Hello,
I am new to the forum although have subscribed to the magazine for some time.
I've just begun paid work and my first 'proper' job went well, photos well-received etc however the customer was hugely unimpressed by the non-standard 7.5x5 and said she had trimmed them to fit her 7x5 frames. Without being overly precious, this horrified me as she has only trimmed from the bottom and one side completely changing the composition...(shudder) I clearly stated the sizes at the ordering stage.
How do I respond? I'm wondering whether to re-order the photos at my own expense and suggest she buys custom mounts (from me or a local supplier)... as a gesture of goodwill and because I'm not happy about my photos being 'shown' in their current state. The customer has great potential to recommend me, so I absolutely need to do something.
What would be a good to explain the photo ratios of my camera (5D MKII)to a non-photographer and is it really unreasonable to supply non-standard sized prints? A lot of my stuff are tight-crops so changing them all to 7x5 does cause problems..I'm really trying to aviod this option.

Thank you in advance for your help, I hope to contribute to the forum and have some useful things to say in the future!

Annoying, but I guess you need to set your own boundaries. Either you state clearly to people that this is the only print size you do and they'll have to live with it, or you sell 7x5 prints - at least you'll be in charge of the crop this way!

When I sell prints from weddings I only sell 9x6" size or 12x8" size, and don't waver on this. I sell them presented in a photo folder, so that they don't have to frame them if they don't want, they will prop up somewhere instead.

I guess the one piece of advice I'd have is that you need to have a strong idea of what you want to sell and stick to your guns within reason. You need to know what product you want to provide and stick to it, but be reasonable about what they can do with the product afterwards.

For example, it's unlikely that they'll find it easy to find a frame for a 7.5x5"unless they have it mounted at a bespoke framers. I would provide the cropped 7x5 or accept that they will put it through the trimmer! I'd reprint the images for this client at the size she wants, write it off as a learning curve and make sure you know what you're happy providing in future. If the 7.5x5" is the size you want to sell, then you have to be okay with them hacking at it afterwards and have a way of dealing with their moaning!

All the best with it,
Helen

By the way, my first job went fine but was a horrendous nightmare afterwards with the product! I didn't lay boundaries for my client and was horribly upset when they demanded I do things differently, despite the fact I was so wooley from the start! I still physically cringe thinking back to how I handled things then...

I guess what I've learnt is to not take things personally and realise that when I think a client is being unreasonable and demanding, they're usually only being like that because I've set myself up for trouble by not being clear with them!

Being a photographer always involves a certain level of ego - we can get precious over little things and need our work to be appreciated, but people don't always see things our way and at the end of the day they are the client. When they do see things our way it's a bonus, but try and remind yourself it's business, not personal, when someone questions you on something.

cheers,
Helen

Helen,
Thank you for taking the time to reply. I will be taking all of your advice and believe me, it is very gratefully received!
I've 7x5-ed the photos this afternoon as a replacement for the customer (all 17 of them)! I'm now thinking I'm also making a fatal error offering 65+ photos for proofing? It takes a fair amount of time in post-production (obviously) for limited uptake..and encourages the purchase of several smaller prints instead of the 'bigger' products? Such a minefield..
As you suggested I do need to get my products sorted out. I will only offer two sizes of print from now on, this will be so much easier. I have been all around the houses and back again trying to source canvases, picture frames etc and have made some progress. The problem is they all seem to be costing such a hefty premium to begin with so with the mark-up I'm not convinced people will see them as a very attractive option. How do you overcome this? My target market do have money to spend so maybe I just need to have more confidence. Do you have any recommended companies for framing options/other products? At the moment I'm using Colab for printing.
Thank you again for your valuable input, I feel as though you've got me back on some kind of track again!
Best wishes.
Anna