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Wedding nightmare!
My God I'm having the worst day with a customer. I did her wedding pictures and now she's complaining and want to return the pictures and want me to reprint all of them. She say the pictures look to plain that she can't show off her pictures because they don't look like they were taken by a professional not because of bad quality images but because I didn't put the my logo and the copyright logo to all the picture. I never had this kind of situation. What should I do? Jul 10 13 03:04 pm Link Put your logo and copyright notice on all of them. It will take 10 minutes. If you're really smart, you'll tell her that costs a little extra. Jul 10 13 03:06 pm Link 3RPG wrote: Wait she wants the watermark on the prints??? LOL Jul 10 13 03:10 pm Link 3RPG wrote: pretty obvious...just put your logo and watermark on them! won't take long, just do a batch process. tell her it will cost more to reprint them all. Jul 10 13 03:16 pm Link Make the logo stamp really big so she'll know the pictures are extra-professional. She'll like that. Jul 10 13 03:21 pm Link Orca Bay Images wrote:
Jul 10 13 03:31 pm Link I'd call this more "Photographer's Wet Dream" than "Wedding Nightmare." Honestly, not seeing the problem. Give her what she wants and charge for it. Jul 10 13 03:33 pm Link i don't watermark and have never had a client request that either. strange. fundy has a photoshop plug-in for batch stamping images with a watermark. Jul 10 13 04:15 pm Link Have a rubber stamp made with your logo/watermark/signature. Stamp all of the images on the back with it. If that's not good enough for her, stamp the front of them. Jul 10 13 04:15 pm Link do the logo in Gold, so it will look professional, ha, ha. Now you know. Next client, ask them if they want to logo or not, and it will save you a lot of time. Don't charge either. You're trying to salvage your reputation, not make is worse, even though it's not your fault. Jul 10 13 04:27 pm Link 3RPG wrote: I'm reminded of the client that didn't like the "white shadows" and another who complained because the background was out of focus. Jul 10 13 04:31 pm Link If you two didn't agree on it in the beginning, then tough luck to her. Once you give her leeway on this' it might lead to "Oh hey I want butterfly's next & dragons" lol  Though' serious' if you do this, and say "I have other projects to attend to you, have fun being married', good game.Jul 10 13 07:36 pm Link Give the customer what they want, discuss and show some enhancement options. Options such as increased saturation, or selective saturation with some dodging and burning, creative cropping etc in order to get that 'creative' look. Charge extra for the time required to produce enhanced package. Next customer offer enhanced options up front. Jul 10 13 11:53 pm Link Olan Mills  Jul 11 13 12:00 am Link Mark Salo wrote: I haven't had the white shadows, but I've had more than one inquiry about the out of focus background. I've never really found a good thing to say to it. Jul 11 13 01:00 am Link if you think this is your worst day then prehap's you should think yourself lucky I think there's more to this story than whats being put across here. I can only think that prehap's your final presentation product is less than professional looking? only once you take into account the budget, amount paid and what was agreed upon prior to the job (which you havnt given) would you be able to come to some sort of reasonable conclusion for what its worth customer satisfaction should be the number one priority when your trading as a business and charging business rates Jul 11 13 01:49 am Link Orca Bay Images wrote: Better still, make a print of your logo and use a tiny version of her wedding photo as the watermark. Reverse psychology works. Jul 11 13 05:40 am Link Good Egg Productions wrote: This sounds like the best idea. No reprints. Stamp them!... Jul 11 13 05:52 am Link Somebody already made the "Olan Mills" crack above. This entire thread had me shaking my head in dismay. C'mon folks, think a little. Do you want to the the artist or the factory worker? Every self-respecting artist I've ever heard of signs his/her work; no pipe elbow coming out of any factory is ever signed by the guy who made it. Rubens, Monet, Manet, Warhol, you name the art form, they all sign their work. Even Olan Mills as a corporation is smart enough to reach for the brass ring of being an artist by "signing" their work. The bride the OP is complaining about has made it clear that she wants her wedding photos to have been created by an artist. She's begged him to take a little pride in his work and take it out of the realm of wedding photo factory into the prestige of a photo artist. Get real, guys, factory work is worth peanuts and goes to the cheapest supplier. Designer labels and artist signatures add value and increase the price of the work. Get with the program, and sign the damn work! Make it worth her while to bother owning it. And a rubber stamp isn't the way to go. Cripes, how cheap can you get? To the OP, spring for some classy labels from a label maker, you know, clear labels with gold lettering. Stick one on the back of every single print you deliver, not just hers. Into the bargain, spring for a gold stamping machine and imprint a "signature" on the front of every small print you deliver. On large prints (meaning 8x10 or larger), hand sign every one with a gold paint pen. Develop a little class, will ya? If you want to cut costs in the future, make a watermark you can apply to files before sending them to the lab/printer. But sign your work. All of it. Those foolish clients who complain the other direction, about your