Photo humor: 8 Ways To Hurt A Photographer

The photographer, of course, must be friendly and understanding, while the client — on the contrary, is not obliged to understand the subject and is welcome to ask questions. But some situations are really difficult to tolerate, probably due to the fine mental organization and professional vanity of mine and my dear colleagues.

1. “Let's make the same photo as on Pinterest!”

I really like this social network and there are a lot of interesting photos. But it is not good to copy someone else's work — this is one. And two — part of the photos is so cliche, or outright bad taste, that replicating them is just embarrassing. At the same time, I encourage my clients to show me a selection of liked photos to illustrate their preferences or expectations for any particular parameter — color, mood, etc.

2. Competition for attention with mobile phones.

As a photographer who is paid to shoot at events, I constantly have to make great efforts to attract the attention of people photographed on myself and vice versa, to distract them from the mobile phones sticking out in the same direction that my camera. If you are a customer in this situation, remember that you paid to be in my pictures. So go ahead, be :)

3. “Oh, great photos, you must have a great camera!”

I spent years honing my skills, and now I continue to invest a lot of time and money in my professional growth. But this phrase equates me to a robot pressing the button of an expensive camera. This phrase is equivalent to the phrase "what a delicious dinner, probably you have very expensive pots."

4. “Can I get all the original RAW files after shooting?”

Almost every family owns SLR camera and it's known that Raw files can be processed in different ways. With an abundance of software and pre-sets of adjustments it's easy to get "unique one-click treatment".

But you have to understand that photography as a final product is not just digital data obtained from the camera matrix after pressing the button. Natural, invisible and at the same time effective image correction has to be studied for decades. Careful processing of one photo shoot lasts several times more than the photo session itself. Therefore, asking the photographer for RAW files is the same as asking the author to send his book in the form of a draft, not edited, not formatted, with those paragraphs and sentences that are not included in the book.

5. When clients are editing our photos on their own.

I remember the first time I saw my photos "processed" by Instagram filters. I was shocked. Spending hours on training and the achievement of its precise colors and then to see them with burnt highlights and tinted in some other color it's just a stab in the heart. Please don't do this. After all, if someone asks "whose photo is this", this is not me anymore. But who cares?

6. When client missing the best light.

Looking at the photographer's portfolio and seeing his best shots, you expect to get the same natural lighting effects. These effects are very dependent on the weather, and most importantly — the time of shooting. If customers really liked the photos taken at sunset, but at this time they have a banquet — it will not work to repeat the same at noon, unfortunately.

7. What camera would you recommend to buy?

I'm sorry, but I don't know. As a professional photographer, of course I understand something about the level and quality of equipment. But a very big misconception is that the photographer knows all the new items at all levels of the budget. For example, I know exactly which camera I want and what camera I can afford, but both starts from 2-3 thousand just for the body (no lens included). I absolutely do not follow the entry-level cameras market. New products in this market come out every few months and the latest of them can not be compared in terms of quality with a set of "minimum requirements" imposed by me to the camera. So I don't even look this way.

8. What are the settings on this shot?

I can tell you the precise parameters that were when shooting any frame when I open the source file. But trust me, it won't do you any good. Because too many external factors affect these parameters, not to mention the mood of the photographer during shooting and processing made after shooting. Even knowing all these parameters you will not be able to repeat it. Even standing next to me and setting the same parameters you will get a different frame. Better or worse, this is a good question, but different! So don't get hung up on the numbers. Experiment and find your way.