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

[katsclass]

Okay, so I had this shoot a week ago, they came over and looked at the pictures on Tuesday night, had 15 or so that they said they really liked. Here is an example, the rest are on my flickr if you want to see. It wasn't the best shoot, circumstances weren't ideal, she was looking away in 1/3 of the shots, my camera misfocused in probably 1/4 of them, the wind was blowing hair in her face, etc. Bad bad day, 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. But they wanted it then. This is not my best shoot, but I think they are still good portraits. 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. I am not afraid, 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, these are my first unhappy customers and God knows small businesses can't survive bad word of mouth. If you have any insights, please share!

Kat

[kencaleno]

OK, what do you want to hear? To be brutally frank,this image is not a good one, you have a tree, or a post growing out of the person's head, pose is all wrong,exposure is wrong,there is a strong sunlit patch on one shoulder, and if the model was looking the wrong way in some shots,why did you take them? You, the photographer are in charge,you need to direct your models.And the last thing you need is a bad reputation-Remember this: "If you do a good job,the client will tell 3 people-if you do a bad one,they will tell 30 people." By the way, the camera doesn't misfocus-the photographer does.

To help you in future:

Concerning portraits, It is better to use a non-directional (Diffused) light source, due to the gradual gradation of its shadow, which doesn’t mar the portrait. If you’re shooting outdoors, for the best modelling you will want the light to strike the model’s face from the side, at 45 degrees vertical and horizontal. First get out of the direct sunlight, either in the shade of a building, or under the shelter of a tree. This will result in your model being lit by a diffused, non-directional light source, skylight or reflected light from surroundings. If you position your model looking towards this light source , the face should be lit with soft, delicate light. All you need to do is to move your subject, or your camera, to get light crossing the face.. What you want to achieve here is to have one side of the face brighter than the other by two stops exposure, giving a 3-dimensional rendering to the portrait. In case there is no tree, or building, you may need to resort to scrims, reflectors or blacks to modify the light to suit. Scrims are sheets of translucent material that are held between the sun and the subject to diffuse direct light. Reflectors are panels of card or material that reflects light, providing a soft quality of light. Usually white, silver or gold in colour, light bounces off the surface and into the shadow areas of the face. Blacks are the opposite of reflectors and they absorb light, instead of reflecting it. For indoor portraits, window light is a great source-First choose a window on the side of the house away from the sun-you don’t want direct sunlight, it’s too harsh. When you position your model close to a window, you get a soft light to one side of the face, and because the inside of the room is relatively dark, the other side of the face will be in shadow -a 3 dimensional look for your portrait.
Again, by using a reflector, ( Gold gives a warm tanned look, White will be most used, and Silver gives a glint to the model’s eye) you can arrive at the 2-stop difference - For instance F 11 for window -lit side of face, and F 5.6 for the shadow side- ( 3:1 ratio) for the ideal portrait. Or you can use fill-in flash as a last resort if reflectors, scrims or blacks aren’t immediately available. Set flash to ¼ power for head shots at 4 feet, (1200mm) or ½ power for head and shoulder shots at 6 feet (1800mm)

Regards, Ken

[lputman]

Did they make purchases of prints or are they in a decision mode? You say they liked about 15 of them. As unfortunate as it is and yes, word of mouth can be a detriment however, you've got satisified customers that use word of mouth also. Since you aren hearing this through a thrid party, I wouldn't approach them on the matter. If the mother does contact you to "yell" then you have your claim that they insisted on working in less that ideal conditions, against your better judgement and offer them a discount session to reshoot. In the future, you might have to be more forceful in your rescheduling when you know the conditions aren't right.

[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.

Ken, thank you for your expertise, part of my posing issue lies in inexperience with different body types, any expertise on flattering poses ? She wanted a swing shot so we did lots of swing shots and this was the lighting I was dealt, so I made the best of it and had mom holding a reflector to her right just out of frame. I don't see how the exposure is off, too dark for you?

[katsclass]

Oh and her face wasn't looking away, her eyes were, we would set up a shot, I take 5 of each pose at least to make sure that I have a good selection, and she would just randomly look at her mom instead of me...

[Jim Poor]

You have some good shots from the session on your flicker account. Many are much better than this one. Since you are basically dealing with a rumor, I'd not sweat it too much.

You've definitely got some lessons to learn from the shoot, but then again, who doesn't.

Cameras don't miss-focus, photographers miss-focus.

[sk66]

I can't see the picture, so I won't comment on that (I'm at work).

If you believe it is not your best work, and they are not happy, then you owe them.

Excuses are irrelevant. Bad day, they insisted, etc etc....it happened, and you let it happen. It is your business after all.

I would do anything in my power to make it right. Refund. Reshoot for free. Refund AND Reshoot for free. Whatever it takes. It may cost you, but that's business. It's a writeoff on your taxes at least (if it's a "legit" business).

Consider it an investment. I'd much rather work with someone who I know will "make things right" when things don't go as planned as opposed to someone who I only hear about as "everything was great". Things don't ALWAYS go great, that's life.

I'm not as generous as Ken, I believe if you do a good job...a really good job, the customer will tell one person,... if they ask. If you do a bad job, they will tell anyone who will listen.

This person has obviously already spoken to others about being unhappy, Now, if you make it right, she will probably at least tell those same people.

I am NOT of the opinion that "the customer's always right". But in this case I would say they are.

[dhart]

If she kept looking at Mom and you happen to notice it during the shoot, you could always ask Mom to stand right next to you or behind you. It's a thought.

[Melinda]

If I were you I would call them and let them know that you realize this isn't your best work and when would be a good time for them to schedule a reshoot ___ or _______. And then use the check they already gave you towards that.
Just my two cents.

[NobleEagle]

Kat,
I don't know if you gave them any of the digital copies or not. However, I personally would offer to do the shoot over and specify that they must heed the warnings of the weather conditions, time of day (if the reshoot is to be outside) and any others you may advise them of. And give it to them in writing and get them to sign it. The reshoot should show an attempt to satisfy the client especially when they already know what fees are involved.

Just remember, you can't make everyone happy but sometimes you have to go above and beyond if necessary. At least if they aren't happy with the reshoot, you made an attempt to correct what they saw a a problem. Some people are not reasonable and can't be satisfied.

Just my 2¢
Paul

P.S. The one I see isn't bad at all (nice work)...How many were they expecting from the shoot? (You said you had about 15 that were good).