What’s Your Preference?

stikywiket · #1 (**permalink**) 09-02-2011, 01:09 AM

I've never had this happen before and was wondering if anyone else has, and what your thoughts are.

I had a senior portrait client - one of 3 different sessions that week. This particular client came to the shoot with some outfits she picked out, and none of them were very flattering. No extra options in her bag at all. I thought 'that's who she is, what she likes, it's her style so we'll make it work.' Minimal makeup on, which wasn't really a problem except that there was more skin retouching than usual to do at the end of the day. Hair wasn't curled or straightened, and she had decided, the week before, to put a random colored streak in that had faded out to an odd color by the day of her appointment with me. Again, I just thought, oh well - this is her style, I'll make it work. It's not that she looked "bad" - it's just that she didn't seem to put much effort into getting ready compared to most high school girls. I thought maybe she was low-maintenance and that she had a unique sense of style - everyone is different. She only brought 1 pair of shoes and they clashed with everything. I'll just not take a ton of full body shots, I thought.

Her mom came with her - and they were friendly and talkative, but her mom seemed to just want to get everything done fast - like this is a 30-minute gig and out. Mom was reluctant to go to outdoor locations that were slightly further away, even though I was driving. I took my time and we did it anyway because after all, I'm just doing my job and I want it done right because this is still my work. I want to give this girl time to get comfortable around me and the camera. And I want to make her, like every other client, look as good as I can.

So I get the shots, and when I reviewed them, I thought that considering the circumstances above, I got plenty of flattering ones.

When her photos were done being edited, I added her online so I could tag her. I decided to browse through her profile pictures. It was like I was looking at a different girl. She was done up, had cuter outfits, did her hair on a regular basis, and looked more slender. I was upset - at myself for not adding her sooner to see what she typically looks like, and at her for not putting the effort into preparing for her session that she does on other days for cell phone pictures. I don't know when she gained weight, but it must have been relatively recently. But even if I had, what would I have done different, turned her away? You know how when you retouch pictures for purposes like this, you don't want the person to come out looking like someone else once all the editing is done - rather, like them, but the best version of them? Well, I thought I had done that considering how she looked when she came into my studio. It's bugging me.

She's already ordered prints and didn't use all the credit that came with the session. She ordered a good range of shots but there's a decent remainder. Of course I told her that it's there for her if she wants to use it later down the road. I don't know what else to do though, if anything. I feel like something might be going on in her personal life - maybe she's been down lately, or it could be any number of things I suppose - people's lives are complex. She hasn't said one negative thing - all purely positive, thanking me repeatedly and telling me how much she likes her photos. This whole scenario is really kind of bizarre.

Has anyone else ever had something like this occur? How did you handle it?