----- Original Message ----- From: "John Sessoms" Subject: RE: FID (Film is Dead)
> On the other side of the coin ... > > I know all the *Pros* have gone digital - but so have all of the *IDIOTS*. They were idiots shooting film a few years ago, now they have more complications in their life, and more possiblities available to them to show their idiocy. Photography used to be relatively easy for the thinking impaired. The camera loaded itself with film, and all they had to do was point the thing in the general direction of the subject and push the button. The vagaries of the viewfinder would take care of ensuring the subject was in the frame,and the inherently forgiving nature of print film would ensure that they got a printable image. All that changed with digital. Customers didn't have to run a print order station, they didn't have to set white balance, or file size/quality, hue/sturation/contrast or do any of the other stuff that they now are forced to do if they want prints. They used to work with a very forgiving media, now they are working with a media that forgives very little, and they are doing the bulk of your job for you as well. They aren't necessarily idiots, they are ordinary people who have been fed a pack of lies by the industry, and now expect you, as a representative of that industry, to come through for them. Digital is supposed to be better, everyone says it is so. Digital TV, digital audio, digital whatever, it's all sold on a bill of lading that says it is better. You can't expect a person to know jack shit about your kiosk, or what part of the food chain it inhabits. The kiosk can go out of whack and start sending corrupt files to the printer, BTW. I've seen it happen with both a CT-2 print station and a Kodak print station sending work to a Noritsu 3101. You also can't expect the customer to know that her friend is the wrong colour because of a failure in the image sensor of her camera. She knows what her friend looks like, and she wants her friend to look that way in her pictures. In this case, it sounds like she has a closed mind, but if the sneering attitude you displayed in your post is representative of the way you dealt with the situation, it isn't likely she would be listening to what you had to say anyways. Your best be with this type of customer is, after education fails, to ask them to try a different lab with that particular file and see if they can do better. Just be prepared to have them come back and rub your nose in it if the other lab does manage to pull a better print. One of the advantages I had with customer service was my vague resemblance to Dr. Phil giving me instant credibility, and my ability to talk to them without talking down to them ensured that their tendency was to listen to what I had to say. I still got to deal with the idiots, but at least they walked away from my counter as happy, smiling idiots. William Robb > > Had a woman at my mini-lab yesterday wanting to know if I had gotten one > of the kiosks fixed. > > ???????? > > To my knowledge it wasn't broken, but who knows with the help I have; so > I asked her what problem she had, and she told me the kiosk was printing > all of her pictures yellow. > > That kiosk doesn't print anything, it's just an order station - she'd > downloaded images from her memory card to be printed on the Noritsu > QSS-3300. > > She showed me the pictures. > > There was one of four women playing miniature golf at the beach. One of > the women in the group had that "sunless" tan that comes out of a bottle > & bleached blond hair. > > The customer complained the printer had turned the woman's hair yellow, > because the woman really has red hair; and her skin was an un-natural > orange color. > > I pointed out that all of the others in the photo didn't look yellow, > and that the sky was a natural blue, the golf lanes were green, the reds > were red, and the whites were white - that if the color was shifted it > would be shifted for everything in the photo. > > And I pointed out that all of the photos would have the same color > shift, that the printer couldn't just shift color for one person in one > photo and not color shift anything else. > > She told me I didn't know what I was talking about. > > She then showed me some photos of a family get-together taken in > somebody's living room. It's pretty obvious she had the white balance > set for daylight and was taking pictures indoors under incandescent > light. I tried to explain she needed to set the camera's white balance > for the light. > > She told me I didn't know what I was talking about. > > I tried to show her that in her other outdoor photographs there was no > color shift and explained that if the printer was printing yellow, ALL > of the pictures; all of the colors would be shifted toward yellow. > > She told me I didn't know what I was talking about. > > She insisted on resubmitting the entire order, complaining she was on > her lunch break and didn't have time to do it and I'd better get it > right this time. > > I said yes ma'am and let it ride. We don't do anything to digital images > submitted through the order kiosk. WYSIWYG. > > I checked 'em as they printed out though. > > The redhead is still blond, and her tan still came out of a bottle. > > I've been running the lab for about 6 months now, and I've only had one > complete idiot come in with film. > > I get at least one a day with digital. On a good day, I won't get more > than one, but I don't have many good days. > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
