Improving Client Interactions Using F-Stop

When I take photos for other people, they often want to see the pics. Sometimes the “clients” are simply family members at a function, or colleagues at an event. I’m the go-to person for photos, and more frequently than ever, the subjects of the photos want to see my shots in real time on my large phone or tablet.

It’s my habit to use burst mode to ensure I get the shot. Invariably, someone will blink, look away, grimace, or blur the pic with a movement. No problem, I took 60 pics in those couple of seconds you thought I was snapping a single photo. Add that to the 60 from a few moments ago in that other setting. Somewhere in that mass of images will be “the best” with a great smile and good eye contact.

I accommodate the request to review the pics immediately after having taken then while still at the venue. But having gone down this road lots of times, I know to open F-Stop as my gallery. Why? Because the client usually won’t like the first pic they see. Immediate self-critique usually sets in. But as I flip pic after pic in the burst sequence, a better smile emerges, or a slight laugh, or something they are pleased with pops up and they exclaim, “Oh, I like that one!” As I flip more, they say, “Oh, that one too.” After they pic 4 or 5, I need to review the top contenders with them to determine their favorite, i.e. which do they want posted on Facebook.

Using a normal gallery, flipping through 60 pics to select 4 favorites, then comparing the 4 again, would be difficult. F-Stop, however, has a built-in rating system that mirrors Adobe’s stars and flags. I set F-Stop to review mode and each time a client utters an opinion, I tap the corresponding number of stars. F-Stop helpfully moves immediately to the next photo and I tap it’s rating. One tap per photo and I’ve quickly categorized the pics. I then filter the view to the top stars and flip among those with the highest rating, back and forth, until the top one or two are selected, which I note via a heart. I then filter all one star pics, which I use for out-of-focus or blown shots, and delete them as a group. Low rated photos that are nonetheless exposed properly get two stars, and up from there.