347 - Business Lessons We Can Learn from the Sepia Bride with Photographer Emily Kim

On today's episode of the podcast I'm joined by brand photographer, videographer and educator Emily Kim to discuss business best practices, process, contracts and communication we can learn from the sepia bride. 

I took an informal poll online and the general consensus is that people are pretty over this topic, but we're using it as a brief example to discuss some overall lessons learned so if you're over the sepia bride, stay with us for a moment.

If you aren't familiar with the sepia bride conversation, a bride hired a photographer, got the photos back and wasn't too happy with them when she noticed the editing didn't reflect the style she'd seen in the photographer's portfolio. She asked for the raw photos from the photographer, who made a good faith effort to re-edit the photos for her and it didn't end up working out. The bride posted a series of videos on social media about the situation that divided people between Team Bride and Team Photographer. 

To start, Emily and I discuss photo editing. She gives a hot take that she disagrees with the majority of photographers when it comes to editing vs. the client experience. Emily says there's merit and validity to saying you hire a photographer whose editing and style you like but that the issue arises when photographers value their artwork more than the client experience. If your client isn't happy, did you really do a good job? 

When Emily was new into photography and hadn't honed her editing skills, she used a preset for a long time with no issues until a client asked her to reedit the photos to be true to color but Emily recognized at the end of the day she was wrong because the client was selling clothes, not Emily's artwork, so the client's preference is what matters. 

Emily thinks it is part of the photographer's responsibility to talk with the potential client to see what style of photography they're looking for and if you're a fit or should refer them out. To help with this, Emily asks clients to create a mood board. 

Emily says she thinks she is in the minority when it comes to considering herself a business person first and a photographer second. She wants to be the kind of photographer who can match what people bring her, so she's worked over the years on understanding different editing and lighting styles to better serve an array of clients. 

Emily asks if you are forfeiting your copyright and no longer have the rights to these photos as the photographer if you give the client the raw files. My general legal instinct is that you own the copyright and everything you produce. In the contract you always want to specify what kind of license you want to give people. Within copyright, there are six different sub-rights, like the right to make a derivative work, and when you address copyright in your contract you want to address which copyrights you are licensing or assigning to the person. If you send over raw files to your client, you can send them an additional contract to go with them saying that this does not transfer any additional copyrights to the client. 

Emily and I chat about our hot takes and feelings on clients adding filters to your photos when they post them online (it's okay if they do, we can see that your work doesn't look like that if we click over to your profile and maybe the client just likes their Instagram aesthetic a certain way). 

When it comes to best practices in contracts in regards to the sepia bride situation, there was some beef online about how long the photo gallery was available. Emily would recommend putting in your contract how long they will have access to the gallery online and that if they would like to purchase cloud storage from you, you can keep it up longer for them. If they come back looking for them later, you can be generous with a bit of an extension and then charge them an unarchival fee to bring them back beyond that. 

Also in your contract, you'll want to include an artistic style release which is a simple paragraph that states that the client has looked at a representative sample of the photographer's work and understands that the photos will be shot and edited in a similar style.

Emily tells her clients before they book is that she includes five advanced edits (using Photoshop to extend background, smooth skin, etc.). Some people use all, some use none. If they have additional requests, Emily charges per image. 

Anything you would charge additional money for should be addressed in your contract. The easiest to say is if you have any additional requests that have not been considered under this agreement, you can email and ask for a quote for that. This will give you freedom and flexibility on things like additional edits or selling your raw images if you choose to. 

This language is included in our Contract Club, which you can get at notavglaw.com/club

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Emily Kim - Photographer and Educator
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