HELP! Bad Photo Shoot/Gig: How to deal with the aftermath

shelle24 · Apr 4, 2013

Hi!

I wanted to get some advice from a few people on how to deal with a person that's upset with the way the pictures turned out.

Background:

A good friend of mine at work asked me to take pictures at her son's 1st birthday party. When I arrived, she asked me to help set up for the party, so I didn't have time to take any test shots to get the metering, etc right. When I finally broke away, I started outside (to capture all her decorations leading into the party room), and by the time I got back into the room, people had started to arrive (they were about 15 minutes early). She had just finished or was finishing up the decorations in the room and had me take pictures of a family group shot. Because of the hectic environment of people come in early and trying to get all the set up done last minute, I immediately started following her 1 year old for pictures. When I had asked, before the party started, what pictures she definitely wanted, she told me to make sure I follow her son and take candids and action shots of him. Being my first indoor party, I spent most of my time trying to figure out the settings and following a child through more children and people trying to hold him, etc. Also, the room was horribly painted with mustard colored walls, and dimly lit with incandescent yellow light. No natural light was available. So after everything was said and done, I got a lot of pictures (about 2000) however, the color wasn't great (yellow) and because I disabled the flash and upped the ISO level, some of the pictures are either blurry or "grainy".

After editting a few pictures as a preview, she seemed happy with it. When she approached me later, she asked if I had gotten any more with her family and in-laws. I had said that I definitely got her family since they were interacting with her son more, but as far as his, just the group shot because of their lack of interaction. She seemed fine then too. Later that day, it must have set in, but she approached me in a panic mode (not angry) about not having specific shots and the color of the photos. I had edited most of the yellow out (which took me hours) and though not my best work, it wasn't bad. She said that she assumed that I would take other pictures, especially the set up of the table set up, buffet table, etc. I usually do actually do this, but because of the rush to finish the set up and then to take pictures as the party was starting, I just didn't have time.

Long story, I'm sorry! But now she wants ALL my uneditted pictures to go through one-by-one herself to see what's in there. I'm afraid she's going to get more upset by seeing the uneditted "yellow" and dark photos and be overwhelmed by the amount of them. At one point, I had continous shooting on, so there are a lot of duplicates or close to duplicates you can get.

She's a great friend, but I'm overwhelmed and stressed about this. I feel so awful that I didn't perform at my top level and my work was a failure for this shoot. It's turned me off of doing parties and just sticking with landscapes. One of the things she kept saying was that she had told everyone that she had hired an actual photography but now she has to go back and ask everyone that had a camera that day to give her their pictures, which hurt. I know I messed up, but to keep throwing salt in the wounds hurt.

Please help and advise!!

~Shelle

cgipson1 · Apr 4, 2013

Flash! A situation like that almost demands it, for good color, and sharp images. I am assuming you primarily work so called "Natural Light", right? Sounds like you took on a job you weren't ready to do... Shooting in those kind of conditions require really fast lenses, and a body capable of low noise at high ISO. What gear did you shoot it with?

Post some images... maybe we can make some suggestions!

EDIT: I see a D3200 in your profile.... is that what you used? What lens? Why didn't you use flash? Even the pop-up may have been better than nothing!

hirejn · Apr 4, 2013

Did she pay you? Did you have a contract? If she paid you and you didn't have a contract, you can expect this. If she didn't pay you and you didn't promise anything, she shouldn't be complaining, but that doesn't mean she can't. Sounds like you didn't set expectations correctly and also it sounds like you should have more experience before you offer photographic services. You can't rest on the fact that someone is a friend or family member; you need to set expectations and sign a contract. If they're not paying you and they're good friends, at least set expectations. High ISO is not a solution for bad light. If the quality of light sucks, it will suck just as much on high ISO as low. You need to understand light and flash.

If she's asking to see every image, that means you didn't set expectations. My clients don't see every image. They see the ones I select and edit. They do not proof. I cull. They can accept or not accept the images I give them, but I don't pull out others unless it's just a few or they pay me. Everyone manages this differently. I don't give clients images unless they're finished. That's my standard.

amolitor · Apr 4, 2013

Tell her there's a LOT of images and you want to at least triage.

Then go through the lot:

- for near dupes, select the best of the bunch
- out of focus ones and blurry ones, dump all of them unless you REALLY think they capture some essence of something about motion
- do rough adjustments on what's left to make them all more or less readable to the amateur eye. bring levels up so you can see who's in it, etc.

