tough situation portraits from another photog are crappy, I'm unhappy

[brians_lady]

okay, I'll try to explain this the best I can without sounding stupid, harsh, or otherwise a complete idiot.

My oldest son is eight. He's at that age where it's not quality, but the fact that it was bought. You know, $100 shoes are better than fifty dollar ones b/c they cost more. In this case, it's his baseball pictures. I try to apease him a little bit, just to give him that "taste of life" and experience with quality/cost etc on things just to use as a learning example. So before these pictures were taken, I promised him we would buy some of them. The photog is selling them as individual prints, and has decent prices, so I'm okay with that, the only thing is, they're not totally crappy, but they were obviously SFTC pics with no PP at all. I'm also assuming that they were "shrunk to fit" rather than "cropped to fit" as his head is diffferently shaped in different sized proofs. If I KNEW she was using ROES, i wouldn't worry, but gosh, you never know. Does MPIX only use ROES or do they accept other transfer methods?
I would love to have the files, if even just email quality that I could play around with and possibly get some wallets or 4x6's from. Just to play out some backgrounds, etc.

Should I just scan the ones I buy and do it from there or is there a "proper" way to ask for the files to be either emailed to me or put on a disk? I am willing to pay for them, b/c as a photog myself, I do value her time. I also understand that with her shooting almost ten teams, that she may not have the time to do the cutsie stuff.

So, how would you approach her about this?

[OeterB]

Why not just ask her about it? She may be more willing to come to some other arrangement for you. She may charge a little more per photo I imagine, since you can then make as many prints as you like, but I don't see it being an issue if you say that you're a photographer yourself and would like to do some further photoshop to them. And email them to relatives or some such. But I imagine it's something that happens quite often, where people would prefer electronic copies as opposed to hard copy.

[kaypea]

I would talk to her as a professional. Maybe she doesn't know how to do it another way. She might love the advice and you might get what you need. Just approach in a sweet helpful way, not critical.

[jprime84]

Theres no reason she couldn't email the files to you.

Also "email quality"? Attaching a file to an email should not alter the file in any way. If yours does, I suggest getting a new email address at somewhere like gmail.

[waffles]

Time to teach him another lesson and don't buy the photos. It's time to learn that you only buy something when the quality of what you're getting is worth the price you're buying.

[Jim Bryant]

Most of those sports league shooters are not really professional photographers and probably don't know any other way of doing it. Talk to her......maybe you can shed some light on the subject for her. She probably taught to shoot that way by the owner of the outfit.

[brians_lady]

Originally Posted by waffles

Time to teach him another lesson and don't buy the photos. It's time to learn that you only buy something when the quality of what you're getting is worth the price you're buying.

Yeah, really, I wish I could, but we're also wanting him to learn to keep promises, so I have to lead by example :-)

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

Most of those sports league shooters are not really professional photographers and probably don't know any other way of doing it. Talk to her......maybe you can shed some light on the subject for her. She probably taught to shoot that way by the owner of the outfit.

She's not a photographer by trade, she's an amateur and just happens to be a wife of one of the recreation dpt board members.

The more I think about it, I guess I shouldn't worry about requesting to buy digital files. I mean, one, I am paying for them, and two, it is the "norm" now, right?

I really appreciate the replies, y'all!

[waffles]

And I can understand that. But at the same time, you shouldn't teach him that you can provide a substandard product and expect people to buy them.

There has to be some way you can find an adequate replacement for the photos you're not buying from this photogrpaher. If she's using MPix then you can most likely get the same set up with your own shots. Maybe the team picture can't happen, so I might sacrifice and buy that one. Maybe.

[Gobae]

Originally Posted by waffles

And I can understand that. But at the same time, you shouldn't teach him that you can provide a substandard product and expect people to buy them.

Indeed; well said.

There's also a difference between saying you'll do something and promising you'll do it. The first should be always be predicated on sound sense, the latter is a matter of honor (though some would argue that, that too should be limited by common sense).

[brians_lady]

we screwed ourselves and used the word promise. but it's okay. she has her 4x6s for a buck, and since there are only seven shots, I'm fine with that. But, the hubby says that if he wants anything bigger to give away or hang in his room that he would have to earn the money and buy them himself. (which will be introduced after we explain to him that since we did indeed promise, we will buy the 4x6s for his scrapbook, but we are not happy with the pics and won't buy larger ones, but if he's willing to earn the money and buy them, he can if HE wants to. As we all do know that those kids learn by experience too.

On another note, I called the photog a little bit ago, and she's willing to send me the files if I buy prints, so I guess as it usually is, it all works out in the end.