Originally posted by fretlessdavis I had a similar things happen with a friend's wedding-- Best to keep your mouth shut. Unless you've shot weddings or portraits for money, you don't technically have a professional opinion. If they were good friends and you were a professional, then they weren't good enough friends to hire you.
If you really want to, just give them a small portfolio of your own, and mention that you feel bad about how difficult it is to find quality photographers, and if they're interested, reshoot for them for free. That'll get you more respect and potential referrals than being a dick about it.
The "are you willing to do it for free" is the big part. Usually, I don't charge my friends money for helping out, and they don't charge me when they help me out. There's a difference between people who are after my money and "friends." At least in my world. And there's a reason for that. I'm not going to lose friends because they aren't happy with something I've done for them. if I did it for free, then at least it didn't cost them anything. If they paid me money and for whatever reason they aren't happy with the results then we've created a hurdle in our friendship. I prefer to just not go there.
An ex GF father owned an ad agency in Toronto and hired Richard Avedon to do a photoshoot. 2k a day, no refunds, no retakes. At the end of it he felt Avedon's work wasn't worth it and said so often. I offered to buy the prints from him after all, they were Avedon originals, well no, they were crap but he wouldn't part with them. So what was going on there. I think the guy was trying to build himself up as some great expert on the value of photography by putting down the greatest, while at the same time realizing, he had something unique. So he said stuff like "he wasn't wroth 2k a day. Meaning , well maybe he was worth 1.75k a day, but definitely not 2k, pulleeeese. You really have to work hard to understand what these critical statements mean, no matter who says them.
Your friend could take your criticism many different ways. He could take it as meaning..
-you have no appreciation of anyone's work but your own.
- You're looking for his business.
- You think you know more than this "professional" when obviously you don't.
Most of the possible things your friend could think, do not reflect well on you.