First off, i apologize for not posting the set here directly, but i'm currently on an iphone, so cant insert photo url's that easily...so if you dont wanna click the gallery link, then i wont be offended...my question is, do i need to be more selective in what i deliver to clients?? "Edit more tightly" if you will..some people think 115 images from a 6 hour e-session is too much...i like to deliver a variety of images, but dont wanna devalue the better images at the same time...so i need some feedback...the couple loves the images, i think they're pretty solid..just looking for feedback on culling, not really if you dig the images or not...thanks in advance!!
Way too many, what could they possibly do with all those? If you give them images they don't know how to use you are giving them a problem without a solution. You are also indicating that you don't know which are the good ones.
6 hours? That's NOT "way too many". 120's fine. However, I would say you need more variety. Too many of each location IMO. I deliver up to 36 for two hours. (on average) No more than 2-3 per location/pose.
See i agree with todd, but i also agree with alan...problem is i feel like if i delivered 50 images for 6 hours, and they were there, knowing what and how much we shot, they'd feel shorted in a way...
Well about an hour of drive time between locations, 30 min of walking and talking back to the cars, it was a pretty casual night...they were all about it, and so was i...but the time spent isnt the question...so forget that it was 6 hours...lets just imagine it was 2 hours...time wasnt the original question...
Edit...it was in the original question, but wasnt really the point...the point was, do i include too many duplicates, or stuff that waters down the rest of the better stuff..
2 cents from a nobody here: Forgetting what the exact number of delivered shots should be for a moment, you are definitely diluting the quality of your work if you're giving this whole set to the clients. You have dupes here with only slight changes in pose or expression. You also have shots here that should not have made the cut (you know that, right?).
In no way am I crapping on your work. You're a pro and everyone here knows it.
Maybe you need to consider your shooting time and your variety of shots/locales but neither of those possible issues nor anything else really should be justification for you to deliver shots that you know don't meet your quality criteria.
On engagement sessions, I almost never deliver more than 30. I might take 200 total images, but I'll only deliver the very best, and never more than one from each pose.
Edit:
My take on the "I don't want them to feel shorted in any way" argument is that they're hiring your vision and discretion, as much as your technical skills. I've told clients before, "you need to trust me to deliver your very best". Never had an issue as long as I'm up front and control expectations...
Honestly I don't think you're delivering way too many. There are some shots for sure I would have tweaked the pose etc but I'm not seeing thaaaat much redundancy.
I think delivering 30 images would require managing expectations ahead of time for sure if you wanted to go that route.
Honestly i dont normally address with clients how many images they'll receive before the shoot, but if they see my other galleries, from typical 2-3 hour sessions, usually it's between 40-60 they'll see....i guess maybe i should spell it out in writing...that way everyone is on the same page...
I give 20-40 for an engagement usually. From a 2 hour. If its styled a bit I give more as Im a details junkie.
I have it on my site about receiving 20-40 images under my engagement info. I try to have as much info as possible spelled out so they know what to expect.
I am not sure if the number is too much... but there are many sets of very similar images in there.
I think the burden should be on you to select the strongest out of similar sets. Nice work though, and thanks for posting a full deliverable. I find it very interesting.
Btw, with smugmug, everything from the # sign on is to index to a certain photo. You need not include that portion in your links.
For example
/27722716_t5kgnd#!i=2336320988&k=DfFZ6SC
you only need to include
/27722716_t5kgnd
I regularly deliver 50-80 images from engagement sessions, but I regularly delete/remove any images that are even remotely the same as another image. Having duplicates makes it difficult for your clients to choose. Do they like the image that is identical to the next except with her hand on his face, or his hand on his lapel? They're almost the same, but different, so they get stuck. Deliver the stronger image, and move on.
I'll go against the grain and say that I dont see anything wrong with the number of images you provided, especially given the variety of locations it looks like you were in. Do I think there are 15 or so that you could do without? yeah...but I don't think it really has anything to do with the total number of images itself.
I do agree with others that have said the client will have more trouble picking ones to print when you deliver this many, so if you're relying on print sales I think that changes things.
What we actually do, even for an engagement session, is make two galleries in smugmug, one called "our favorites" that will have 30-40 images and then the full gallery with 100-125. People seem to like that. Then we use the favorites folder to select from for the blog post. I can't count how many times clients have come to us excitedly saying "we love them so much some of our favorites aren't even in your favorites gallery!"
Just the way we do it, definitely not the only way or necessarily the best way, but it works for us.
By the way - I really like the flash/ambient balance in #46-50..can I ask how you lit them?
Prettym1k3 wrote:
I regularly deliver 50-80 images from engagement sessions, but I regularly delete/remove any images that are even remotely the same as another image. Having duplicates makes it difficult for your clients to choose. Do they like the image that is identical to the next except with her hand on his face, or his hand on his lapel? They're almost the same, but different, so they get stuck. Deliver the stronger image, and move on.
I often do the opposite, I often leave a few 'options' of shots (as long as I'm happy with them) because it gives them the illusion they are getting everything.
Overall I think that you have a great collection of images to offer your clients. I do think that if you wanted to you could go through another round of cuts and eliminate some of the images that are similar to one another.
I agree with StevenMI about your lighting and am also curious about what you used.
