Reshoot Predicament

[MelanieIvy]

I did a family session last weekend for a friend of a friend. I spent more time than promised with them (2.5 hours plus an hour of commute time), but was happy with how they turned out, so it was worth it.

However, she is now requesting a reshoot since she said she doesn't look good in the pictures. She has assured me it's not my fault at all and was just related to a little recent weight gain and the outfit she was wearing at the time. I'm not sure how to handle pricing with this. Would you charge a full session fee, part of the session fee, or just do it for free so that she'll be happy?

I do want her to have a family picture that she loves, but it's a lot more time of shooting and editing to give away for free (which I don't have a lot of these days with a busy job + 3 kids), and I'm not even sure that anything will come of it. How would you handle a situation like this?

[kayumangi]

Charge her another full session fee and make sure to stick to whatever time you said rather than going over.

[MelanieIvy]

HA. If my husband weren't asleep in the other room I'd think he logged in and replied.

Thanks for making it black & white for me, though. Dreading the email to let her know, but it's the right thing to do. (Although I'll prob knock a little off) :-P

Every session brings a new learning lesson! Thanky.

[ndsimm]

Originally Posted by kayumangi

Charge her another full session fee and make sure to stick to whatever time you said rather than going over.

+1
sometimes we do more for friends than we do for other clients, but this is your business so continue to treat it that way

[J Eddington]

Originally Posted by kayumangi

Charge her another full session fee and make sure to stick to whatever time you said rather than going over.

+2 There is no reason for another shoot. She is going to have the same issues. If you do another shoot work, on posing so she doesn't look so fat:) then use liquify. THis is one that will never be happy. OR offer to refund her money from the first shoot. I assume that you had put the photos on line, Did you put a water mark across all the photos? If not, she may have already downloaded them and now is just complaining and will not schedule another shoot and will have those screen shots printed.

[MelanieIvy]

Janice, that's my worry too. There was a little more to this... the first session took long because I did her daughter's seniors afterwards. She was happy with those - just not the family ones. So I should be getting a good order from the Seniors.

I made about a hundred business mistakes with the pricing/structure of this session (no I didn't put my watermark on these), but lessons learned. LOVE photography, hate the business end of it ;)

Here are some of the family ones... If you see anything I could've done differently, I'm always open to some cc.

[ronocnikral]

Originally Posted by MelanieIvy

Dreading the email to let her know, but it's the right thing to do. (Although I'll prob knock a little off) :-P

I think one of the pitfalls of many businesses is their reliance on email. To me, this should be a phone conversation. How one perceives your "tone" within an email is rarely the "tone" you think you are conveying. interpretations differ, bad feelings can be created. I'd rather be on the phone (or better, face to face) for a situation like this. jmo. ymmv.

other than that, i agree with everyone else. you don't want to be the photographer known for giving "practice sessions."

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by MelanieIvy

Here are some of the family ones... If you see anything I could've done differently, I'm always open to some cc.

Get some flash or reflectors, and watch lighting under trees - you have a few 'specklies'. For instance in #2 the daughter has a hot spot on her, in #3 Moms face is lit, daughters leg has a hot spot, sons face is lit, dad's leg is lit. Also watch your backgrounds.

You might also try splitting them up or moving them around. In all 4 of these they all look huddled together, and mom/dad are either sandwiching them, or they are being sandwiched themselves. Try things like putting the kids in the foreground and the parents in the background. Seperate your subject more. They are all in a line, and all square to the camera. Try to create a little more interest with your posing.

[ronocnikral]

use a longer lens. plus what chris said about strobes/reflectors.

[Fishn2photog]

They do seem slightly bunched together. Try cropping moms butt out of #3.
Most women do not want to 'lead' with that part of their anatomy. She probably only see's her backside in that shot since she sounds as if she is very critical of herself.

Perhaps she's just not going to be pleased period.
Definitely don't do it for free. Charge her the same price. This is your business.
Nobody does do overs for free. just my thoughts....

good luck with it.

[suerenee]

Add a clause into your contract that the photographer is not obligated to reshoot based on hair, wardrobe or other personal appearance issues.

I agree that you should 1. Call her and then follow up in email (tone has a lot to do with it.) and 2. charge her your full rate. It's a busy time of year for us and if you don't charge her you could be loosing a paying session for that time. If you put it in those terms she will either understand and pay or be happy with what you've given her.

good luck!

[texkam]

I'm not sure how to handle pricing with this.

She has assured me it's not my fault at all

I think she just answered your question. : )

[MelanieIvy]

Thank you for the feedback. I'm so glad I have this forum where I can run problems like this past you guys.

I admit I have a harder time with groups, and have a ways to go with fill light. Lighting technique is definitely my greatest weakness. And now that you point out that they look bunched together they definitely do. I was trying to get them all under the even shadow, so that goes back to fill light technique. I did a lot better on the senior photos than I did with the family ones.

I actually do have lighting equipment, but there's so much information out there on how to use it, I'm just not sure exactly where to start.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Also for this type of group shot the white blouse vs the husbands dark shirt will give you headaches on how to light it properly (don't get into the bride in white and the groom in his black tux because the grooms shirt is white also usually).

Like mentioned above use of a couple reflectors would have warmed their faces up a bit and you could balance out the lighting on the subject.

Now about the 5 shots above.
#1 I can't see why you are not zoomed in closer to them-why all the background and tree above them? I would assume that this is in some park.
#2 Why didn't you place them a bit better on the site? That park bench behind them is distracting to me, you could have moved them over or rotated around the tree a bit and not had that in the shot. Also the background over the boys shoulder just is very busy and not working for me. Now if you had shot this with a more narrow DOF and had some bokah it probably would have been a great shot but as it is it just dosn't work. The pose of them is very good but the location doesn't work that well.

#3 I agree probably all that she sees in the shot is butt. This would be hard to work around with them grouped this way-maybe have the kids on the outside and the parents in the middle?
#4 I like this one but as mentioned above the lighting is off just enough to cause problems-may be able to fix in PS with a few tools to darken in some of the areas-I assume that you shoot RAW and not just JPG.
#5 I think this is one of the best of the group except for the hotspot behind the dads head in the background-ps may clean that up without too much work.

Reflectors don't just have to be used to reflect sunlight they can also be used to bounce flashes off of to add that touch of light and in a wooded situation like this adding a bounced flash would probably work quite well.

[Tom]

Your WB is all over the place. Learn to shoot manually, and open up the aperture a bit so you aren't shooting at f/7.1 and getting the whole world in focus. That way you can create some separation between the subject and the background.