The Ideal Portrait Client

Following up from this post, about the recent portrait I did for Kerry Graff, a doctor in Canandaigua, New York, here's the picture she chose from the five proofs I gave her:

It's for professional purposes, for a public-facing website of medical professionals. (My choice, not that that matters, is in the original post. She thought that one was too formal.)

Kerry turned out to be an ideal portrait client. For these reasons:

—> She chose the picture she wanted right away. I mean it took her five minutes. Man, when I think of all the portraits I did when the client took days, weeks, or in some extreme cases even months to make a decision.... What that meant is that I had to remind them multiple times and keep the job open (and wait to be paid) for what seemed would be an indefinite period. I would always think of that Lovin' Spoonful song:

...Did you ever have to make up your mind?
Pick up on one and leave the other one behind
It's not often easy, and not often kind
Did you ever have to make up your mind?

...Did you ever have to finally decide?
Say yes to one and let the other one ride
There's so many changes, and tears you must hide
Did you ever have to finally decide?

Back in the olden days, when I did portraits for pay, I finally ended up charging just $20 in advance under the pretense of "reserving" the sitting. I found that even with that small amount, FOMO would motivate them to carry through, make their selection, and get their portrait; otherwise they forfeited the twenty bucks. (Not for nothing do higher-level photographers, like higher-level lawyers, prefer not to deal directly with the public!)

—>She chose one. Just one. Not two, and not four.... Every portrait photographer knows the problem when the client says "I like them all! They're all good! Can I have this one, and this one, and this one, and this one?" Of course, that's not a problem if they're paying for prints. But when I'm doing the job for expenses or for free, that's not what I agreed to do.

—>She never even mentioned the other shots (I mean apart from the five proofs I presented her with) and never asked to see any. She just trusted my choice of the proofs. This is fairly atypical. The last portrait I did before this one—also done for free—I explained very clearly to the client that I would provide six or eight proofs, and I ended up providing ten or twelve (I don't exactly recall). Well, he hectored me to see "all the shots," saying things like "I know you took a lot more than that. Why aren't you letting me see them?" I thought, what do I need to do, put it in writing and make it a contract? He started acting like I hadn't delivered what I had promised, like I was being negligent. It got a little unpleasant, to be honest. But if I take 150 shots, you don't get to see all 150. I've always been like that, even when I was a teenager.

—>Finally—and this is probably the part I like best—Kerry actually preferred the unretouched version. Look, Ma, no Photoshop. Again, It's more common for clients to nitpick the Photoshopping—"can't you get rid of this wrinkle?" (Or, can't you make me look like I did when I was in my twenties only better-looking?) Photoshop is a great boon, I'll give you that. I started using it in 1994 with Photoshop v.3. I can think of a dozen trouble jobs pre-1994 that I could have solved with it in a jiffy.

OoC on the left, retouched version on the right

Whenever I work on a portrait in Photoshop I think of Edward Weston slaving over the retouching of his portraits for his clients, when he made his living doing portraits, as recounted in The Daybooks*. Of course he was doing it with a graphite pencil on the emulsion side of 4x5 to 8x10 negatives, but "same difference" as we used to say when we were kids.

Shut up
I'm sure all of this makes me sound like a terrible whiner, like I never did anything but bitch and moan about my clients. Far from it. I did have a few troublesome clients, who I tend to remember well, and if I'm honest I had a couple of jobs that I myself was guilty of flubbing, and I'm not too proud to tell those stories as well. In far and away the majority of cases, however, I liked spending time with portrait clients and I miss the work. (Nobody pays for portraits any more, in my experience. My son's girlfriend Kate sent me a portrait of their baby recently that a professional thirty years ago would have worked hard to get and would have been justifiably proud of. She has an artistic eye, a smartphone, a parent's love and regard, and access.) I didn't advertise who my clients were, back in the day—privacy concerns, you know—but they included a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, a U.S. Senator, a prominent black activist I guarantee you've heard of, several television personalities, and a variety of socialites and local luminaries. And of course I treated those people like anybody else. By far the majority of my subjects were fun to work with, and most everyone was pleased with their portraits.

But I'm an idealist, and, in an ideal world, all my clients would have been more like Kerry in those four ways listed above. Smiley emoji!

Mike

*Which every aspiring art photographer in my youth read, and which are now out of print. Ah well, culture moves on.

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Simon Grosset: "These are all the reasons I give hi-res files to wedding couples, so they can make prints themselves (I do recommend an online printer too.) Similarly, I will deliver a proof of a wedding album without asking which pictures they want in it. They’re allowed to make one set of changes before they start getting charged extra for my time."

Albert Smith: "Re 'Nobody pays for portraits any more, in my experience... has...a smartphone, and access...': I think about this a lot. When we were learning about perspective, lens-induced distortion, and creative use of selective focus back in the day, and acquiring some classic focal length in the 85mm to 135mm range to be flattering to the subject, we also learned how not to render a subject, such as a headshot made close-in with a 28mm lens. Today, 10-plus years into the smartphone generation, I'd guess many 20-somethings have never seen a photo of themselves made with basic photo 101 techniques that we all used in the before times. When I see many of the 'selfies' posted by people that think they are terrific, all I can see is the things that we were trying to avoid back when people studied this stuff. It would be fun (and easy) to impress a vain subject with the most simple portrait technique when all they have ever seen of themselves is an arm's-length wide-angle shot with large nose and small ears. Of course, we wouldn't get that chance."