advertising on their photos, should be told that artists sign their work, and that they can buy paint smeared on canvas for $10 at any yard sale, but the same piece of canvas signed "Jackson Pollock" will fetch hundreds of thousands at Christies. Jul 11 13 06:23 am Link Why is this a "nightmare"? First of all, is this what you two agreed to BEFORE you were hired? Is it in the contract? IS there a contract? If there is and it doesn't state that you are required to put your name on each and every image, she has no case. If you have NO contract, she has no case. I DO what my client and I agree to. If this required me to have to pay for another full set of pictures, I will simply ask her to pay for it AND the time required to do it. Why should I have to make LESS money because of something she NOW wants done? I have no problem doing it. But more time, more prints = more money? She could take me to small claims if she wants. If we didn't agree to it, she has no case. If she wants MORE of my services, she simply has to pay for it. It would have been free (or part of the deal) if it was agreed upon before hand. NOW, it requires more time and reprints. That equals money. The client's money. Not mine. Jul 11 13 08:45 am Link 3RPG wrote: I'm of the opposite opinion as some of the other replies. Jul 11 13 08:52 am Link 3RPG wrote: get a gold "sharpie" and sign the prints. Jul 11 13 09:01 am Link ArtGlo wrote: Good idea! Jul 11 13 09:06 am Link Just a thought that entered my head after reading this like 3 times already. The OP hasn't been back. Perhaps this is just a small hoax to see the diff responses? Kind of a play on words with the title anyway .. it's more of a blessing in disguise? Unless it's been discussed, texted, emailed, or written in stone, all of my images leave with a watermark. Albeit a small one in the bottom right corner ..  Apologies to the OP if this indeed is not a hoax, and it really is an unfortunate situation. My only question would be if it's a wedding, or even a series of studio portraits, why would a watermark not be in place? Jul 11 13 09:24 am Link that is kind of like I just had a customer say my colors looked to vibrant they wanted more dull looking photos customers who know what they are thinking lol. Jul 11 13 09:30 am Link 3RPG wrote: Examples please...and I can read...she said they look plain, and bad quality images. Jul 11 13 10:38 am Link Good Egg Productions wrote: My thoughts exactly! Rubber stamp them all! Jul 11 13 01:07 pm Link What did your contract say? Will print all logo on pictures or forbid to use your logo on the picture? Jul 11 13 01:20 pm Link I had a similar situation with a portrait client, she wanted my logo on the image so that everyone would know it was taken by a pro.... I personally think this is in response to keeping up with the Jones... Purses, shirts, shoes, jewelry, sunglasses seems like everyone wants to pay to advertise for a company. There are lots of low price photographers and even those who give weddings away for free and it just seems like she wants people to know that she paid for her photos.... I would let her keep the images without the logo, explain to her that although you are very flattered she likes your work enough to want to advertise for you, she may feel differently in a few years and just want a nice image. Offer to print a select few images for her with your logo and give her a set of low res files for social media that have your logo. Blame Instagram, pintrest and those really great dslr's with the P button for this blurring of consumer and pro work. Think of the extras as marketing your services and smile. Jul 11 13 01:28 pm Link Miss Photog wrote: Among the general public, there is no shortage of people who are only fifty cents in the dollar. How else do you explain some of our elected officials? Jul 11 13 05:37 pm Link Wait!! Didn't I see this on an episode of Duck Dynasty!! Jul 11 13 05:44 pm Link Tell her that you will gladly shoot her next wedding with your professional camera and put your professional logo on the prints. It will just cost her 3 times as much and needs to be paid in advance. Don't forget to ask her if she also wants her pics professionally retouched. That will be extra. :-) Jul 11 13 05:56 pm Link 3RPG wrote: Reprint them with your logo. Jul 11 13 06:10 pm Link Digitoxin wrote: Because no one ever asks for watermarked prints. Jul 11 13 06:20 pm Link 3RPG wrote: Digitoxin wrote: The last time I looked, prints were fairly expensive to make. Reprinting an entire wedding album involves some real costs. Jul 11 13 06:21 pm Link Send her your rates for re-printing. Jul 11 13 06:35 pm Link 3RPG wrote: If that is the worst day that you can ever imagine, you're in for some more worst than that, truly. Jul 11 13 06:44 pm Link Obviously the two factors to consider are the profit margin and the referral value. Almost all of my weddings are referrals, but is she likely to be one. The number and size of prints and their cost to reprint based on the package cost would also be a factor. A few 8x10's, no big deal, a whole book of prints or a canvas wrap would be another matter unless you charged enough up front that it doesn't cut deeply into your profit. You could always explain that you were unaware of her wishes and that this would incur an additional fee for the reprints. Another option is the small sticker on the back with studio info. Jul 12 13 10:37 am Link On the hand, prints of Cindy Sherman's work can cost millions a pop. Sadly, some people here forgot to tell Sherman that her prints can look more artistic and professional if her logo/signature is added. http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/jun … ion-images Jul 12 13 11:22 am Link |
