Lighting and Portraiture Tutorials
You are here: Home / Articles / Photo Talk / Proofs You Don’t Want Your Clients to See

Proofs You Don’t Want Your Clients to See

August 23, 2011 By 4 Comments

What’s your opinion on this?  You do a session for a client and all goes well.  After editing you select only a fraction of the images to present as proofs.  This is common, but some clients will ask to see the “other” shots;  the ones that did not make it into the final selection.  What if a specific outfit or set of shots the client thought would work, just didn’t result in anything she should see (for your sake, and hers)?  How would you handle this situation?  Leave your comment below:

Get tips, inspiration, and discounts in your inbox! Signup for our free newsletter here!

Filed Under: Photo Talk Tagged With: , ,

Comments

  1. jimmyD says:
    August 23, 2011 at 11:31 pm

    Outside of blinks and misfires, no-strobe-fired or accidental shutter clicks, my clients get it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Been my experience as long as there’s killer shit in there, they’ll overlook the crap, i.e., most of them will remember the best of the sets and forget the worst.

  2. Belinda McCarthy says:
    August 24, 2011 at 3:25 am

    Thanks for putting up this topic Ed!

    I get this a lot and am still trying to find ways to deal with it without offending the client. Of course, some clients have the conception (and misconception) that as soon as you press the shutter, they own the rights to everything that hits your sensor. First of all, I’m clear in my terms and conditions (and normally, where I can, verbally) that yes, I will take more shots than they’ll receive, but I will only provide them with the very best images as proofs, technically and artistically. I make the point that many shots will be practically identical to the previous and following (particularly in candid shoots where you’re firing off many shots). As my ‘proof’ shots are fully edited, I’m certainly not going to be editing hundreds of unnecessary shots.

    In my terms and conditions, which are within invoices, quotes and contracts, I have the following clause: ‘the choice of proof images forwarded to the client is subject to the Photographer’s professional judgement alone, and additional images will not be provided to the client or kept by the Photographer.’ I make the point to people that I also edit ‘in camera’ and anything sub-standard will be deleted before I get back to the office – thereby managing their expectations that if they heard the shutter go off twenty times, that doesn’t mean twenty shots to choose from.

    Weddings are often instances where clients will say, ‘can you look again and see if you took a picture of Bob / me and Liz together / etc’. I do reassure them at this point that every usable, quality image that was taken on the day, that isn’t a carbon copy of another, has been provided to them.

    It’s a difficult one, but as far as I’m concerned, the client needs to distinguish between an amateur working style or their own experience of photography – where they’ll take a card full of shots and then look through all of them – and a professional’s way of working, where our reputation, professional judgement and eye will select the right images to present to them.

  3. Russ Robinson says:
    August 24, 2011 at 7:25 am

    I used to be much more liberal with what I’d show my clients, but lately I’ve been narrowing it down more and more. My first pass in Lightroom eliminates the obvious rejects, and then I’ll keep going through until I’ve arrived at a collection consisting of two groups: (1) the ones I think are the absolute strongest and most portfolio-worthy, and (2) the ones that aren’t quite as stellar, but still acceptable for putting out there as a representation of my work. When I prepare the client viewing gallery, I actually keep the two groups of shots separate to try to exert some measure of influence over my clients’ ultimate decisions.

    As a commercial shooter for bands and musicians, I view each session as sort of a partnership between me and my clients, because the images we end up putting out there need to reflect on *both* of us in a positive light. If I were shooting general portraiture, it wouldn’t be as much of a concern, because the audience is typically much smaller. But when you’re dealing with bands/musicians and their thousands of fans, the pressure is definitely on you to deliver top-notch stuff every time. Hence, being ultra-selective about the images you show is a wise business decision.

    In your example, if a specific outfit or set of shots didn’t end up working out, and assuming it was super-important to the client, then I would offer to re-shoot. However, I generally avoid this situation by reviewing the images with the client at the time of the shoot (sometimes in real-time), which ensures that all of our objectives for the shoot are reached before we wrap up.

    Thanks for the article,
    Russ

  4. Sheryl Warwick says:
    September 8, 2011 at 12:29 pm

    I don’t show pictures that will not flatter a client. Many clients have outfits that don’t work or request a pose that does not flatter them. I simply give them a few shots in it and move on. When my clients receive their images it only has the best of the best. Why would you want to show your clients poor work. I am a firm believer in quality over quantity. This is from a boudoir photographer mind you. The occasional wedding I shoot they get everything. Just my 2 cents.

Speak Your Mind

*