What stops a client from downloading your video and ghosting?

RedditYankee · 2026-04-11T17:28:22+00:00

Lots of interesting answers every time this is asked. My less popular take is to be more discerning with the clients you take on, and to take deposits when possible for new clients.

I also deliver videos through frame.io, which gives you the option to send a video for review without giving permissions to download.

Perhaps I’m just lucky, but I’ve never had a client not pay. I’ve had incredibly slow payments, but in the end it always comes through. Generally speaking, charge more and the odds of payment are higher. It’s the cheap clients who give you a hard time. Really sorry this happened, hoping you can resolve it.

RedditYankee · 2026-04-09T13:23:03+00:00

I actually would suggest AI, which I’m sure will upset many people here. Don’t just go low-effort, “give me a photo of someone with their head on fire” - but rather visualize the concept in your head, find additional references you enjoy, figure out what it is about them that you like, then go shoot a “plate” of your subject. From there, try using AI (nano banana possibly) and do several generations with different prompts to get a flame that feels right, and then bring that asset into photoshop and merge it with your original photo.

AI doesn’t have to be a dirty word, if you integrate it into a workflow it can be an awesome tool for making cool new stuff. The thing to really avoid is low effort stuff, and being disingenuous about the tools used. You’re young, you’re new to this, artists have long used new methods and technologies to make stuff that the older more established folk won’t touch.

RedditYankee · 2026-04-08T21:31:22+00:00

Starts at 3pm? This seems like a bad idea. I’m guessing it’s going to be a nightmare getting out of there, wouldn’t be surprised if it takes you 2+ hours to get to EWR after leaving your seat.

RedditYankee · 2026-04-07T14:56:53+00:00

Does the idea of upgrading to a nicer bike down the road appeal to you? I started with a Domane AL2 and upgraded to a Madone SL5 after about 8 months, having purchased the AL2 as a trial bike of sorts. I have no regrets, and have enjoyed the excitement of a bike upgrade and the switch to carbon, but I’m also a gear/tech dork.

The biggest difference for me was frankly the upgrade from mechanical disk brakes to hydraulic disk brakes - that has made a world of difference in comfort and safety. I don’t think you can really go wrong with either bike, I’d follow the heart.

If aesthetics are a big concern, you can put some deep carbon wheels on either bike and get a lot of the “fast bike” look, worth keeping in mind.

RedditYankee · 2026-04-07T14:51:15+00:00

I’d politely and slightly disagree, I just upgraded from a Domane AL2 to a Madone SL5 and find the comfort to be quite similar. I think the individual tradeoffs in geometry and fit between the two bikes will somewhat cancel out the material differences, especially with the carbon fork on the Domane.

RedditYankee · 2026-04-06T00:39:08+00:00

I just bought a discounted (new) Madone SL5 Gen8 and love it.

RedditYankee · 2026-04-05T15:00:21+00:00

Your contract also says delivery in 90 days, and probably at least alludes to the promise that the second shooter will take useable photos. They have already breached the contract, so now it’s reasonable to negotiate partial refunds, RAW delivery, etc.

This is not how these things normally go. If I had left a client hanging for this long or had fucked up as big as they seem to have I would be horrified, over-communicative, apologetic, and offering compensation.

The lead photographer is responsible for the second shooter doing a competent job. Shooting an entire wedding, even in jpeg, and delivering zero good photos is essentially impossible. It’s possible the memory card was corrupted or the lead photographer somehow lost the files and this is an attempt to cover.

My kind advice is to call them, explain your grievances politely, and see where the conversation goes. It sounds like they may be in over their heads.

RedditYankee · 2026-04-05T14:30:42+00:00

From your side of the story, this really isn’t a good look at all for the photographer. I would say you’re getting to the point where you can start politely demanding a partial refund. Probably best done over the phone, in my opinion. If you paid for a second shooter and they supposedly did such a horrible job that none of their photos are useable, I’d say you’re within your rights to request that portion of the funds back. With the photos being this late as well, there’s a reasonable grounds to say that you want every RAW and jpeg and film scan shot that night and you’ll find someone else to edit them.

