About Thomas Fitzgerald

Thomas is a professional fine art photographer and writer specialising in photography related instructional books as well as travel writing and street photography. 

I need your feedback

I need your feedback

For some time now I’ve published several guides on Processing Fuji X-Trans images in various pieces of software. One of the first ones that I wrote was for Capture One, and it’s been on my store for several years now. I have recently updated it and added new information regarding capture one 10. It’s tough to keep updating because Phase One updates their software so often. The guide is quite short, and in it I talk about how I change the settings from the defaults, and some of the workflow techniques that use. It’s not a complete guide to using the software, and it was never intended to be.

I just checked back and I have sold in total, 535 copies of this guide. It currently sells for €3 with I thought was a fair value. Originally I put it on sale as I was giving away lots of information on my blog, and people were asking me for a way to give something back, but weren’t interested in my Lightroom presets. I originally had a free version and a pdf version which you could buy, although I removed the link to the free version when I updated it (but it is still online). Over the time it has been on sale I have received only positive feedback regarding this guide. Until today, when someone wrote to me to let me know that they felt that I was ripping people off.

Obviously, I’m not going to publish any details of this person, but this email took me by surprise, because it was the first negative feedback that I’ve received regarding this guide, in two and a half years of it being on sale. I have actually recieved very little negative feedback regarding any of my guides, and I have always tried to respond helpfully to the preson writing it, and take on board their feedback. I get that negative feedback is part of the process, and it goes with the territory. When I wrote my Aperture Book, which is still on sale on Amazon, the majority of reviews were positive, although there were the occasional negative ones. I understand that you can’t please everyone, which is why it never bothered me. However, I do feel a bit surprised about the suggestion of ripping people off after all this time, even though I’m sure this person was just trying to be helpful. It’s not the nicest email to get while having your dinner. The person also suggested that I pull the book because of this.

Anyway, I do appreciate all feedback, but I can’t base my judgement on one comment, out of hundreds of sales. So I am asking any of you who have bought this guide before, did you feel that It was worth it, or should I stop selling it? I’m not trying to be an ass here, and I shouldn’t do this so publicly, but it’s the only way I have to reach people, and I don’t want to send an email to previous customers. I genuinely want to know. If it isn’t up to scratch, and it is bad value, I really want to know. I had been planning a new version (although it’s been delayed, because a little bird told me that there are significant changes to X-Trans support in the next version), so if I shouldn’t bother, it will save me a lot of work.

I’m not exactly making a fortune off selling a €3 guide, and to be honest, it is one less thing for me to worry about, so if people feel that I should stop selling it I will. But if it has helped anyone out there I would love to hear form you also. Anyway, I know I shouldn’t let these things get to me, but I do care about my customers and readers, and I do genuinely want to know if you think worth it or not.

You can leave a comment below or if you'd rather respond privately, send me an email.

Two New Lightroom Preset Packs Coming Soon

Two New Lightroom Preset Packs Coming Soon

Into the woods

Into the woods