Post-Shoot Proofing for Clients

kcui · October 28, 2012

A friend of mine recently let me take engagement photos of him and his fiance, they were not planning on hiring a photographer and this was kind of my gift to them. My ulterior motive was to use this as a learning process, as I have never done event-type photography (nature and landscape).

All that said, between myself and my girlfriend we came out of the shoot with about 250 "usable" images, some of which will be discarded, other's of which we will take to the next level.

We are going to pick a set of 20-30 images to choose as the official set, and give the remainder some touch-ups (but nothing too time-consuming) and hand them over with the other 20-30.

My question is, in general, when should one let a client into the process of narrowing down choices? Do I do basic correction/adjustments then have a proof session? In this particular case, I may be in a unique situation as this is a gift for a friend.

Thanks.

Sam · November 1, 2012

It can be very dangerous to let the client participate in the culling and or choosing images process.

They will want everyone of them even the OOF shots. It won't matter if 6 images are almost identical they will ponder over which one for way too long.

Invariably they will choose a technically marginal image to print at 40" X 60".

For events I will pretty much give them everything in focus not counting duplicates, but for an engagement I would choose the images to give them. I / we can't know how important some random image of aunt Mary talking with uncle Bob is for them. The engagement images are telling a story. Too many images or images that are inconsistent will detract rather than add.

If they ask to see the rest tell them you are showing them all the good images and the rest were ether out of focus, blurry or duplicates and have been deleted.

All that said, since this is your first time and these are your friends let them participate. Show them all the images. Once you experience this once or twice you will never do it again.

Sam

kcui · November 12, 2012

Sam wrote: »

It can be very dangerous to let the client participate in the culling and or choosing images process.

They will want everyone of them even the OOF shots. It won't matter if 6 images are almost identical they will ponder over which one for way too long.

Invariably they will choose a technically marginal image to print at 40" X 60".

For events I will pretty much give them everything in focus not counting duplicates, but for an engagement I would choose the images to give them. I / we can't know how important some random image of aunt Mary talking with uncle Bob is for them. The engagement images are telling a story. Too many images or images that are inconsistent will detract rather than add.

If they ask to see the rest tell them you are showing them all the good images and the rest were ether out of focus, blurry or duplicates and have been deleted.

All that said, since this is your first time and these are your friends let them participate. Show them all the images. Once you experience this once or twice you will never do it again.

Sam

Sam, thanks for the feedback.

We ended up culling the "bad" images (OOF, bad framing, poor lighting, etc...), and out of the "good" ones took the liberty of selecting 30 or so.

We did end up showing the rest of the "good" ones, and were going to provide them digitally, but said we would focus our creative efforts on the selected images.

Thanks again.

mercphoto · November 12, 2012

http://www.thesitewizard.com/webdesign/usability-paralysis-of-choice.shtml

Icebear · November 13, 2012

Sam wrote: »

All that said, since this is your first time and these are your friends let them participate. Show them all the images. Once you experience this once or twice you will never do it again.

Sam

thumb

pathfinder · November 19, 2012

Sam has nailed the answer, once again!!

Post-Shoot Proofing for Clients

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