What do you tell the client if you don’t get the shot they wanted?

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Question from Denise: “I just had a shoot with 3 little boys today, a 2 year old, a 8 month old and a 5 month old. And I didnt get the group shot Grandma hired me for. What do I do now? I did get many many solo shots that are great though…”

Christina:  if you got anything close to a group shot you could do some head swaps to make it the group shot she wanted or you could offer her another shoot for just he group shots.

Megan:  I’d try a nice collage of the individual shots.

Melissa: I agree – did you just not shoot the group shot or did you not get a great picture of the group shot?

Jess: I am assuming you mean a group shot of the 3 boys?… to which I would call or email her and just explain that if she wants to do it again you would be happy to just do the 15min quick get a couple of them all… or offer to just do a collage print for her… it depends if she really wanted 1 picture or if shes ok with having you put them all together in 1 print. But thats my suggestion

Leslie: Photoshop and layer them together. 🙂

Christy: Collage print, or canvas clusters. Tell her it was difficult to capture them together because of their ages, and you were better able to capture their individual personalities in single shots.

Christy:  I’m assuming you did not get the group because it was difficult. I’ve been a photog for over 10 years and I would have a tough time there.

Lars:  if they’re boys, just seat them in front of a tv and show some funny kid show, then in the midst of the funny, quickly shoot when they’re laughing or smiling?

Lars: + should work with girls too

Ashley: To be completely honest when you know you are hired to do a specific shot you should make sure that you do that shot before anything else happens. During the shoot if the boys were misbehaving you should have voiced those concerns to the person paying so they have a heads up. If you have multiple images but not everyone had eyes open, etc do layering in photoshop but if that doesn’t work offer to so a reshoot for that one specific image. We have all had something like this happen and hopefully it preps us on how to deal with something similar in the future! Best of luck!!

Katherine: I honestly would be surprised if you got an amazing photo of 3 kids that age!

Emily:  In the future, though this requires extra work, something I would try (and this is just for ONE shot, not multiple) this. Put the camera on a tripod. Put one kid in the frame where you’d like him/her to be in a group shot. Get a good shot of the kid. Then swap him out for a sibling. Put the sibling in another (SEPARATE) spot and do the same. Repeat for each kid. Combine the shots in photoshop. Takes a bit but can work to get each kid smiling and perfect.

Emily:  Also, you CANNOT move your camera. At all. Or it will be a nightmare.

Emily: Works best on a static, plain(ish) background as well.

Carla:  honesty is best, just say you didnt get it and offer to do a quick re do, you might still get a return customer reather than someone upset cause you didnt get the shot

Cher:  I agree with Carla, just be honest & offer to set up a time to go back & get the group shots (free of course), as Grandma did pay you for the group shots 🙂 The last thing you need is anyone bad mouthing you, that’s not good for business.

 

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