuss the shoot in detail and get to the root of the problem (if you establish there is one) as soon as possible. If you take the initiative you'll diffuse any potential conflict. Being pro-active instills confidence in the client.

You don't want to offer a straight refund - EVER. The client will still be pee'd off and still might bad mouth you anyway. You can just see it now - "We had this terrible shoot with that Kat photographer and had to ask for our money back. I wouldn't use her if I was you.", even though you offered the refund. My advice for what it's worth would be to spend some real time and effort getting this put right. Offer a re-shoot at no cost and offer them the prints at half-price (or a price that covers your expenses). Insist that they take your advice about location, timings, weather, clothing etc. They are after all buying your expertise.

Secondly, don't worry about making a profit from this shoot, your sole aim is to get these people in a state of mind that they are delighted with your work. I know that sucks, but this is about your image. Advertising is costly and for a small business, as you already have pointed out, word of mouth is the most effective, and not only at building your business, it can kill it in an instant.

You'll need to plan the re-shoot carefully. She's not exactly the smallest lady is she, so you must find a way to make the shots flattering. Some have offered good advice on this thread already. Research online will get you loads of ideas. Look at some of the websites of top portrait or wedding snappers to get ideas. Definitely get yourself on a posing course. If you have friends who are larger ladies ask them if they would pose for you. Look for props that you can incorporate into these types of shoots. Practice, practice, practice.

Scout some good locations that will give you top shade. Use reflectors (cheap as chips on eBay) and make some diffusion screens to soften the light on a bright day.

As for pricing, NEVER sell yourself cheap. Right now I doubt whether you can compete at the top end of the market - nor could the current top end when they started out. The problem professionals have is that everyone has a digitial camera and everyone thinks they can be professional snappers. That's just a crock of you know what. Don't worry about Mr Cheap down the road. Mr Cheap will never afford new equipment to expand his capabilities. Mr Cheap will never get much better, he's found his comfort zone and earns enough - he isn't interested in becoming a better photographer. His focus is money. Let him have those who want cheap - they are the worst clients you can ever wish for (god that sounds so elitist, but it really isn't meant to).

I think you have got the potential to be a good photographer, but it takes time and investment. Shoot loads of tests for yourself. Step outside the box - break the rules. You'll be pleasantly surprised and it will give you an edge. To be a real pro, you need a style, something that says, "hey, that's Kat's work".

I hope that doesn't sound like a really long lecture, it's just a few thoughts after reading the thread. Good luck with your business, I hope you find success.

One more thing that crossed my mind. I wouldn't put images of my clients on a public file sharing site. I personally don't think it is professional. There are loads of great ways to get yourself online and put your clients work in secure password protected areas. Do you have permission to post them on a public site? We live in such a litigous world these days and you might find yourself in a lawsuit if you don't have written permission.

Cheers
Paul

EDIT: Kat, take a look here. It's a piece of software that displays posing styles. You can download it and install it on your PC. There are about 200 different poses. Grab a friend who is of a larger body type and get her to try the poses you think will work. You don't have to shoot any images. Just get a feel for what flatters and what doesn't. Print off the pose pages and mark the ones you like. Use it as reference when you shoot. Before long it will come naturally and you'll find yourself referring to them less.

[zebthepilot]

ok, it's pretty much all been said before, some fairly harsh, but constructive criticism. I won't comment on the photos in your photostream (I didn't look) as you chose the above picture as the one photo to represent, to us, this photoshoot. And as others have said, based on this photo, I'm not impressed. This is another instance of where you shouldn't show less than perfect work to your clients. It actually was a good idea for a shot and given a slightly different comp, and angle it could have been much better. Also, the skin tone looks off to me but I'm not seeing this from a calibrated monitor at the moment. I do wonder what your white balance was set to.

Stepping aside from the photo and to what you've said to us...

'the camera mis-focused' hmm... I agree, cameras don't typically misfocus. I have seen the autofocus on a camera go bad. But.... it either works or it doesn't. And might I add, your camera has manual focus. What I really suspect is that you're not paying attention to focus points and maybe using two fast of an aperture to make that problem worse.

