How to Deal With Criticism From a Client

How to Deal With Criticism From a Client

(Wedding and Event Photography)

so today i’m gonna do a video on how to
deal with criticism when you get
bad feedback from a client maybe they’re
disappointed in the work or you missed
an important shot
i decided to do this video because
someone posted recently on my channel
about this
and i really believe in getting back to
everyone and giving
thorough and thoughtful responses and
sometimes i don’t have time to really
i enjoy typing but i don’t have the time
to really type it out i thought i would
just make a video
and that way i can be a little bit more
free and how i can discuss it
so this is bound to happen first of all
if you’re just starting out
just i’m gonna prepare you right now you
will get a complaint at some point
sometimes it might be valid um quite
often it’s not going to be
i have not had many of them but i’ve had
them of course i’ve had them
we’re all going to get them because at
some point you’re going to work for
someone who’s a nightmare
who’s just in their own world and will
complain to you about something not in
your control
they’ll complain to you about the rain
you know you never
know and so we have to be prepared um
and i’m going to talk
about how to manage the complaint but
first
let’s get through like the whole process
so number one i think it’s really
important that you manage expectations
when you’re booking someone
uh when they’re booking you this is what
i offer
be very clear have a contract etc make
sure they’re hiring
they don’t have the wrong expectations
i’m gonna i like using weddings
as an example even though i don’t really
shoot them but um
you don’t want someone to hire you if
you’re the candid
kind of fly-on-the-wall photographer but
they want a lot of posed portraits and
maybe that’s just something you don’t do
that’s also on the client for not doing
their due diligence because they should
be
looking at your portfolio and looking at
sample work so they know exactly what
they’re gonna get in it
from you um but ultimately it’s gonna be
on you
if they’re not happy right you’re gonna
be the one that’s gonna be complained
to so first yes manage expectations make
sure they understand what you do
what your specialties are how you cover
an event etc
number two you need to build confidence
in yourself and i know how hard it is uh
this is going to be very
easier said than done right
so what we can do so i can give you
something actionable is we can talk
about
what builds your confidence how can you
develop
confidence and i think there’s it’s a
two-part answer
one when it comes to photography i’ve
said it a million times
you need to understand the technical
side of the craft
at a deep level you don’t do this so
that you can be very rigid and have very
technical soulless images you do this so
that when you have a vision
you’re able to easily execute it you do
this so when you walk into a room
like that you know exactly where the
best light is what direction to shoot in
etc etc with experience and this
technical knowledge you’re going to be
able you’re going to start to feel very
confident like no matter what you know
what to do
i get a lot of very specific questions
about things like low light photography
people seem to be very out of their
element
depending on the type of job they’re
shooting
and i get that and
i don’t have that for two reasons one
i’ve been around the block long enough
that i’ve shot in almost every situation
and two i’m not memorizing techniques at
all
i’m understanding how light works and
because i’ve
worked in so many venues i’m able to
quickly react and on
the fly i’m able to adapt and come up
with different techniques
try bouncing my flash in different ways
or use external flash in different ways
you basically get to a point where you
don’t have set tools you have like a
tool or like
you don’t have a set technique but you
have a toolbox at your disposal and you
can kind of improvise with the tools you
have
so sorry my camera died i pride myself
on doing these in one take but
it’s not gonna be one take um so once
you really develop the skill set
and the know-how you’re gonna get this
confidence where no matter what the
variables are
you will know the best solution to the
problem
now what i said was the best solution
to the problem not the perfect solution
not the dream solution
you can’t make it unrein right
so the next part of that
is developing some stoicism
and stoicism is about accepting reality
accepting what is
and then saying to yourself how can i
use it and when you
adopt that philosophy and i would really
recommend looking more into it
it’s too far out of the scope of the
video when you adopt that philosophy you
basically understand you have stuff
you’re in control of
and you have stuff you’re not in control
of and you cannot control
the skill set you’re bringing into a job
all you have is the skills you have at
this moment
and the variables of the job and you
