Any cases of clients not happy with their 'appearance' on images...?

theMusicMan

theMusicMan

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John
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Hi All

Difficult one here... not quite sure how to proceed with this, but wanted to anonamise the identity of the person I took photos of, but get advice from folk in here.

I took some shots several weeks ago now, and one of the clients has stated that they felt they look a tad overweight on a few of the images I presented. The thing is... this person is paranoid about being slightly overweight, but nonetheless, is slightly overweight and appears so on the images. The camera hasn't exaggerated any particular facet of that persons appearance, and I only presented what the camera saw.

Now, if they don't like any particular images then that's totally fine - I have no objection to that at all. But, and here's the thing folks... the person does like the images, all except they think they look too fat in them...!!!

Now I know the client is always (well... 99%) right, and if they don't want copies of particular images then that's fine... but to complain about looking too fat on an image is somewhat ott as far as I can say.

How say you...? What's your thoughts...?

OK, amending physical appearance such as removing wrinkles if requested, smoothing out skin tones if requested... are easily achieved using a combination of Neat Image filters and PhotoShop effects, but that's about it; adjusting the image to alter someones physical size is totally another ballgame...!!

Do I offer to try to slim them down in the photos somehow...? offer to amend the image so that it reflects them looking as slim as a catwalk model...? or do I say OK, sorry you don't like them, thanks for allowing me to take the images of you, and then walk away...?

Thoughts please folks... ta
 
:lol:

Thats a nice dilemma your in! Havent a clue sorry, but be sure to let us know what you do.
 
Tell them that you have captured a true representation of them and the camera never lies. Then give them the directions to the gym.
 
Walk away whistling 'Have a salad fatty'.:lol:

Seriously though, I'd offer a reshoot based on pre-payment and measure how they feel about the images then. Nothing lost and you call their bluff on the all important issue of payment. It's a win-win imho.
 
mattyh said:
<rock> John <Hard Place> :lol:

If it were me I'd be tempted to walk away, because you never know if she's ever going to be happy with the images, plus the amount of time you'd end up processing would be pretty high, and I doubt she'd pay for that? :shrug:
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Yup, hard place indeed.

I agree Matty, and to be honest was posting slightly sarcastically when I made my final comments about offering to make the person appear as a catwalk model. I am thinking of walking...

dsb said:
Tell them that you have captured a true representation of them and the camera never lies. Then give them the directions to the gym.
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Haha.... wish I could do that dsb... very funny :)

R8JimBob88 said:
:lol:

Thats a nice dilemma your in! Havent a clue sorry, but be sure to let us know what you do.
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Will do Jimbob...

Thanks all...
 
:lol: oh dear...I know how your client feels, being a little overweight myself and never liking how I look in photos.

You can of course make some very careful tweaks to 'under-accentuate' the 'extra' bits with judicial use of the pinch part of the liquify tool in photoshop, and done carefully it can make a huge difference to the overall effect without apparently making the client look any different BUT, and here's the thing, whilst I would happily do this on a picture of myself, or for a friend or whatever, I am not sure I would be willing to do it for a paying client because as a photographer, and indeed as a person, your eye possibly sees thing differently to your client, especially one that is this sensitive to begin with, and you could actually end up making things worse, not better.

I think my advice would be to tell her thats how the pictures are, if she wants them, buy them, if not, fine, walk away, its her choice but you cannot change her body shape to be anything other then it is.

Very best of luck John, dealing with a womans insecurities is never easy ;)
 
Fab advice there LL... much appreciated.

My sarcasm aside, I do of course fully understand where this person is coming from, and totally understand why they may want to look slimmer. I will admit to feeling very uncomfortable about making selective amendments to someones physical appearance in any of my images though. As I mentioned already, I am happy to reduce wrinkles or smooth skin tones... but not to use the liquify tool... I think that's opening a can of worms.

Decision made: I am walking... :) thanks LL... :thumbs:
 
Probably the best way John. I am sure pro togs doing shoots for magazines will use every tool available to them for the 'prefect look' and I am pretty sure their editors demand it, but when you are setting out on the road to professionalism, you have to decide from the off where your lines in the sand are so to speak, and of course extend that line as new issues make themselves apparent.


Still it could be worse, it could have been me you were shooting, as a person I would want you to enhance away, as a photographer, I would expect you to let me be the one getting busy in photoshop :lol:
:lol:
 
Tell the lady pre-paid extra editing can take care of it, and to take it or leave it. Don't lose any sleep over it.
 
tell them that if the QUALITY of the pics is upto standard , theres nothing you can do. photographs present a statement of peoples appearance .
other than minor retouching , other work is chargeable.
if she aint happy with that. WALK.
 
Never say never. Offer the client your fees for retouching - if she wants to pay them all well and good. Just don't do anything for free.
 
Thing is though Duncan, I don't want to go down that route of offering these 'retouching' services, there are other folk out there who could and would do a far better job than I.

I know my limits... :)
 
So your fee is their fee + 20% ...
 
Do you mind if I ask what kind of poses you used with this person?
Are you aware of the way the inwhich the subject is projecting themselves to the camera?

I think if youre shooting someone who is overweight, (especially a female) and you know them, or have met them prior to the shoot, then you can get an idea of what poses will suit their bodyshape.
Worth having a little checklist of poses to hand on the day, poses that will flatter the person the most, and disguise or play down the areas she doesnt like.

It 'might' be worth asking them to explain in detail where in particular they feel they look fat & then if you feel comfortable about doing so, offer a reshoot, where you can work with a mixture of selective posing, careful lighting and a tad of PS.
Jmo of course, as this is probably the way Id go about it if I were in your shoes.
 
