Wedding Photo Disastor

PaddysCasey

I got married recently - the photographer we used is a professional but also the daughter of a family friend.

She was to meet us for a consultation before the wedding but never organised this and so I had no meeting or contract or details of costs etc.

The photos of the day are pathetic - out of 300 we can only use about 50 - and these are literally the best of a bad lot.
The photos are meant to be documentary type - but in actuality they are just random photos or people off center, with quiet a few where there is half a person or a headless person in the photo.

I met the photographer & she showed me these photos on disk - she is relucant to 'fix' or edit these. She has also rang me several times for full payment.

Can anyone advise me what to do?

Stargal

Moved to the Weddings & Marriage forum.

antiskeptic

PaddysCasey wrote: »

I got married recently - the photographer we used is a professional but also the daughter of a family friend.

She was to meet us for a consultation before the wedding but never organised this and so I had no meeting or contract or details of costs etc.

The photos of the day are pathetic - out of 300 we can only use about 50 - and these are literally the best of a bad lot.
The photos are meant to be documentary type - but in actuality they are just random photos or people off center, with quiet a few where there is half a person or a headless person in the photo.

I met the photographer & she showed me these photos on disk - she is relucant to 'fix' or edit these. She has also rang me several times for full payment.

Can anyone advise me what to do?

Commiserations.

The thing to do is get all the original photos no matter what - even stuff she might have decided to dump from the pile outside the 300 mark. They will tranform in importance from photogenic art to moments of memory as the years pass so the absolute quality will matter less then.

It's easy to crop photos on your standard Windows software which would improve poorly framed shots no end. Either do a bit of work yourself here or get someone who's got a creative eye/computer savvy to do it for you. Again, don't delete or modify in a way that deletes the originals (copy from the cd/memory stick and keep the original in a safe place). If you're not happy with her work then it's probably not a good idea to get her to do the cropping/fixing

If you've a wedding video, it's possible to take still photos from that footage to supplement the original stills. You can do this with Windowns MovieMaker if you're computer savvy - else get your videographer to do the work for you.

Generally, modern photos are shoot in multi-magepixel camera so you'll end up with decent snaps even if heavily cropped.

Finally, when done, make yourself a couple of copies on good quality cd and perhaps memory stick and store safely.

Good luck!

smelltheglove

Had you seen the work of this photographer previously? You should explain to her that you are unhappy with the results. Documentary style is a new thing, commonly called reportage and it would be a very hard style to perfect, images wouldnt always be centered, someyimes it is considered more artistic to have them off centre however the times when I myself would do this would be obvious enough to contain something in the background also.

I would really suggest discussing this with your photographer, enquire as to her insurance, if it covers customer dissatisfaction.

Another option would be to do a trash the dress shoot with her and request her to do this free of charge because of the low quality images you have received. These would not make up for missed opportunities on the day but however I would highly recommend it, I did one myself on my one year anniversary and really enjoyed it, we had great fun and I even have a large canvas of one of those shots rather than my wedding day shots.

richardbradley

Interesting that in a business that relies mainly on word of mouth that she's not that bothered about helping you fix them.

you may want 300 good images now, but as someone who married 7 years ago I can tell you that 30-50 good ones are more than enough to ever look at and show people - the important thing is 3-5 top quality images that remind you of how you felt that you can display in your house.

This will almost definitely be possible using photoshop on the current images you have. As prev stated good cropping, cloning out distractions, some black and white, some with added grain (film effect)should definitely get you some good pics.

Have sent you pm with advice on where/how you can get this done.

pimark

Thats very unfortunate and doesn't appear to be very professional, especially not meeting before hand and having no contract.

Regarding the comment to get all of the 300 or so photos from her. All well
and good if she does provide you with those, but she's not under any legal
obligation to do so. As a photographer she only needs to provide you with
those images she's happy with and no more. As with all of the photos, she owns the copyright to them.

Good idea there from smelltheglove to ask her about her insurance to see
if there is anything which covers you.

Documentary type photography will mean off centre shots and may look quite random. Still at the end of the day, you need to be happy with what you've been presented.

Mark

Damien1989

Thats very unfortunate. In my opinion, i would refuse full payment until the Photographer Fixes your photo's. No point in paying for 300 if you only have 50 good ones.

Was she a member of the IPPA?

sweetie

Find it difficult to believe you didn't see any previous work or had no contact
with her prior to the wedding? Have you mentioned it to her father?

sflemings

You could take the photos to another photographer and ask them what they think. Because they were meant to be documentary type, perhaps they actually have been taken correctly. Maybe a second opinion would be a good idea?