Mike replies: I don't know what the "effective" focal length of the above portrait would be...shot with a 56mm, which is an 85mm-equivalent, and then considerably cropped (to Kerry's instructions—she cropped it on her phone the way she wanted it and then sent it back to me). It's probably equivalent to something in the 120mm to 135mm range.

s.wolters replies to Albert Smith: "A few weeks ago I made a portrait of the seventeen-year-old daughter of a friend with my Panasonic 42,5mm ƒ/1.7 lens. An 85mm-equivalent. She said she didn't like it because she looked so weird! The wide-angle distortion seems already the standard now for the young generation.

"What doesn't help either is that the portrait mode on an iPhone is also a 26mm-equivalent. Portrait here means only means that it gets a blurry background."

Comments

[Kenneth Tanaka]

It looks like Kerry got a very good portrait, presumably for professional use. She appears friendly but not silly. Professional but not coldly clinical (no white coat and stethoscope). And old enough to be authoritative but not at all geriatric. Well done.

I salute and admire photographers genuinely skilled with pro portraiture. It's 60% craft and 90% inter-personal skills and personality. I c/wouldn't even think about doing it unless under a court order. And even then I'd probably opt for contempt and jail time.

There's a good interview with veteran pro-snapper Greg Gorman on Petapixel now (https://petapixel.com/greg-gorman-interview/ ). What a career but ughh...I can only imagine the stories he has. Clearly he's developed a big enough name that he can dish back whatever he gets.

[darlene]

Michael, you created a beautiful portrait for Miss Kerry. It's easy to see why she chose it so quickly.

[SA]

I think Kerry chose well. I like the chosen one over the alternatives that you showed us. It seems more "human" and approachable---an important part of a doctor's persona.

[Mark Sampson]

Now I admit that I learned portrait photography in the late '70s, from the studio chain where I photographed high-school seniors. That was the "classic" sitting, five poses in five minutes, or the "contemporary" sitting, ten poses in ten minutes. Realistically, that's not enough choices for a proper portrait.
But you mentioned 150 exposures in a sitting? Turn off the motor drive, man! That many pictures confuses the sitter and makes editing a (costly) chore.
I also believe that the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, which holds Edward Weston's archive, is working on a new edition of his Daybooks, with previously edited material restored. We'll see...

[Gary]

You say "Nobody pays for portraits any more, in my experience."

What do high-school seniors do for their yearbooks in your neck o' the woods? Where I live, many of the high schools rely on portraits provided by the students. No more the "show up in the school gym at 9:30am wearing nice clothes for two minutes sitting on a swivel chair."

One fellow I know has made his living the past dozen or so years shooting senior and college-graduation portraits. A two-hour session, outdoors in natural light, a parent always present (for the high-school kids), at $350 or $400 per student. A kid shows up with two or three or five friends in tow, for individual and group shots, and that one shoot can cover a lot of living expenses.

[Bill Tyler]

Weston eventually got fed up with retouching and hung out a sign, "Unretouched Portraits".

[xf mj]

So is the right photo of the diptych image from your photoshop treatment, and then your client chose to use the one on the left, with no photoshopping? I like both, and it would be a tough choice. But, if so, your treatment is very tasteful. I could see choosing the left out of some sort of principle, though. “No need for any fancy fuss-work. I like it, as is.” Great original pic!

My wife complains when I do any work on photos I’ve taken that she likes. There is a look I want, and I immediately bring up an app, adjust sliders here and there, fuss about to get the look. I try to give her a big lecture about how everything in the process is some arbitrary interpretation of the incoming light. The lens “makes choices”, as does the sensor, and so does Apple’s iOS. Why can’t I? I tell her I’m just adjusting things to be the way I saw the scene at capture. But, the more academic my arguments, the more she knows me well enough to see right through them.

“Um, ok, just text me the original, could ya?”

[Navin U.]

It’s a beautiful portrait & she’s picked well. It may just be the little tilt of the head that prompted her to pick this image over your favourite (rather than the presence of the glasses). Thanks for sharing this for comparison.

[Fred Haynes]

You know, I haven’t been a commenter for a while, really should not comment now, because I don’t have anything good to say, but I am not crazy about Kerry’s picture. I don’t like that tilt, the angle, the lack of straightness! Hate to be a naysayer!
Also, unfortunately, a maybe this makes me a old-timer, which I am, but I’d like to see something that would take her from my next door neighbor at a barbecue look. After all, she’s going to be the person who gives me medical attention.
Fred

[David Dyer-Bennet]

In 1972, people took their own highschool graduation photos (discouraged) or went to one of the 2 professional photographers in town. Nobody had gotten a contract to just go in and shoot everybody (which would have frozen out their competition).