Evening. This is a long one. Apologies. I guess it’s like when you’ve not seen a friend for a long time so they just fully download their brain onto you?
If you can’t be bothered reading all this then scroll down to almost the end where I say “thing number three” because that’s where I get profound.
You’re still up here? Ok. First of all, what’s with all the sagas? I know this can be a dramatic industry but why?!
Saga number one. Worth mentioning quickly even though I’m sure you’re aware of it…
Google Business Profiles are under attack.
Yep, some douche has unleashed the underbelly of the industry by revealing a tactic he promotes with his SEO clients… a way of getting competitors quickly removed from Google maps. I’m not going to go into mega details here but I made a blog post all about it which you can read here: https://thefedwed.com/google-business-service-areas/
You may not be as aware of this one unless you’re an avid TikTok doom-scroller, or a Threads user.
I’ll summarise as quickly as I can for you. Although there’s a lot to it!
Part one. The part with no saga.
USA. 2023. Couple books photographer. Couple and photographer get on like a house on fire. Photographer shoots wedding. Beachfront wedding. Cloudy day. Photographer delivers photos. Couple tell photographer they LOVE the photos.
Part two. The part where the saga develops.
USA. 2024. Couple begin to decide they don’t necessarily like the edit of the photos compared to the colours they’re seeing in guest photos. Tension happens. Photographer pushes back a little and agrees to some re-editing. Couple still not happy. Couple decide the pre-agreed fee for their album cover is extortionate ($125 apparently). Couple begin to demand the raw files as they now HATE the edit. They offer $1000. Photographer asks for $4000. Stale mate is reached. Relationship has fully broken down.
Part three. The part where the saga explodes.
Couple take their grievance to Tiktok. They moan that the edit is ‘sepia toned’ and start showing comparisons between the photographer’s edit and edits they’ve done themselves. Photographers edit is stylistically very warm tonally with medium contrast. Couples edits are very neutral, natural colour, soft contrast. The couple say they’re being held to ransom.
Part four. The part where the saga goes viral.
Because the couple referred to the photos as ‘sepia toned’ it’s now known as ‘the sepia bride’ saga. I’m referring to the couple as although the bride has been the one making all the videos on tiktok, it’s clearly on behalf of both of them and he’s since weighed in on Threads especially so it’s unfair to load it all on her. People begin to take sides so you’re either team bride or team photographer. Couple make 20+ tiktoks about it. Internet does what internet does. Photographer stays silent but is eventually interviewed on The Vendor Table podcast.
So… that’s you caught up. You’re welcome.
Now I’m going to give my thoughts as answers to the key issues being discussed in those classically rational comment sections of TikTok and Threads.
Yes it absolutely is. You’re right. The photos delivered by the photographer look like the photographer’s portfolio.
And if it was as simple as that, the whole debacle would’ve ended there. Case closed.
But it’s not as simple as that is it?
My work for instance. I don’t do much to colours but I do move them around a little in my preset to achieve the skin colour/tone I personally prefer. That does move especially reds, oranges and yellows, and even greens a little bit.
My couples won’t necessarily realise this. In fact they almost certainly won’t.
So this ‘sepia couple’ booked this photographer based on photos they’d seen from weddings they weren’t at. And unless it was pointed out they wouldn’t necessarily know, as non-photographers, that colours weren’t true to life. So when they saw photos from a wedding they were at (their own) they realised the colours weren’t consistent with reality.
That doesn’t mean the photographer did anything wrong. Far from it.
But it’s got me thinking that maybe we owe it to potential clients, if we shift colours around especially, to talk to them about just how much the edit is part of our work and what that really means to them and their eventual photos.
Like, should we be ‘educating’ them that what they’re booking is the way we SHOOT the photos AND the way we EDIT them? And that, for most of us, that’s kind of non-negotiable. I struggle to edit photos in a way that isn’t my personal taste, as I’m sure you do.
I don’t know if that’s right or wrong, but I will be doing this from now on. Softly. Nothing too heavy handed. I won’t be talking kelvin white balance on my zoom calls. But I’ll be letting them know that I’m just as passionate about the final look and feel of my photos as I am about clicking the shutter button on their wedding day.
I don’t know if that’s the right thing but as someone who’s had to deal with re-edit requests a couple of times a year, I’m keen to see if it makes any difference.
These headlines aren’t my opinions. They’re just what the internet is shouting.
So people are saying (mainly non-photographers) that we are a service industry, and that we should be open to requests like re-editing or maybe even couples stating their editing preferences prior to us beginning the edit and tailoring the final edit to each couple.
They’re saying that this photographer should’ve been more open to this couple’s demands and then maybe it wouldn’t have reached saga status.
Personally, I would bend over backwards to make sure my client was delighted even if that left me disgruntled and annoyed. A few years ago I told you here about a time one of my couples declared they’d gone off my edit in between booking me and their wedding and wanted a much more neutral on-trend edit. And I did it. I hated it but I did it. And they were delighted.
