Growing Pains: Letting Clients See Unedited Photos (Part 2)

Nina's pick for her senior portrait


Today I finished editing my last trio of senior portraits referred from Jordan. It was a great pleasure to be able to shoot these lovely young ladies and capture memories of this very important year in their lives. I hope I have given them photos they can cherish for years to come. And it's wonderful to think that my images will be printed inside a yearbook! Thank you ladies for giving me this opportunity, and now I have examples to send to schools across the metro area in hopes of securing more senior portrait sessions next year. I have also been following the work of Anne Martin, a Dallas-area photographer and blogger who specializes in senior portraits. Martin does a tremendous job, and her images have been a great source of inspiration. I love the section on her site that discusses "Senior Secrets," and I will definitely share these tips with my future senior portrait clients to help them prepare for the session.

Gloria's pick for her senior portrait


Last week, I blogged about a new work flow I would be trying out during my post processing of Nina's pictures. I had been worried that editing all of my images before I presented them to the client took too much time, especially when it was clear the client preferred some shots over others. I decided to try a different tactic and allow Nina to see unedited proofs. Thankfully, the majority of the images I took looked great coming straight out of camera, or I wouldn't have had the courage to do this. I think that if you are going to go this route, it's even more important for you to take the time to get the shot right instead of relying on Photoshop to save you later. Nina and her mother had already had the chance to see the result from sessions I completed with Jordan and Gloria and knew that I could produce. But I was still more than a little nervous going into this.

Jordan's pick for her senior portrait


Out of 100 or so images, Nina chose about 20 shots that she wanted fully processed. That alone saved me days worth of editing, and I was able to get all of her favorites (plus about 10 of my own to use in my port) done in a single afternoon! Overall, I think this process worked well. For my next portrait session, I may process one or two images to the max just to give my client an idea of what to expect when I show them proofs.

It will be interesting to see if the process works the same with the several hundred wedding reception shots I took yesterday. With more than 500 images, I would hate to spend time editing photos that the client doesn't want. But there's a big difference between the 25 to 50 shots clients get from a portrait session versus the 150 to 200 shots promised them from an event. More to come on this topic later.

Get the Job Done: The Ultimate Client Compliment

My Favorite Shot from My First Senior Portrait Session

I received the ultimate client compliment on Saturday when I presented my first set of senior portrait shots to Jordan: "I want to be up on your wall!"

That's what Jordan said after I showed her what I think is one of the best portrait sessions I have taken to date due to the diversity of shots and locales. To Jordan, having one of her pictures blown up to a poster size and placed on one of the display walls in my home has become one of her goals. Since I have become her family's official photographer, I have images of her mother Teri, her brother Bishop and her baby sis Avery hanging up as a reminder to myself about my own growth as a professional photographer. So I've decided that I will honor her request and hang my favorite picture from the shoot, shown above. I love how the red of her shirt pops with the golden yellow background. Taking the shot from above is a complimentary angle for her features, while the vignetting adds a sense of timelessness to the image.

What shot did Jordan pick to go into her high school yearbook? This gorgeous pic taken of her on top of the 10th floor balcony of the Denver Newspaper Agency building where both her mother and I work for the Denver Post.


Jordan's Yearbook Pic

I could barely contain my excitement while she sorted through the images, and the fact that she had a hard time deciding meant there were tons of great pictures to choose from! I let her take control of my MacBook Pro as she sorted them out, and I think that personal touch really made her feel as if she was an integral part of this process (which of course she WAS!) It was difficult to try to take a back seat and let the client decide what photos she wanted because I definitely had my favorites, and I was surprised that she didn't like the same images I did, or even the same images her mother liked.

Overall, this was a great learning experience, and her referrals got me two more potential customers, one of which I will be shooting this weekend after the Democratic National Convention is laid to rest.

One other note: since I only had several hundred of images to edit, I went ahead and edited all the images before presenting them to Jordan. But what I found interesting is that out of the 50 I shot, she only picked about 20 that were her favs. Does that mean I spent unnecessary time editing shots she didn't want? I will have to chew on this a little more.

Get the Job Done: Presenting Senior Portraits

I will be meeting with Jordan in about 30 minutes to present the images from her senior portrait shoot. I'm extremely pleased with how this session turned out! During post processing, Jordan's mother requested that I edit out Jordan's piercings near her right eye. I followed those instructions, but I left this one image with the piercings just for Jordan because I believe they are a part of who she is right now in the course of her life. And what more is photography but a moment captured in the life of a subject? Congratulations Jordan!


Throughout the week, I've been posting up my favorite pics to my Flickr page where Jordan has been able to take a peak at my editing process. I did this to create a sense of excitement and adventure for this young woman, almost like unveiling a Christmas gift before the actual holiday. She was able to share the images with her friends and helped me land two more senior portrait sessions.

I didn't post up everything because I wanted Jordan to be surprised by some of the images. Today she will be picking out which photo she actually turns in to her high school yearbook department, as well as orders for additional images and the ones she wants to have printed as part of her session package. She gets to choose from two 8X10s or four 5X7. Because she gave me two referrals, Jordan gets to order extra prints for free or take $50 off her portrait session cost. She has also purchased a CD of all of 50 edited images re sized to only print 4X6s.

There's a Rainbow in the Sky All the Time

There's a Rainbow in the Sky All the Time, originally uploaded by Sheba Wheeler.

This post originally appeared in my bi-weekly entries to One Day One Picture.

Always be aware of your surroundings. A momentary drizzle forced my senior portrait shoot with Jordan inside to wait out the rain. But I would have missed this incredible opportunity to photography Jordan with the rainbow in the background if her little sister, Donovan, hadn't grabbed my arm and dragged me to the window.

"Look! A rainbow!" I wasn't sure if I would be able to capture this natural phenomenon before it disappeared. So I rushed Jordan to a balcony and started shooting.

To get this shot, I had to meter for the sky and rainbow, which left Jordan underexposed. To compensate, I used a bit of fill flash to lit up her face and body, but she was still more shadowed than I wanted. So in CS3, I used a quick mask to select Jordan's face and a Curve to adjust the lighting in just that area. I think it works because I still want Jordan to be the main focus of the image, but the rainbow in the background gives the image depth.

This picture has become very popular and Jordan's referrals have helped me secure senior portrait sessions with two extra seniors. With a deadline of Sept. 19 to get their photos into their school, I've really got to get a move on it!