Photos for a friend

futureal33

futureal33

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Afternoon all!

I did a shoot today for a friend, of her children and herself etc.
I work with her and she asked me last week if I would do it, of course I said yes.

However...

I was a little miffed today when she wasnt even very grateful for the 3 hours I spent trying to make her two young ones even look at the camera (she basically left me to it with little to no help!!), then when I finished she just said thanks, see you later.
There was no mention of any money passing hands or to me she didnt even seem all that grateful that I had given up my sunny saturday afternoon!!

Now if it were you... what would you do?

I have around 150 pictures, some crackers (IMO) which I know she wants.

Would you:

a) Put them on a CD low-res (although, she is the sort of person who wouldnt know what lo-res/hi-res meant and would quite happily have a A2 print of a lo-res image on her wall and not know any different that it looked blocky/stretched!!)
b) Give her the CD with all images full res on it, she is a work colleague afterall and dont want to make things difficult
c) Tell her you want paying for the work
d) Tell her if she wants any printed that you would do it - and obviously make a small profit here (maybe do prints for £5 a pic or something)

Like I said above, im a bit reluctant to "give" her the CD with the images on, because she will simply print them or get them printed elsewhere, cutting me out out of the equation! Looking around her house today she has pictures all over it which were clearly off facebook, and they look terrible - very stretched, not centred etc - really basic stuff... So I KNOW she would print my low-res pics and be perfectly happy with them...

Any ideas what I can do?
 
Rule 1 - never work with children and animals! :D

Rule 2 - Give her a copy of the images in low res with a watermark on them so she can view them but unlikely to print them. At that point tell her that what ever ones she likes you will print. What ever the printing price is stick a little extra on as a cut for you.

What ever you do don't giver her the disc with all images at full res.
 
futureal33 said:
Afternoon all!

I did a shoot today for a friend, of her children and herself etc.
I work with her and she asked me last week if I would do it, of course I said yes.
Click to expand...

If you wanted paying you should have sorted it out as this point - did you agree any terms?

If not it depends on how much you value her friendship. If you don't want to risk spoiling things learn from the experience, give her the photos and move on. If you don't really care try to charge her.
 
Mixing business and "pleasure" is fraught with potential problems.
If you give an answer she doesn't appreciate, things could get interesting at work.
If you slap a ruddy great watermark on the images, it's pretty obvious why.
But, as you say, small lo-res images would probably not raise comment.
As regards the lack of courtesy and respect, I doubt she even realises.
Unfortunately, there are many people in the world who wouldn't recognise common decency if it bit them on the arse.
Learn from the experience, next time be unfortunately busy - repeatedly.
 
If no "term" were agreed or implied at the time of asking it will be very awkward. If you give her lo-res she may well give "bad reviews" of her shoot to others in the office (potential clients). My take as a "nowhere near good enough to charge" photographer would be to accept the fact that you didnt agree payment, give her the hi-res CD in the hope that she will show all her friend/relatives/colleagues and you get business from those recommendations and agree a price up front.
 
Download the trial version of pictures2exe and create a hi-res slideshow on a CD. She can't extract the photos but will love the images so much she'll be begging you to get her prints :)

Sneaky, but it's part of the package I offer for portrait shoots and it always works :D
 
Low Res watermarked CD with a printing price list of at least 50% mark up. It appears both of you haven't negotiated any type of costing/payment from the off.

Doing it that way then at least she knows she has to pay/what has to be paid. Put this down to experience and next time talk about charges before taking any pictures then you don't feel taken for granted even if she hasn't meant to.
 
On the other hand, currently on MumsNet (perhaps)...

"So this collegue at work, knowing he was a photographer, I asked him to take some photo's of my kids. Now he's mentioning payment, won't give me the photo's and I bet he's not CRB checked. I left the kids with him as he said that's how he works best and now I'm really worried. Why won't he let me see the photos? It's really suspicious. Do I call the police, taxman, or just speak to HR at work..."

