> From: David Townend <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > This story is a sorry tale...I find it incredulous that you let her get away > with this. After all is said and done on this list regarding profiling > printers and colour management etc etc etc .... > > Letting a client convert your colour files to b/w and output on a colour > laser printer (that you have absolutely no control over) and then having to > absorb all her anger and frustration at her colour management and printing > problems maybe perceived by some people as pretty masochistic, no ? > > Is this not taking the concept of "customer service" a little too far ? Or > should all photographers provide free printer and monitor profiling of > clients computers, plus a few free lessons in digital imaging with every > photo shoot ? What's the lists opinion on this ?
Colour management, well you might as well talk another language. I did a couple of weeks at a newspaper recently and the monitors at the picture desk were set with luminous funky backgrounds and holiday snaps, the PS settings were wrong and then they wonder why reproduction is so bad week after week. I gave up on their systems and processed the pictures in the evening on my monitor at home and took the prepared files in the next day, repro of my images was fine. What about the staff photographer there? Suffice to say she has been in post about 3 months, has no previous photographic experience other than the fact that she is doing a C&G evening course, has been given a D1 and .......well what more do you need. That pretty much sums up how many newspapers see photography, what's involved in taking pictures and the associated poor remuneration staffers get. I could have changed their monitors and PS settings but that was not my job and you'll be pleased to learn that I didn't. I think customer Service is a significant part of our role but I agree with you David it should not involve us going to clients and training them in colour management. I didn't do this yesterday and the only reason why I wanted to sort things out was because I was pretty sure there wasn't anything wrong with my files but having never come across a complaint quite like this I was unhappy at people thinking that my beautiful digital files were a pile of pants and wanted to prove otherwise. When the client saw the prints she was blown away by the quality and that felt good but what's more important is her perception of me as a good photographer. I don't advertise myself, my website has been on the back burner for the past couple of years and clients come to me through recommendation, that's one of the fundamental reasons for ensuring customer satisfaction for me together with the knowledge of knowing you were right all along. Best -- Bob Johns Photojournalist 01234-314146 (office) 07970-11-7272 (mobile) 01234-314147 (fax) =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