I think LL has the right approcah im bigger than i should be and hate photos of me but theres no way i would ask to be slimed down in pp. if she doesn't like her image why did she want photos taken?
 
Sorry I can't hep laughing - a rather overweight bride once asked me to take about three stone off her in a few of her wedding shots because she'd promised her mum in the USA that she'd lost weight for the wedding and had to to send her some shots. :D She looked great trimmed down!

I'd have no qualms in doing it - provided it's do-able of course.
 
I'd have no qualms either CT if;

(1) I wanted to go that route and offer those services
(2) I had the PP skills to do so

... but the client has said they are not happy as they look too fat on the images! They like the images, but they are not happy because they look fat!! This is what I am disappointed with.
 
CT said:
Sorry I can't hep laughing - a rather overweight bride once asked me to take about three stone off her in a few of her wedding shots because she'd promised her mum in the USA that she'd lost weight for the wedding and had to to send her some shots. :D She looked great trimmed down!

I'd have no qualms in doing it - provided it's do-able of course.
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SO when I can I book you for a portrait session, I want to look like I am a size 10 please and 5'8"! [instead of a 12-14 and a smidge over 5' tall :bonk: ]

:D
 
LOL. You're gonna get these problems from time to time and some a lot worse when you're dealing with the good ol' general public. ;)

It's obvious that this person's perceived image of themself doesn't equate to the hard truth. Some people are just fat and no amount of posing and adjusting lighting will conceal the fact.

How many shots are we talking about?
 
LadyLens said:
SO when I can I book you for a portrait session, I want to look like I am a size 10 please and 5'8"! [instead of a 12-14 and a smidge over 5' tall :bonk: ]

:D
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LOL. I'm sure you don't need that kind of attention to look fantastic LL. :D
 
CT said:
LOL. You're gonna get these problems from time to time and some a lot worse when you're dealing with the good ol' general public. ;)

It's obvious that this person's perceived image of themself doesn't equate to the hard truth. Some people are just fat and no amount of posing and adjusting lighting will conceal the fact.

How many shots are we talking about?
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Just about 4 or 5 out of 60 or so...
 
Well have a go.... if you feel so inclined that is. It'll be a lot easier if it's a plain background. Obviously you can't (and shouldn't) post client pics but you can send me one of the shots to have a look at if you like. :)
 
I've had a client say this to me too except it was she looked old in the images. I advised wrinkle reduction is extra and she was happy with that. (I tried to be nice about it). :)

You can only shoot what's in front of you.

Reducing a persons size is not that difficult depending on how the image looks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlV7I8Qm7Vw

The warp tool in Photoshop is also very easy to use and can offer quick localised editing. Liquify is an amazing tool too and in the right hans can slim a size 20 to a size 10 (check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZDHQ9b9fbo)
 
Karen said:
Theres a new tool in the latest version of Paint shop pro called "thinify" which is very good, takes the bits in keeping the perspective in small stages, good for small alterations.
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Knew I'd seen that somewhere!! Been racking my brains for ages! :thumbs:
 
My two cents:

There are definitely times when a client simply has such a complex about their appearance that there is no way to create an honest, pleasing image.

HOWEVER.

I thoroughly agree with Glo. There are so many ways to minimize body size in-camera via careful lighting, clothing selection, and posing. I really wish we could see the images in question. Would you possibly be able to place them on a password-protected page we could view briefly?

As a pro photog, if I can honestly say that I did absolutely everything I could to flatter the person with lighting, clothing, and posing, and they still hated their appearance, I would not worry about doing a reshoot, as it would be pointless. On the other hand, if there is something I could have done differently, I would absolutely shoot again. I will absolutely never "fix" someone's weight in PS. I also wouldn't take the easy out of saying, "Well, that person is a little overweight, so they're just gonna have to look overweight in the photos."

- CJ
 
If all else fails, resize the image with the hight the same and the width at 90-95%. That usually does the trick.

Usually I will be able to tell talking to the client before the lights go on and the camera is picked up, what they want. As you have said there. They are paranoid, so make them look skinny. Sometimes it is a product for a customer and not a litteral representation of the truth.

P.S. The liquidity tool can be your friend too for the times when they have chosen the wrong outfit for their body type.
 
That's a good one John - made me laugh

Tell her you can apply a simple technique to help her lose 3 stone - charge her £42 and remove 3 pebbles from her garden! :lol:

If she's really fat, you have a special 10 stone rate = £140
 
inaneredstripe said:
i CAN look like kate moss :lol:
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but why would you want to?

having looked at other responses i'd be tempted to suggest if you felt different poses could help offer a reshoot.. if as i think i read that only 4 or 5 images are not good enough, perhaps there are 55 other poses which suit,, maybe offer to do a few more in a pose similar to those which they are happy with...
i'm not tall enough for my weight either, but would never dream of touching up a photo to make me look taller.. :D
 
Id say crop the images to 9x6 and print them at 8x6... instant 12% weight reduction with very little effort.
 
A difficult one MM and I'm not going to comment on the prsonal aspects of this but how you can easily slim them down if that is what they want. Instead of time consuming and often difficult PP work open the image and press Ctrl-A to select all of the image, then Ctrl-T to bing up the free transform and go to either the left or right centre handles and drag them towards the centre, keep an eye on the Width field in the Options bar, about 95% should be okay.

Crop and you're done!
 
Like many other people I hate being photographed. Sometimes I even hate what I see in the mirror, but I am what I am and what nature and life style have made me. :'(
 
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