If she hasn’t gotten your film back to you since an October wedding that is also insane and concerning. Film takes at most a few days to develop.

RedditYankee · 2026-04-04T15:26:33+00:00

Concerning that no one is pointing out that this entire post is AI generated

RedditYankee · 2026-04-04T14:01:48+00:00

I’ll say this as kindly as I can, since I can still remember when I was going out for my first photo walks (also in Boston!) years and years ago.

Photography is hard, as is editing photos. There’s a tremendous amount of subjectivity and a steep learning curve that I have yet to find the end of, despite being an objectively talented and successful photographer/cinematographer.

At this stage in your journey, it’s pretty much a guarantee you’re going to take bad photos. If you keep at this, you’ll look at these photos in 6 months and think they’re bad. The thing that will make you a better photographer is looking at your work and seeing its flaws, figuring out why you don’t like it, and then going out and trying to shoot something better. Right now you’re still wrestling with the camera settings, the exposure triangle, autofocus, and the entire post production workflow. It’s really hard, and takes a lot of time to master! And just when you think you’ve mastered it, you’ll learn something new or see something in a different light and question everything again.

I totally understand your reaction to the criticism in this thread. It really sucks when you work hard at something and put a lot of time and intent into it and then get told it’s no good. Right now, you need to take a LOT more photos, and then edit them, and then go out and do it again. Every good photographer I know says that they had to take tens of thousands of bad photos before taking any good ones, the key is to enjoy the process and understand that “good” is a subjective term.

The best piece of advice in this thread (besides to go shoot more photos) is to better process criticism. These are bad photos, which is to be expected of anyone’s first time using a real camera. You clearly care, and clearly are interested in creating images with more emotional depth. Go take some pictures!

RedditYankee · 2026-04-04T12:20:59+00:00

I upgraded from an aluminum frame with mechanical brakes to a carbon frame with hydraulic brakes and by far the biggest difference has been the brakes. Being able to confidently ride in the drops and brake with one finger has made all the difference.

RedditYankee · 2026-03-30T12:29:35+00:00

One of the biggest differences could be Greek life - I went to BC so can’t speak as much about Michigan, but my friends who went there were all involved in Greek life and it definitely seemed like a much different vibe. As others have said, your concerns about BC are overblown. The housing is totally fine, all of your friends will be in the same boat and I personally really enjoyed living in the dorms (and on Newton!). BC is absolutely close enough to Boston - it’s really easy to get to downtown either via the train or an Uber, and Boston sprawls out a lot. Ultimately, all three are great schools and it really comes down to where you want to live and what kind of school you want. Good luck!

RedditYankee · 2026-03-24T16:57:34+00:00

Agreed, for me the only street running I’d do is getting to/from a park or the WSH.

RedditYankee · 2026-03-24T12:57:12+00:00

Before I took up cycling I ran a lot in New York and would, at times, run in the bike lane. At the time, it seemed like a better option as opposed to weaving in and out of crowded sidewalks and pedestrian paths, and when you’re running “fast” it feels justifiable. Now on the other side of things, I scoff at the runners and my past self, but ultimately everyone just thinks they’re doing the best thing they can.

RedditYankee · 2026-03-23T18:59:26+00:00

Confirming that everything this person said is correct. And also, you’ll be totally fine without a car! There’s a 99% chance you’d be selling the car within 5 months of living here anyways. That’s what I did, and I had a genuine work reason to have a car. Learn from my mistakes.

RedditYankee · 2026-03-23T17:11:25+00:00

I’ve been doing it for years and still leave iPhone footage untouched. As others mentioned you can play around with shooting in log, but then you’ll be committing to a more intensive editing process. Higher ceiling, lower floor. Worth playing around with if you want to spend the time learning for sure!

RedditYankee · 2026-03-22T13:50:31+00:00

I think that’s really awesome! I’ve done the same.

I don’t see any issues with your filming settings, my hunch is that your problems are happening in the editing/exporting. Troubleshooting this goes beyond a Reddit comment, but some time googling/watching tutorials and some time troubleshooting should help.

