Re-shoot for client satisfaction?

[JohnT]

Have you ever had to do a re-shoot because the client wasn't happy with the images provided? I haven't yet but figure it might come up sometime.

[loana0320]

I did have to do some bluebonnet reshoot.. clients a group of moms chose noonish time ful sun and than were not happy about squinting little ones.. so I had to reshoot two families from that session...

[laawaaris]

i am no expert but i would say that if it is a paying client and they are unhappy with a small portion of the deliverable, then you should consider re-shooting ... what i am learning is that this business is based a lot on referrals and repeat business,

so if you don't have to go way out of your way to make sure they are happy, you should at least consider reshooting ... of course i would mention to them that you can only re-shoot once and that you are doing it as an exception to the rule and not as a business practice

just my 2 cents

[wjmphoto]

It depends. If you screw up, then you need to reshoot for nothing.

If they pick mid day and you tell them that you don't recommend it and suggest a better time for better lighting and explain everything to them, then it is not your responsibility to reshoot if they don't take your advice. Clients pay for your time. If they are uncooperative, bring children for a shoot who have not had their nap and they know will not sit and behave or a whole slew of other excuses that are their fault, it is not your responsibility to reshoot them for free.

What you need to have is a reshoot clause in your contract (yes, you should have a contract for portraits and they should sign it before you touch the camera) that specifies what your reshoot fee is and that should be made clear to the client. You should let them know that if the child is sick, being uncooperative or having behavioral issues that the parent should call to reschedule rather than waste their time and yours getting bad shots that they won't buy. If they choose to come anyway and the child does not cooperate, does that mean that your time is any less valuable or you should have to give up a free session? No way! Also, get your sitting fee up front, preferably prior to the day of the shoot and have a failure to show up clause as well. Your time has value and your business practices and contracts should all reflect that value.

When you are shooting portraits, they are paying for your time and that is what the session fee should reflect. If you want to offer a discounted session fee for a reshoot, there is nothing wrong with that, but you should not give your time away on reshoots because there is no guarantee that they will choose a better time, make sure their kid will behave or anything else. Charging for reshoots, is one way to make sure that the client selects better times of day and makes sure their kids get a nap before coming to you.

Of course a much more reliable way of making sure that a customer does not tell you that they want to shoot at mid day is to simply not offer that time as available in the first place. You should not be asking them what time is convenient for them to shoot. You should be telling them that you have time A or time B and ask which one they would prefer. If they ask for time C, that time is not available or you don't shoot at that time or whatever you want to say and then again ask is time a or time b better for them. You get the idea. Never ask an open ended question regarding things like time for shoot if you are going to be shooting outdoors and dependant upon good light for the results that you want. Doing so guarantees that the client will ask for that time of day because the simple fact is that clients don't know squat about lighting or photography and you should not let them control your shooting schedule. If you take control of your business and ask the right questions this is a non-issue.

[bondarnes]

The only two times I have done a re-shoot were because images were lost. First time the film never got to the lab and the second time digital files didn't burn to the DVD.

However, if a client is not totally happy with a session I will usually offer to do a few additional poses at no charge. If they want an entire session for something that was out of my control like bad hair or too much make-up then I will pay half the session fee and they pay the other half, but they cannot order from the first session. Usually they only really want a few more poses.