make do with what you have
why am i talking about all this when
we’re really talking about
external criticism the reason is
we are our worst critics and what’s
happening is when a client criticizes
you it’s going to amplify
all your own criticisms of yourself that
we all carry
so when you have this comfort and
someone complains to you
and it wasn’t really your fault and you
know you did the best you could with the
variables
offered it’s easier to be a little
detached and let it slide
and you can explain that to them if you
have someone that’s pushing it you can
say exactly because you’re a technical
photographer after all
exactly why you made the decisions you
made
as far as complaints go
i can think of two complaints three
complaints in my whole career
one i was starting out and the lights
were super tungsten
super tungsten they don’t really light
venues this way anymore
and the client did say it’s too orange
and at that point i probably didn’t know
how to properly balance my lights if i’m
honest i
i was my first year i was just dragging
my shutter to
allow the right amount of ambient light
but i was
not there’s ways to deal with it and i
didn’t deal with it and i
guess i probably could have reduced it
in post i don’t recall what we
ended up doing the next one also
early-ish career i was shooting a
wedding
and the second shooter i hired i think
missed a few formals that they needed to
get
now it wasn’t fully her fault
most weddings are very well run in my
opinion
that i’ve shot but this one wasn’t um
they changed they even changed the
ceremony location
at the venue like within five minutes i
think maybe it was gonna rain
i don’t remember they immediately
changed it and set it up inside
it was a very unorganized wedding my
second shooter missed it
but what do you do i i got the criticism
and and initially when you get criticism
you’re like damn
like you feel awful and you probably
punish yourself harder than your
client’s going to
because you take pride in your work um
in this case
i let it i waited like a day and i said
i’m really sorry
i really do wish we were able to get
those shots for you
it’s all you have to do after you remove
yourself from it
ultimately that’s all you can do now
i’ve also the third time i’ve had an
issue
was really was someone not
operating in the same realm of reality
someone who i think had a personality
disorder
who was beyond unreasonable
who was demanding things that i
explicitly did not provide in writing
like in writing i said exactly what i
was going to provide and then she
demanded i provide all these other
things i’m like
what like that’s not what you hired me
for i can’t edit a video for you for
free
like that kind of thing it was really
off base and with those you have to just
stand your ground
now last thing the specific question i
think
was that um someone uh the person who
commented mentioned
that the client felt they did not get
enough photos of the ven a specific
vendor
and to really address that question i
would have to see the body of work
a lot of times it’s a perception issue
where the client perceives
there to not be as many photos of
themselves or
of something um but if you count the
shots
the reality is that there are as many or
more like the
one of the criticisms when i wouldn’t
cave for that last job i told you guys
about
when i said i’m sorry but this is all in
writing i
cannot provide you with this video
you’re asking me for
um she then resorted to two things she
attacked me as a person
my appearance she said i wasn’t smiling
enough
and two she claimed i photographed more
photos of her friend than her
so i counted them up it wasn’t true
her and her friend had some rivalry i’m
not gonna get into it
but she was jealous of the friend who i
i did have a decent amount of shots of
her but that’s because she
changed her wardrobe to these
extravagant costumes at her friend’s
birthday party
she had a wardrobe change every hour for
her friend’s
birthday party and made a big scene as a
photographer i’m
focusing on vips and then on top of that
i’m just trying to document the energy
and the photographer
should go to where the energy is if
someone’s making a big scene at the
party and like doing a big whole thing
with their costumes
you gotta photograph it anyway so i
don’t know if this was helpful i hope it
was but
i would have to see the whole job to
really assess but keep in mind
all you can do is control your own your
own self you can’t control people and
their criticisms
and once you remove yourself from it if
you feel you did all you could you
managed expectations
you have to just politely say i’m sorry
that
you feel that way not don’t say it that
way because that seems condescending but
you know
i do wish i was able to forget those
photographs you wanted
i i did my best to cover your event
thoroughly etc don’t get defensive
you have to just move on for your own
sake trust me
for your own sake just move on alright
thanks for watching