Then block out some time to sit WITH her, and go through them. Use tags, labels, star ratings or whatever. If she needs a photo of Uncle Edward, then you'll want to work with her to pick out the best 3 photos of Edward. There's going to be a LOT of this personal stuff that she can't just tell you up front, she'll have to see 'em to know what she wants. She'll see something and say "Oh! We need that one!" and then you say "Why?" and she says "Well, we need one with Sally and her children together!" and then you can go through and find the best ones that have Sally and her children, not just the one she stumbled across.

Work with her side by side to triage the collection down to the photos she wants.

Then head off to your lonely artist's garret, and do your best with those. A terrible image with an important grouping of people is better than no image, often.

Rob99 · Apr 4, 2013

2000? Of a birthday party? Damn...

Never give unedited photos, never.

Mully · Apr 4, 2013

Out of 2000 you should be able to salvage 75-100 images with some work....... I would edit them to the 100 best and work from there. You might be able to create an action in PS that would get you close to a decent image and post process from there ......good luck and sorry this has happen but you will learn a lot.

kundalini · Apr 4, 2013

shelle24 said:
.....Long story, I'm sorry! But now she wants ALL my uneditted pictures to go through one-by-one herself to see what's in there. .....

Long story cut short, the answer would be an emphatic NO!

shelle24 · Apr 4, 2013

cgipson1 - I can definitely say that I wasn't ready for this and am regretting taking the gig. I'm used to natural light and do a lot of outdoor shoots, especially engagement pictures and landscape shots. She had seen some of my engagement photos and loved them and asked if I'd help out and take pictures for her party. I had expressed to her that I wasn't used to indoor shooting and that it made me nervous, but she wanted to have me do it nevertheless.

I just have the Nikon 3200 - hoping to get more gear soon.

When I had used the flash, the photo came out looking very harsh. I upped the ISO and shutter speed to compensate, but bad news bears. Thank you for your reply!

shelle24 · Apr 4, 2013

hirejn - thank you for the feedback! She didn't pay met, it was done out of a favor as a friend, but I definitely didn't set too much up prior. I did explain to her about my lack of experience for indoor shooting, but she didn't seem to mind or seemed concerned. Also, I usually set a time to sit down and get a check list of all the 'must have' pictures, but everytime I tried, she was too busy and not too worried about it. That's why I was a little surprised when after it was all said and done, she demanded why I didn't take certain pictures. I should have done a better job at meeting with her beforehand and getting a better picture of things, but also she didn't seem to be too concerned until after everything was said and done.

I usually don't show every picture either. I usually select a few of the better shots and edit them and put them into a collage (see attached) for people to view within a day before I really start to hunker down and do major editing. But she's having a panic moment that no one else at the party capture certain moments and wants to see if I had gotten it.

Thank you for your feedback!

shelle24 · Apr 4, 2013

First picture is what I've done in the past for family portraits (outside)...the 2nd picture is the collage I provided as a preview for my friend of the disastrous birthday party.

manaheim · Apr 4, 2013

I gotta say...

1. Freaking out THAT much over a 1 year old's birthday party pictures? That's kinda insane... and I'm saying this as a parent.
2. Go through all your shots and trim out all the rejects, then use bridge to renumber them all so they all appear in series so she won't know any are missing. Then sit down with her as Amolitor said.

Whether she's a bit mental over this or not, clearly she's your friend, so by and large I'd say do your best to comply without overly exposing yourself and making it worse. Your instincts here are good, I think. Too bad they weren't a bit better before you engaged in this (and thought to say no!), but a lesson learned... next time set expectations or simply don't do things like this for friends/family.

manaheim · Apr 4, 2013

shelle24 said:
View attachment 41311

What the hell? Are THESE the pictures she's complaining about?

If so, I think you should tell you friend to logon here so we can give her a dose of reality. Those are FINE... bordering on quite decent. She's got nothing to complain about.

You know, this just adds strength to my #1 rule of pictures of people's kids... never take pictures for anyone that puts a giant bow on their kid's head.

shelle24 · Apr 4, 2013

Amolitor and Manaheim,

I'm actually doing that right now since she wants the hard drive tomorrow morning. Thanks for all the advice everyone! I really appreciate it!!

~Shelle

shelle24 · Apr 4, 2013

manaheim said:
shelle24 said:

View attachment 41311

Click to expand...

What the hell? Are THESE the pictures she's complaining about?

If so, I think you should tell you friend to logon here so we can give her a dose of reality. Those are FINE... bordering on quite decent. She's got nothing to complain about.

You know, this just adds strength to my #1 rule of pictures of people's kids... never take pictures for anyone that puts a giant bow on their kid's head.

Thank You! Yes, those are the ones. When she found out they were edited, she went into another spiral of panic. She thought these weren't edited, which now I'll go back and try to make them a bit better - any suggestions?

Thanks!