Satisfying Clients Is About Flexibility
AUGUST 23, 2023
Since many people have Instagram, Google Photos and other ways to easily add filters to photos, I've focused my efforts in post-processing to represent my work as accurately as possible to how I intended them to look when I took them.
Top: CrossFit photo processed in Photoshop. Bottom: Same photo with black & white filter applied.
I think many photographers make decisions on filters as part of their style and brand. In my opinion, that may not be what the client wants. As long as I have the original, post-processed files, we can make stylized versions based on client input, or even let the client play around with filters after the photos have been delivered.
That certainly could be a distasteful approach to many photographers. As artists, we have a vision for how we want our product represented. But at the same time, in modern times where the client can easily load photos into their platform of choice, I feel the client should ultimately have control over how they want to share the work they paid for with others. As long as the originals are kept intact, it protects my original work, and that can be adjusted for different uses.
Case in point: I just shot a CrossFit competition and spent a lot of time in Photoshop correcting for low light conditions and backlighting. While I'm pretty happy with the post-processed originals, I discovered that many of the action photos look really cool in black and white, so I batch processed the entire project to make black and white versions, keeping copies of the originals. My client thought it was a great idea.
I have had other sports projects where I supplied the processed images and then the marketing person applied filters, removed backgrounds and added style filters to use elements of the photos in social media posts. That's fine too. That's what the client needed.
Graphic designers are often frustrated by web design in a similar way. Traditionally, designers maintained pixel-point accuracy over every aspect of their work. But by definition, websites, and particularly responsive-design websites, adjust automatically to the resources available to the viewer, including which fonts they have on hand, the size of the screen and the type of device.
The key to modern design -- and to making clients happy -- is to be flexible and provide an end product that is adaptable, even if that means giving up control of how the final product is used and displayed.
At least that's my approach.