Just playing devils advocate, but if you didn't discuss paying before then probably the best you will get is grateful thanks and a bottle of wine. You'll see threads on here all the time how people don't appreciate photography. Anyone can take a picture - it's all in the camera anyway...
 
you should have sorted out whether this was buisness or a favour at the begining - by the sound of it she thought it was a favour, so that being the case I'd just give her a CD of high res images and forget about it
not everything has to be about money - plus if she goes away happy you might get refferal buisness from her freinds who you can then charge.

if you try to squeeze cash that she wasnt expecting to pay by giving her low res/water marked files only , even if you get the money, which isnt a given - you are just building up bad feeling in the workplace and she's not likely to recomend you to anyone

Also at this stage you are only assuming she isnt going to pay - its quite possible that she thinks payment comes on exchange of goods, and when you hand over the disc she'll make with the folding stuff, bottle of wine, candlelit dinner for two, payment in kind.... :lol: etc
 
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I did a shoot today for a friend, of her children and herself etc.
I work with her and she asked me last week if I would do it, of course I said yes.


Surely that says it all - GIVE her the photos!!! :thumbs:
 
Yup, give her the photos. Unless you asked for payment why should you change the rules.

What I would do is ask her which ones she wants printed and arrange them to be done in a pro lab. Tell her it's important as it's calibrated to your camera (or any other nonsense) and Boots prints would look rubbish.

You could end up the hero of the office when she shows them to all your work colleagues. In fact make sure all her colleagues see the pictures and appreciate them. If she is still not grateful then .....................
 
Good question!! And the answer is..... in future don't do jobs for people you work with. I did once and it bit me in the arse too... Never again..!! :)
 
But give her the photos and move on. She might bring other business your way. But I would never charge a friend money anyway in the first instance, but you're probably angry because of her attitude...

( I could have added this to above post, but can't edit fro iPhone for some reason )..:)
 
Assassin said:
Good question!! And the answer is..... in future don't do jobs for people you work with. I did once and it bit me in the arse too... Never again..!! :)
Click to expand...

You need to sort out your terms better if paid in kind :)
 
futureal33 said:
Afternoon all!

I did a shoot today for a friend, of her children and herself etc.
I work with her and she asked me last week if I would do it, of course I said yes.

However...

I was a little miffed today when she wasnt even very grateful for the 3 hours I spent trying to make her two young ones even look at the camera (she basically left me to it with little to no help!!), then when I finished she just said thanks, see you later.
There was no mention of any money passing hands or to me she didnt even seem all that grateful that I had given up my sunny saturday afternoon!!

Now if it were you... what would you do?

I have around 150 pictures, some crackers (IMO) which I know she wants.

Would you:

a) Put them on a CD low-res (although, she is the sort of person who wouldnt know what lo-res/hi-res meant and would quite happily have a A2 print of a lo-res image on her wall and not know any different that it looked blocky/stretched!!)
b) Give her the CD with all images full res on it, she is a work colleague afterall and dont want to make things difficult
c) Tell her you want paying for the work
d) Tell her if she wants any printed that you would do it - and obviously make a small profit here (maybe do prints for £5 a pic or something)

Like I said above, im a bit reluctant to "give" her the CD with the images on, because she will simply print them or get them printed elsewhere, cutting me out out of the equation! Looking around her house today she has pictures all over it which were clearly off facebook, and they look terrible - very stretched, not centred etc - really basic stuff... So I KNOW she would print my low-res pics and be perfectly happy with them...

Any ideas what I can do?
Click to expand...

Why does it seem that everyone with a camera want paying for using it? You said yourself that you've taken some photos for a friend. You were taking the photos, it's not entirely unreasonable that she'd leave you alone to get on with it. She thanked you for doing it.

Just give her the photos, it's not like it's your livelihood.
 
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Bristolian said:
Download the trial version of pictures2exe and create a hi-res slideshow on a CD. She can't extract the photos but will love the images so much she'll be begging you to get her prints :)

Sneaky, but it's part of the package I offer for portrait shoots and it always works :D
Click to expand...


I've never done it but I like this idea.:thumbs:
 
Sorry but you have referred to her as a friend, me personally I wouldn't dare charge for a shoot for a friend regardless of time spent on it, but that's just me give her the pictures edit 25 of the best and do it with a smile and remember why you like photography in the first place.

If no mention was made of money before hand then no way should you hold the pictures to ransom or Ruin them by making them low res, for all you know in 1 months time she has a party everyone see's your work and wants to book you. (this time confirm payment details before job)

Friends are friends and never charge for favours :-)
 
You should have agreed the terms before hand. last weekend I was asked to do a photo shoot for a cycling club, after three hours and driving some sixty mile all I got was a thank you.On the bright side I was asked to escort a pretty french student for the morning :-)

also I placed the pics on Pbase and got some 5000 hits all good publicity for my new
phot web site.
 
futureal33 said:
Afternoon all!

