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- wayne clarke
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Unhappy Customers
- Thread starter kellyanne1703
- Start date
Hi Kellyann, I have just been reading your post with fear ! I think what you are doing is really brave, putting yourself out there to have rocks thrown at you and is exactly what I want to be doing in the near future..
The only positive I can come up with is you have had first hand experience how to deal with an unhappy customer and I think that will prove a valuable lesson moving forward..
I wont comment on the pics as i am no where near as qualified as others on here but as freebies I struggle to see the criticism.
Take Care
Wilko
The only positive I can come up with is you have had first hand experience how to deal with an unhappy customer and I think that will prove a valuable lesson moving forward..
I wont comment on the pics as i am no where near as qualified as others on here but as freebies I struggle to see the criticism.
Take Care
Wilko
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- Name
- Mike
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Excellent advice from YV. I'm probably at the stage that Kelly is at. I started doing a few months of only shootng my daughter (and her Girls World head) and am now doing them for friends and some people that I don't know through word of mouth from people I've done shoots for. I've spent hours reading these forums, reading and watching tutorials, practicing both shooting and post processing. Starting to do other people's children has been a real learning curve and ever child, or group of children is different.
A couple of things I've learnt
A couple of minutes setting out expectations is time well spent. I always re-stress that I am learning, and doing shoots to get more experience and to improve my skills. I always mention that I've had a couple of shoots that have been a dream where the subject was brilliant, listened, posed, smiled but I've also had some where it has been difficult or near impossible to get a good shot where the child was uncooperative, not listening etc.
After the first couple of shoots for other people I stopped having the parent in the room unless necessary with a very young child. I explain to the child that cos there's not a lot of room and lots of equipment that it will be just the two of us and ask if they are okay with that. Away from the parent(s) I have found they listen more and their focus is on you. I appreciate that isn't possible in all setups but I've found it gives me much better results.
If I've got a group of kids to do, I'll do a few shots of them each individually just so they get to experience me explaining how I want them to sit etc then they all have some idea of what's going to happen when they are shot together.
On the one occasion that I've had a kid who just wouldn't listen, wouldn't keep still and had apparently consumed 6 litres of Sunny D before arrival, I stopped it and told his mum I was sorry but I couldn't get the sort of shots she was after as he was 'overexcited' and told her I'd be willing to try another time but ideally when he was more amenable. I try to be as upfront with people as possible.
Coaxing and getting the best out of kids is something you only learn along the way and everyone is different, there's never going to be a formula and always going to be some that are just darn terrible. I learn something new with every shoot I do and it's as much a skill to be learnt and practiced and improved upon as using your equipment. Six months ago I probably did pretty much think it was just about kit and knowing how to use it but have found out that it's all about the people every bit as much.
Don't be downhearted. Bad shoots are every bit as important as the ones that go well I reckon, and an unhappy customer, even for a freebie, is an opportunity to learn how to better handle things in future.
Hope your second shoot goes well.
A couple of things I've learnt
A couple of minutes setting out expectations is time well spent. I always re-stress that I am learning, and doing shoots to get more experience and to improve my skills. I always mention that I've had a couple of shoots that have been a dream where the subject was brilliant, listened, posed, smiled but I've also had some where it has been difficult or near impossible to get a good shot where the child was uncooperative, not listening etc.
After the first couple of shoots for other people I stopped having the parent in the room unless necessary with a very young child. I explain to the child that cos there's not a lot of room and lots of equipment that it will be just the two of us and ask if they are okay with that. Away from the parent(s) I have found they listen more and their focus is on you. I appreciate that isn't possible in all setups but I've found it gives me much better results.
If I've got a group of kids to do, I'll do a few shots of them each individually just so they get to experience me explaining how I want them to sit etc then they all have some idea of what's going to happen when they are shot together.
On the one occasion that I've had a kid who just wouldn't listen, wouldn't keep still and had apparently consumed 6 litres of Sunny D before arrival, I stopped it and told his mum I was sorry but I couldn't get the sort of shots she was after as he was 'overexcited' and told her I'd be willing to try another time but ideally when he was more amenable. I try to be as upfront with people as possible.
Coaxing and getting the best out of kids is something you only learn along the way and everyone is different, there's never going to be a formula and always going to be some that are just darn terrible. I learn something new with every shoot I do and it's as much a skill to be learnt and practiced and improved upon as using your equipment. Six months ago I probably did pretty much think it was just about kit and knowing how to use it but have found out that it's all about the people every bit as much.
Don't be downhearted. Bad shoots are every bit as important as the ones that go well I reckon, and an unhappy customer, even for a freebie, is an opportunity to learn how to better handle things in future.
Hope your second shoot goes well.
Last edited:
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- Phil
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Thanks for your input Phil, but there'd already been a nudge from the mods, which I was happy to take on board.
Steve Smith
Joe
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Well ... I like it. (All you have to do is replace the "url" with "img", understand?)
Try taking loads more pictures?
Put the mums + bubbles behind the camera for a start!
But it does look like the inbetween photo of a series in which there were some better shots with the eyes looking at the camera, or all of them smiling angelically at the same time ...and this is another one
Try taking loads more pictures?
Put the mums + bubbles behind the camera for a start!
OP
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- Kellyanne
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Yes thank you I will try that on my next uploads, I'm redoing the photoshops this weekend so I will upload those to see if there any better
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- sam
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OP
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- Kellyanne
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Re-shoot was a success, they liked the second lot! Thanks god!!
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Re-shoot was a success, they liked the second lot! Thanks god!!
Well done. It's all a good learning experience, but as said above, eye contact is important in the images. I've made that mistake before with mum or dad at the side attracting attention. Best to have them behind you, but that does mean you have to take the proactive role in keepingthe kids attention.
However, being a natural (some say non stop) talker,that helps.
