How many pictures does customer sees???

[esanchez]

Ok help me here. I personally feel that a customer should see all the pictures taken of a session. WHY?? Just because I like certain pictures let say 50 out of 150. The customer might like a couple of pictures from the 100 I thought didn't make the cut. So I want to let them select the pictures they want.

My friend says NO, because what if they select pictures that even though the customer likes it might it might not be technically correct and that picture is going to represent my work. Which I agree, but I want to know what you guys think.

Second if I took 150 pictures and they are all acceptable, how many pictures should I let the customer select in order for me to post process. I did a shoot and the mom of the young man says I like them all. I'm not going to charge her full price because she is a friend of the family so I really don't feel like post processing 150 pictures. How do you go about selecting what pictures to show the customer and how many pictures do you usually post process for print???

[HotHolly]

Originally Posted by esanchez

How do you go about selecting what pictures to show the customer and how many pictures do you usually post process for print???

I show 10 images per portrait session. That's it. I'm on the low # of proofs shown, comparatively. However, all 10 shots are magazine style WOWers with full PP done on all of them. They see the final version of what ever they are going to order at proofing. They usually consider a session like this a once in a lifetime thing. The ones with babies come back more often though. Why don't I show more? Quality control. I cant do 150 images and say WOW and be floored by each one. I can do 10 show stoppers, jaw droppers per session, so that's what I do. This is tied into how we sell. Nothing is done without reason (even if I appear to be free of reason ).

[HeatherLou]

I'm with Holly on this one! I usually show about 20, depending on the session. A Family session will have more poses than a session with a single person.

Honestly, I had a friend show me a session once, that had 300 pics and at some point they all started to look the same. People have really short attention spans, so to have to sit through 150 or 300 shots for a portrait session is kinda rough to me.

[esanchez]

I created a slide show in proshow gold and the lady was like wow, I like that one and that one and that one. Now I know not all pictures are WOW to me, but to her they are WOW. Of course most customers can't tell a good picture from a bad one. They just fall in love with the fact they are seeing their son or daughter.

Anyways I asked her to choose only 10 out of 150 pictures. She told me print these 10 for me and of course she is going to pay for them.

So those are 10 pictures I need to post process. Should I let her pick all the ones she wants and Post Process and print all the ones she selects even if it's 40 pictures or just keep it to the 10 prints and make her happy even though those might not be my best, but her best pics???

[janetg]

thanks for this topic - i have been having this dilema over some bridal photos - and now i know it's ok to only show them 20 or so.

[KimHurt]

For portrait sessions I show the top 40, fully edited with no duplicate poses. If I take 6 shots of the same person, same angle same pose, I only show the one with the best expression. Most people can't look at 150 shots and remember what the 10th one looked like. Some people are overwhelmed with the 40 I show them! For weddings I show about 300, with Lightroom only, after they choose what goes in the album I edit further in Photoshop according to their taste. Since I show so many images for weddings I show them in groups - Prep, Ceremony, Reception, Formals, Details and I give them an order sheet that is broken down into those categories also.

[toverman]

I think it makes it easier for the customer if they see a limited number rather than all of them. Too many that are similar are just confusing. Not every photo is going to have a winning expression or be in perfect focus. I think one of our jobs is editing out the bad ones and making a professional decision on which ones are best.

[EyeBurn]

similar story: myself and a couple other hobbyist photographers shot a friend's wedding.
We individually processed our shots and burned media for the bride and groom (maybe 100 images).

Another friend attending had just purchased a new P&S camera on his way to the wedding. Eager to impress (and having fun) he was taking pictures of "everything".

This fellow handed the couple two DVDs, containing a total of over 8,000 pictures!
I was floored.
1. why would you do that to someone, they will be overwhelmed...98% or more will probably be junk anyway (imo).
2. they will give up after viewing a couple hundred pictures, so rather than saying thanks...it's more likely the DVDs were thrown in a box forever.

Only show your best and always spend at least 5minutes per image in post process. Would you rather have her remember 10 nice shots, that she can remember each one...or 150+...and she might remember a couple, but it'll be a hassle to go back through over and over to choose which she really likes.

I feel like it's my job to sort through all the images, so the client or friend doesn't have to.

-Benjamin

[Tom]

I never show unedited (unless I am doing before/after in a sales pitch) and get it down to as many as I can.

I go through an delete the baddies (exposure/focus/frame) and then go through and pick between poses. Select and never look back.

Thomas Campbell added 22 Minutes and 15 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Oh - and NEVER tell a bride or someone how many pics you took. You don't want them to ask what else you have or think your are holding out on them. Maybe you missed getting an uncle at the reception and they want to go through your pics to see if you had him in one you rejected.

I haven't have that problem with weddings, but sometimes with my corporate clients.

[tresorph]

8000? are you sure? holy cow.

[EyeBurn]

100% positive, it's some kind of pocket camera that can snap 1 or 2 frames per second until the battery dies or the card fills up.

He was proudly showing how it plays back like a slow motion (flipbook) video.
while we there, I could tell he was having fun...later I asked him how the hell he was going to sort through all of the pictures.

He laughed and said "I'm not, I'm just going to put them on a couple DVDs for [the couple]".

-Benjamin

[bondarnes]

Eddie, I think 150 is probably too many images to shoot at one session. In my opinion the key is to not only to show the images, but to have a plan as to how they would be used. You might want to show a collage of five or six images, and a book of twenty or so. So fifty images might be the magic number. Just doing the slideshow and showing images leaves the door open for the client to pick their favorite and order one 8X10, two 5X7s and a few wallets.

In children's photography we used to do a lot of impulse selling where we printed a package for certain sessions. The package came from the lab with one 11X14 of the best pose, an 8X10 of the second and third best pose, and a 5X7 and four wallets of every pose. This was film so I only did six or seven poses on a session.

We would then cluster frame the 11X14, two 8X10s, and three to five 5X7s. The frames clipped together like a collage would work today.

Then we would make a couple of grandparent folios with a 5X7 and four wallets in each. Then we would make brag books of one wallet of each pose. It was hard for them to say no because we had products that used almost every exposure.

[utdbear]

We got DVDs with our wedding package. They came in two DVDs, two folders on DVD with all of the edited images in folder and all of the full-size JPEGs in the other. It was good that he gave us those extra images because we actually wanted him to edit some of the pictures from the 'stash' and put them in our album, replacing the edited files.

[hooligan]

I agree about not letting them see anything except what you would sell.

I made the mistake of letting a family friend look at some graphics work I had done on some softball pics of her dauughter. She got to one that she said she really liked and asked for a print. When I saw which one it was, I politely let her know that it was a practice piece and it would NEVER leave the house. She kept on insisting she get a copy.

Took me five minutes to change the subjeect and get her to forget it.

[ara.bentley]

not to highjack but I will also add this question:

what do you say when they ask "can I look at them on your camera?"

ugh - i hate that question and I hate letting them do that because you never know the final outcome until its on the screen. I hate for them to say "Hey remember that shot I saw on the camera... where's that one?"