Client Upset That Certain Photos Weren't Included!

[elbowmac]

I had a family shoot recently, parents and a special-needs child. The child, sweetie that he was, was a huge challenge. It was difficult to get him to open up and look at anything but his feet.

Having said that, I was able to get 25 great shots (in my opinion!) that I put on the disc for them. 25 is that amount of photos the family was expecting.

I did take roughly 200 photos. You guys know how it goes, some don't turn out, some the light is wrong, some eyes are closed/funny expressions, not to mention my above challenge with getting acceptable photos of the child, etc. I had taken some family photos on a bridge and near a gazebo. Neither place worked out so I didn't include those photos on the final disc. I did, however, include 5-6 great family shots where everything was perfect.

I got an email from the client today, wondering why those certain photos weren't on the disc. I have had this question once before, and replied to that previous client that I reserve the right to not include any photos that were taken. I feel like that was too harsh, and that I should have handled it differently. I feel like I lost a referral with that previous client.

On the other hand, it IS my right to not include crappy photos! The photos I give to the client are representative of me as a photographer and I don't want to be represented by anything less than my standards.

What would you guys do? Any advice?

[DianaS]

I am new here and not a professional but I totally agree with you. You have to give your clients your best work. I know we just had our family photos taken and I know my photographer took LOTS of photos but we only got like maybe 20 images. I was kinda bummed at first because I know she took tons, but then I realized she only wanted to give me the best of what she took and I know she would give me all the "great" ones. We've had her do our photos in the past and we've gotten tons more out of her. So I know LOTS of them must not have turned out. I'm kinda bummed, but I know that is the way photography works. Not all pictures turn out and I hope your client can realize that as well.

Good luck!

[StillFocus]

Definitely handled that incorrectly. Tact is very important when dealing with customers.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Person, I didn't include the photos from because they didn't turn out as well as I had expected. As my customer, I feel that you deserve nothing less than the very best quality product that I can provide."

[mosgood]

I would have said something to the affect that the other photos taken that day weren't up to your standards, & that you present only the creme de la creme to clients. People who know little about photography really think that if you have a semi-decent to top notch gear, you always get top notch photos. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way (wish it did!). Not sure how you can convince people. I had a similar issue pop up a few weeks ago.

[Niresangwa]

You completely blew the whole set from two locations? Don't you think it's natural she would wonder how that happened? Roughly 10% presentation rate with completely missing portions of the shoot, I"d be wondering too.

Ultimately all you can do is BS your way out of it as has been suggested here, and especially don't try and slide the cause onto the family or the child, (if indeed they were the cause of the problem, and it wasn't a technical issue which would be a whole different story).

If you quoted 25 in your contract and you delivered it in a fair proportion of variance, well, you've fulfilled your obligation. Don't ever underestimate the value of over-delivering however.

This being the second time it has happened to you, being challenged openly that is, maybe you should be evaluating yourself to prevent this from happening, rather than scrambling to put out a fire without hurting anyone's feelings or making yourself look bad after the fact?

[nickbedford]

I have to agree with Niresangwa on that. Messing up on two whole locations to the point where none are up to your standard is a bit of O_o for the client. I would rather know that they're not quite working and warn the client at the time than do two locations and not deliver any without any word to the client about why. With digital SLR's there really should be no excuse anyway and with raw format, you should be able to do a fair amount with a photo before calling it quits. Sure, chimping isn't as good as looking at the photo on a large screen, but as a professional you should be able to know how you're doing and say, "We'll try a few more here but I'm not sure if these are turning out as well as I'd hoped. I will let you know how I go in post."

There's nothing wrong with that and the client then knows what's going on. Though, I wasn't there so I can't comment too much.

That being said, I've stopped doing any sort of paid 'event/coverage' photography as I've gotten this before and I don't like the quizzing from clients (not many though). "Where's this exact photo? Where's that specific photo of the dog holding up the hoola hoop with his head turned to the right and a person jumping in the air in the background?"

[gturner]

Time to roll out the "corrupt card" excuse.
If you have short delivered and the client has a valid query, maybe best to reshoot something.

[wulf]

How about something like "I'm afraid the lighting wasn't great for some of the locations, which is why we moved from place to place to seek the best results. I did get some reasonable photos on the bridge but I'm afraid none of them showed your son at his best. If there are particular places you would love to have photos, we can focus on them in a future session and find a time of day when the lighting is likely to be better". Include an example picture that looks okay but not great (freebie! ... after all, it is worth nothing to you if you never use it) and you might get another session out of it.

If the client persists in being awkward and demanding, then perhaps it's best that she and her friends don't work with you any more but you will have taken a step towards sorting it out without undermining your business.

Wulf

[homank76]

Just subscribing if I have any clients like this in the future.

[Biomech]

Just a thought to bare in mind. You said they weren't up to *your* standards. Obviously you want to give the client what you deem to be the best, but let's not forget that we can often be over critical of our own work to the point where a "great" photo because not good enough. I certainly do it all the time, the photos that many consider really good I can find 20 holes in.

Are there no photos from those locations that weren't you best ever in the whole world, but were what other people would consider really good?