After taking photos for my group during homecoming, I saw a gap in expectations between the shooter and the “clients”. Alongside my experiences delivering photos from sports events, here are two common practices that most creatives will appreciate people for.
- Don’t modify the posted image. Photographers spend a considerable amount of thought and time into the feel of a photo, and this includes the aspect ratio¹. If you want the photo adjusted, you could ask them to make adjustments. The most irksome thing for a photographer is to have some oversaturated filter slapped on or limbs awkwardly cut off in the image.
- Give credit, whether it be tagging them (which I prefer) or putting them in the description. Especially when the work is for free, there isn’t necessarily an obligation to tag people, but it helps get their name out there and creatives take notice of who does and doesn’t.
Moral of the story: Be nice.
¹A case for posting in 4×5 ratio: If the goal of posting to Instagram is to get the attention of your followers, setting your image to a 4×5 aspect ratio to maximize your post’s real estate on your viewer’s screen is one way to do this.
As I was one of your so-called clients in the homecoming group, I just wanted to thank you, and rest my case that Kevin Xu is the best photographer at NNHS. By far. In all seriousness, I completely understand your frustrations with people not giving you credit, or essentially destroying your work by putting some third-party Instagram crop edit, that destroys the photo. Regarding the credit part, I, for some reason, see similarities in a Teacher writing a recommendation letter and a photographer taking pictures of other people. Or maybe, a music producer creating a beat for an artist. I think that people often look over the amount of work that artists like you do, and don’t realize how difficult it is (coming from someone who’s produced before).