I did a shoot today for a friend, of her children and herself etc.
I work with her and she asked me last week if I would do it, of course I said yes.

However...

I was a little miffed today when she wasnt even very grateful for the 3 hours I spent trying to make her two young ones even look at the camera (she basically left me to it with little to no help!!), then when I finished she just said thanks, see you later.
There was no mention of any money passing hands or to me she didnt even seem all that grateful that I had given up my sunny saturday afternoon!!

Now if it were you... what would you do?

I have around 150 pictures, some crackers (IMO) which I know she wants.

Would you:

a) Put them on a CD low-res (although, she is the sort of person who wouldnt know what lo-res/hi-res meant and would quite happily have a A2 print of a lo-res image on her wall and not know any different that it looked blocky/stretched!!)
b) Give her the CD with all images full res on it, she is a work colleague afterall and dont want to make things difficult
c) Tell her you want paying for the work
d) Tell her if she wants any printed that you would do it - and obviously make a small profit here (maybe do prints for £5 a pic or something)

Like I said above, im a bit reluctant to "give" her the CD with the images on, because she will simply print them or get them printed elsewhere, cutting me out out of the equation! Looking around her house today she has pictures all over it which were clearly off facebook, and they look terrible - very stretched, not centred etc - really basic stuff... So I KNOW she would print my low-res pics and be perfectly happy with them...

Any ideas what I can do?
Click to expand...

another great example of the effect photography forums have on people.


what would I do - nothing you took some snaps of your friends kids. give her the images on a disc because thats what you do to friends.
 
Did you mention payment before the shoot if so ask her for the agreed amount if not give her the full res disc and remember to sort out payment next time beforehand
 
POAH said:
what would I do - nothing you took some snaps of your friends kids. give her the images on a disc because thats what you do to friends.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more

(my god,agreeing with Poah the world is turning into a scary place.)
 
if that were me id have at least given someone a bottle of wine ? are they a good friend ? would they spend an afternoon of there time helping you with something ?
 
I cannot believe the OP has started a thread on this. I have done far more than take a few pics for friends and would never dream of asking for payment. This is what you do for friends.

The OP should be ashamed he has posted here tbh.

Andy
 
Don't charge your friend.

She went into this on the assumption there would be no charge, so doing so in any way will sour your relationship.

If you'd set terms on this beforehand you would have less 'friend' capital to urinate up the wall, but as is you'll just ruin everything. Take it on the chin and learn for next time. If you decide you want to charge in future, set up your own contract and conditions as otherwise you'll just annoy people.

And why charge in the first place? I'd be thrilled if anybody just wanted to use my photos, or even have a specific photo session just for the fun.
 
As you have said:

its a freind (work or not a freind)
you did not ask for payment so should not expect it
guess you told her that you put them on disc??

Ok put them on disc with very minimal PP and only give her the ones you are happy with, so out of the 150 giver her say 15 20 images.

Like you have said she is not the sort of person who goes all out on quality so do them and give them to her.

If you get any other people asking then charge, if they say you neever charged **** for doing them just say something like it took longer than I thought it was my time so I just will do it for £** as you are a work colleage.

Good luck and learn from this experience.

spike
 
ding76uk said:
I might be being dumb here, you're going to have to spell it out because I still don't understand.
Click to expand...

I think he's saying that forums make people greedy - ie someone wouldn't think of charging their freind except for seeing other people charging for photos
 
Bristolian said:
Download the trial version of pictures2exe and create a hi-res slideshow on a CD. She can't extract the photos but will love the images so much she'll be begging you to get her prints :)

Sneaky, but it's part of the package I offer for portrait shoots and it always works :D
Click to expand...

Of course she can, what a strange thing to say :thinking:

OP, next time a friend/colleague asks you to take shots of their family the response should be something along the lines of "I'd be happy to give you 10% off as mates rates"
 
Assassin said:
But give her the photos and move on. She might bring other business your way. But I would never charge a friend money anyway in the first instance, but you're probably angry because of her attitude...
Click to expand...


That's the way to go. I often shoot the family of close friends and the only time I charge is if they want prints. I then send them off to get done and depending on the total cost I let them have it as a gift, or I may add 50% (for 5 or 6 shots at 10 x 8 that's not a lot).

Last couple of times have been complete freebies.

Steve
 
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