Several of us might debate the earlier comment where someone said you can't hand hold under 1/60 (without IS that's pretty close maybe a stop slower for me (without a strobe). with IS on I can't tell the difference between hand held 1/60 IS off or 1/15 IS on (even pixel peeping) and regularly take decent shots down to 1/13 even 1/10 somewhat consistently. but I'm generally against rules that don't have exceptions. That being said, you do need to get familiar with your slowest reliable hand held shutter speed. For some it's 1/125 for some 1/60. 1/60 is a good starting point, many of the film cameras we grew up on had a fixed sync speed of 1/60 or 1/125 and a lot of photogs got used to those speeds regardless of flash or being hand held. just look up 125 @ 5.6 hmm... I'm sure I had a point in here somewhere. anyway, find what speed you can reliably take hand held shots at.

Double check your focus points. Make sure it's not set to favor a single point or trying to a-dep and make sure you're using an f-stop that'll give you enough depth of field for your subject. you really have to watch your focus points and f-stop on those fast prime lens. I wish I could blame the camera for a shot of a couple the other day but the camera did exactly what I told it too. It usually does.


"It wasn't the best shoot, (we all have those days) circumstances weren't ideal (when are they?) she was looking away in 1/3 of the shots (you control the shoot), my camera misfocused in probably 1/4 of them (you control the camera), the wind was blowing hair in her face, etc (so use the wind). Bad bad day (that we've established), I tried to postpone a few hours before when the cold front came in, I tried to tell them when they scheduled their shoot a month before that it was a bit late in the season (you're trying to justify it). But they wanted it then (it's your schedule, your shoot, you don't have to press the shutter button). This is not my best shoot (you've mentioned that a few times), but I think they are still good portraits (some are, focus on those and don't show the bad stuff) Apparently, according to a senior who I am really close to, this girl and her mom are not happy and her mom is going to yell at me (wow, that really sounds like high school, maybe a little too much feris buhler in that sentence). I am not afraid (don't be), I am just frustrated and trying to figure out how to balance good business and good customer service- what I should offer, if I should contact them first (if you didn't like these photos, you shouldn't have shown them and told the customer up front), these are my first unhappy customers (that's good) and God knows small businesses can't survive bad word of mouth. If you have any insights, please share!"

Learn from it. At the point that you came here saying it wasn't a good shoot, you admitted that as we're not going to tell you different. The final say in if it was a good shoot is the customer. When you shown them the 15 or twenty best shots how did they react? Showing a customer 40-50 shots with only 15 of them being quality your customer is saying "I don't like that one" more than "I like that one." What you should strive for in showing your proofs is. "I like that one" I like that one better" "I don't like that one as much" "ooh, I love that one" I'd rather have the customer say I like that one ten times than her say "I don't like that one 30 times and "I like that one" 20 times. it's all in there perceived ratio of quality. Showing them more images that aren't quality than images that are makes it look like you take more bad shots than good ones. Which, we all know is true of every photographer, but it's the image you present. (pun intended)


So... now that this is behind you, learn and move on. oh, and figure out why your shooting 24% out of focus. (but don't figure it out on a paid client)..


good luck

[valleygirl]

Originally Posted by zebthepilot

Double check your focus points. Make sure it's not set to favor a single point or trying to a-dep and make sure you're using an f-stop that'll give you enough depth of field for your subject.

Not so sure I agree with this. My camera's AF point is always set to center when doing portraits. Using all AF points for portraits is just too risky, imo.

[wannabehorsephotographer]

I've read lens reviews that say that autofocus on some lenses can be slow and occassionally misfocus - including the 50mm f/1.8. Mine is only noticible in low light and only about a tenth of the shots. I actually have more problems with my kit lens being soft. If it is fairly noticable and it sounds like it happens often, I would have it checked out - at least then you know where to start.

Hope everything works out - that's a big nightmare for me...A newbie pro myself, I often second guess my ability and worry that others won't like their shots, but it sounds like you've taken good steps and I've enjoyed learning from your thread.

[Loose_Canon]

The simple and only answer to me is a reshoot. Be proactive in this situation - it's your responsibility to make it right - no excuses. Everyone will feel better doing it over.

[Loose_Canon]

Originally Posted by zebthepilot

Double check your focus points. Make sure it's not set to favor a single point or trying to a-dep

I recommend a single point for almost everything, especially portraits. You want the eyes in focus. Everything else can fall wherever it will, but the eyes MUST be sharp.