Importance of features

[reaction]

I would like to ask you pro or semi pros about what you think about whether these things are important in the photos that you actually give to the client. I mean people who take money, do the job completely, and move on and not handing the pics over so the client could find someone else to PS them.

It probably depends on the type of event too, if you could give each item a score from 1 to 10. Obviously if an item scores 10 then any photo lacking the item will be discarded/not shown to client at all. I'm thinking of events with people, such as parties, weddings, conferences, etc. :party6:

I ask because sometimes I see sets from and event and I don't understand why it was kept esp when there was another similar photo without the 'flaw'. Maybe clients see values differently to a photographer? Also please exclude extreme circumstances or reasons for doing something out of the ordinary.

* person should be in focus (or something in the frame at least)
* person should not be blurred due to their movement (non panning/action shot)
* person should not be blurred due to hand shake
* misfocused + movement blur!
* person's clothes should not be blown out (outdoors in sun)
* person's clothes should not be blown out (indoors due to flash/lights)
* more than half the person's face should not be blown out (outdoors in sun)
* more than half the person's face should not be blown out (indoors due to flash/lights)
* person should not be blinking or mid blink (excluding purposely closed eyes)
* accidental cutting off bits of head or limbs (in a way that it's clearly not on purpose) or head touching edge of frame etc
* excessive noise visible because one pic out of a series was underexposed for whatever reason and pushed

I say person but it could mean 1 person in a small/large group shot. Also it could mean the main subject in a 'details shot'.

[ricktas]

Interesting thread idea, Not sure if I could give them a definitive answer as what is good for one shoot, might not be for another. For example, blurriness due to movement, might not be a panning/action shot, but it could be something you or the client wanted.


* person should be in focus (or something in the frame at least) 10 - the main subject (no matter what it is should be in focus, unless you are doing something abstract and being OOF is part of that)

* person should not be blurred due to their movement (non panning/action shot) 8 - again it depends on the brief and ideas for the shoot
* person should not be blurred due to hand shake - 10 - camera movement should not be considered creative (unless intentional)
* misfocused + movement blur! 10 - misfocused should never be given to client, unless it ends up being creative and then it is not a 'mis' focus, it is an artistic/creative interpretation. Never tell the client you didn't intend the photo to be that way. Let them believe you are clever.
* person's clothes should not be blown out (outdoors in sun) 5 - blown out clothing does not necessarily mean bad, it can result in something different and wonderful. BUT blown out and over-exposed as a whole, not just the clothing is not going to get a good result. Although high-key (which really is not blown-out, but simply including a lot of highlight detail, is extremely acceptable
* person's clothes should not be blown out (indoors due to flash/lights) - 5 (see above)
* more than half the person's face should not be blown out (outdoors in sun) - 10 -agree with this statement
* more than half the person's face should not be blown out (indoors due to flash/lights) 10 - see above
* person should not be blinking or mid blink (excluding purposely closed eyes) 8 - you will see this in group shots, good reason to fire off a couple in quick succession and then you can edit the open eyes from one frame to the other, as needed.
* accidental cutting off bits of head or limbs (in a way that it's clearly not on purpose) or head touching edge of frame etc -10 accidentally, yep should not happen
* excessive noise visible because one pic out of a series was underexposed for whatever reason and pushed - no score here, depends, convert it to mono and it will often look brilliant, if noise is the only issue.

Very hard to give a score that is solid, as every shoot is different, the expectations and requirements are different. What one client perceives and wants might be abhorrent as a concept to the next client. So a shot with blurriness due to movement might 'offend' client A, client B might ask for it. I think the key to your questions is 'what is the intention'. As long as you are true to the intentions and requirements of the client, if blurriness is part of that, whether it be a lack of it, or accentuating it, and including it on purpose, then work with what the client wants, and ignore every single score I gave it above.

[reaction]

Thanks for your answer, it is exactly the type of insight I was looking for. The assumption is that all these were mistakes and unintended, but otherwise the photo was fine.

The main subject in focus confuses me, as I've seen photos where it looks like it has front focused 10cm from a person. The only way the photographer could have missed that was if he only looked at the thumbnail then uploaded it, never opening it to even the size on their own website. I though you wouldn't give something like that to a paying client, let alone post for the world to see right?

[achee]

I'd pretty much agree with Rick's scoring, regarding unintentional focus, over-exposure, blur.

IMHO the 'accidental cutting off bits of head or limbs (in a way that it's clearly not on purpose) or head touching edge of frame etc' is maybe a 6 for limbs and 9 for head.

:)

[Redgum]

Why direct this question at Pro's? Professional's usually have fixed guidelines on what a photograph needs to include/exclude and are totally dependent on their client (if they want to get paid). If the client wants/accepts blurry overexposed photographs then that is what they get irrespective of what others may think and without any consideration or judgement of others.
This thread would probably be better in the newbies forum as it is not really related to professionals/semi-professionals at all.

Must admit Achee your avatar looks really cool! :)

[reaction]

Because I want to know what pro's clients accept, and what pros accept as part of their portfolio/image. I would expect that a pro who submits low quality photos to clients will not get word of mouth etc from that client. But I see these mistakes from pros portfolio.

Remember these are generic event photos, not corporate or specially contracted shots.

Put this in a newbie forum and of course you shouldn't make any of the mistakes etc. As an amateur if you make this mistake you work your butt off to correct it, regardless of the time you spend. A pro balances the work to fix a photo and what they're paid and what the clients will be happy with (and not sue them)

[Sobriquet]

What you are seeing is pretend togs who are clueless, the worst thing is that the general public is even more clueless and hires them! ###