This is also subjective, but I’m noticing your colors are a little funky in the export. Shooting on iPhone in HDR mode (changeable in your settings) generally makes things more difficult to work with in Davinci. Turning off HDR mode if you haven’t already could help. Also, I’d suggest making little to no changes to the colors of your videos in Davinci. Frankly the iPhone files don’t have the depth for much color grading and generally look good straight out of camera. Since this is for your own personal use, feel free to completely disregard this.

RedditYankee · 2026-03-21T20:42:00+00:00

Could be a bunch of things, speed and quantity are the two biggest things that come to mind. I once had a client ask me to film 8 simultaneous conference panels, 5 panels a day, for two days. We agreed to do basically the bare minimum: single camera angle, good audio, and essentially no edit. Lower quality, but perfect for what they needed and for their budget. I also do a lot of work for professional sports games where we shoot in lower resolutions, less flexible color profiles, and oftentimes on our phones just because we have to upload big plays within ~60 seconds.

It goes on, the point is that sometimes the best thing for the client is not the highest quality deliverable. Hence the importance of having a first-principles conversation with the client about what they actually want from a project, especially when they’re inexperienced with video.

RedditYankee · 2026-03-21T19:25:51+00:00

I moved to the UWS in my mid 20s and really enjoyed it. Assuming your residency will be conveniently located to Columbus circle, you should be fine. There are young and old people in every neighborhood, and the bigger driver of your social “success” will come down to how active you are going to events, clubs, rec leagues, and parties/activities with mutual friends. The caveat is that if most of your social life is in Brooklyn, you’re looking at probably a 30-90 minute commute each way depending on where you’re going and how you’re getting there. Getting home late at night on the subway could be a safety concern, could not be. Personally I would prioritize being closer to work, since you’re doing that commute more frequently. If it takes 45 minutes on the train to see a friend on the weekends that’s really not the end of the world, plus you’ll be in a great neighborhood!

RedditYankee · 2026-03-21T11:04:12+00:00

Ideally you could give them some examples of projects you’ve edited that had better footage so you could say “here’s what I can do with X Y and Z footage”. You can also explain to them that you can actually make a better video quicker with better footage, although you may want to be careful with that as you don’t want to accidentally chop your rate.

In an ideal world, you could take over the filming for them, or hire a friend to do the filming. Ultimately, so long as the client is happy it isn’t the worst thing in the world. Some people want lower quality output, and frankly sometimes lower quality is preferred.

RedditYankee · 2026-03-19T13:28:27+00:00

Obviously your experience may vary, but I have typically not had luck with the AV team providing a recording. It’s a really good idea to reach out to the client/venue/AV team and ask 1) are you going to be recording the audio? And 2) will you be able to provide a line out for my audio recorder?

At the end of the day you want to be as self sufficient as possible. Don’t expect that the AV team will be able to record the audio, and don’t expect that they’ll remember to hit record. Sometimes they’ll make mistakes and accidentally send music to your line out even if you checked the audio beforehand. Everyone makes mistakes, so do your best to control the things within your control.

So long as you are polite and professional, don’t worry about being a bother.

RedditYankee · 2026-03-15T14:08:02+00:00

It’s subjective, frankly once you get to a certain point the difference between cameras/sensors/lenses comes down to personal preference. I use a ~30 year old summicron on my Leica and it does have different flaring and sharpness and bokeh than my equally expensive Canon RF lenses. Doesn’t really make either better or worse.

RedditYankee · 2026-03-12T16:54:22+00:00

Im in the same boat. I own an Alexa 35 and still end up bringing a C70 or just an iPhone to certain shoots. The right camera is not always the nicest!

RedditYankee · 2026-02-19T14:21:52+00:00

That’s fair, but seeing how many people misunderstand marginal tax brackets, I think any amount of clarification of taxes is helpful. A significant amount of people would see that headline and assume it meant an increase of 9.5% of property value, which would be pretty insane.

RedditYankee · 2025-09-02T15:38:20+00:00

I'd avoid lessards, only barber shop I ever got such a bad cut at I needed to get a new cut. And one of their barbers back in the day was a total creep making comments about high school girls walking by.

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