Artistically that work is not my preferences, but I decided to do what the client wanted.
That was absolutely the right decision for my business, despite the fact it caused me an extended period of artistic doubt. I’ll talk about that in a future issue in more detail.
Last year even, I delivered a gallery and the couple and the brides mum HATED it. So I re-edited the whole gallery and you know what? They still hated it. I then gave them a full gallery in black and white. They still weren’t happy. In the end I gave them the RAW files. I assume they’re still not happy but I did everything I could.
I did an amazing job of the photos by the way, in my opinion.
This is a big one still now being debated online. Some photographers say never, some say for a price, some say they’d hand them over if the couple wanted them.
My contract states that RAW files will never be released. I’m not sure why.
I fully understand commercially that RAW files should be valued and valuable. In something personal like a wedding I’m less passionate about that. These are personal photos. I handed over the RAW files to that disgruntled client above because it felt like the right thing for me to do. I’d tried everything to please them and it all failed. I gave them for free.
I don’t regret it. One complaint was that I’d made some of the ladies’ hair look red when it wasn’t. But it was red even in the RAW files.
I think if you don’t want ever to give RAW files, decide why and have a well articulated and reasoned argument ready for when you’re asked.
I think if you want to offer RAW files as a paid add-on as part of your menu of extras then fair play. I’m thinking of doing the same.
Going back to sepia-gate I think if this photographer had negotiated for the sale of the RAW files then this whole story might never have blown up. Couple offered $1k apparently, photographer wanted $4k. Negotiation could’ve solved the situation quietly and maybe even amicably but it sounds like the relationship had broken down before this.
But none of us were there. We don’t know.
I’ve decided three things.
Thing number one… In sepia saga there’s no way of knowing if the photographer could or should have done anything differently to avoid the eventual outcome. The couple didn’t like the edit all of a sudden. They asked for re-edits and got them. They didn’t like them either. They knew the photographer charged $4k for release of RAW files but only offered $1k. Despite this the photographer gave some RAW files apparently for free, but this just made the couple apparently more desperate to get all the RAW files, despite being unwilling to pay $4k apparently.
Basically there’s a lot of apparently. And when there’s a lot of apparently, who knows.
Sepia saga doesn’t teach us much.
Thing number two… The internet is not a place for reasoned debate, because people on the internet care too much about the drama and not enough about rationality or reality. Photographers sided with the photographer. Whoop for community over competition. They sided with her en masse because photographers stick together (it’s what we do) and they harassed and bullied the sepia couple as a result because they were so annoyed that the sepia couple were harassing and bullying the photographer. Make that make sense.
The reason for the sticking together though, it didn’t overall feel like one of solidarity to me. It felt more like insecurity — “I don’t want this to happen to me but if it does I don’t want to re-edit or give RAW files either. F**k anyone who questions my art.”
And I get it. It’s mega hurtful when someone questions any element of our creativity, art or service. Because we take that stuff personally because it’s personal to us.
What we do know as photographers and wedding pros is that almost undoubtably the photographer did her absolute best for the sepia couple and cared deeply. But we also know that she will have taken it personally when her edit was questioned not just once but on multiple occasions. Because we are creatives, and creatives take things personally, because we create our art personally.
It’s impossible not to take things personally, but we need to listen to our clients, hear what they say, and take it from there, not just put up the wall.
Thing number three… This is the final thing. We should all just, overall, keep doing what we do in the way that we are passionate about doing it. We should shoot the way we want to shoot and edit the way we want to edit. We should do that with every ounce of our soul and believe fully that this is why people book us, this is what people love about us, that people are just as passionate about it all as we are. Because this is what makes us happy fulfilled creatives.
From time to time, as is the case with any business/service, we will have a client who is less than 100% happy. At that time, I fully believe the best thing to do is abandon your artistic principles and go into full customer service, problem solving mode. Do whatever you can – within reason of course – to see if you can turn them into a happy customer. That may mean re-editing, it may mean releasing raw files, it may mean something else that you just don’t really want to do.
Don’t do this because you’re scared they may slander you on the internet. Do it because you may be able to turn that disgruntled customer into one of your biggest cheerleaders just by giving five-star customer service. Listen to them. Understand. Agree a course of action. Deliver. Complaints happen, it’s the natural order of business. Happy customers tell 2 people. Unhappy customers tell 5. Unhappy customers turned into happy customers tell 10. I’ve made those numbers up but that’s the sentiment. I’ve studied all that stuff I just can’t remember the actual numbers, ok?
So if you get a complaint, solve the complaint.
And then get right back to doing it the way you do in the way you are passionate about as if the complaint never happened.
Because, again, that’s what makes you a happy fulfilled creative.
And when the complaint is long forgotten about, that’s what matters.
Thanks for reading,
Adam
PS – Don’t unsubscribe just because it was long. I’ll do better to get back to being concise. There was just a lot to unpack here.
PPS – I don’t recommend you go and watch the sepia tiktoks. It’s a rabbit hole that will just steal hours of your life. I regret it.
