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I would talk to him about it. Maybe some things can be fixed with good photoshop skills. I'm guessing that they might be just proofs since your wedding was only a few weeks ago?
I would see if there are additional pictures that you haven't seen yet. Maybe some capture the day the way you wanted it captured more so than those that he showed you. You should at least ask and explain how you feel like what you have seen from him is not representative of his work.
Aww, I'm so sorry to hear this phatenigma. I'm really curious to see some of the pics, and I might be able to offer an opinion of if they can be further improved at all with editing. Sometimes ceremony shots dont come out exactly as you envision them, because people get really upset when the photographer is disruptive to the ceremony. You mentioned "pew," so you got married in a church? I can tell you right now the most challenging environment to shoot a ceremony in is a Catholic church. Priests literally HATE us and they are typically not well lit. Some priests don't allow any photos to be taken at all during the ceremony, some don't allow the use of flash, and some don't allow you to get ANYWHERE NEAR the altar. This guy might have just had one too many priests yell at him for getting too close, so I definitely don't blame him there.
Overuse of flash at the reception, not capturing details, those you can blame your photographers for. A good photographer will know that when he/she uses flash at a reception, you want to mix it with the ambient light to keep your lighting from completely drowning out the natural lighting. It's important for me to provide photos that depict the light my clients remember those moments in, but everyone has their own style. Do his portfolio shots have a lot of blasted-flash-looking photos? The question you really have to ask at the end of the day is, do the photos match his portfolio. Sometimes I feel like hiring a photog with 20 years of experience really does you in. I mean that person has had TWENTY years and countless weddings to collect the 20 or so good photos you see on their site... it says nothing about their talent. Did you see a whole wedding before hiring him? To all brides out there, asking to see a whole wedding is the absolute BEST thing you can do to ensure the quality of your wedding photos.
They definitely are just proofs and I know that photoshop can help with some but I also know that photoshop can only do so much. There are pictures of our day that our just missing... like when my dad presented me to my husband, he unveiled me, blessed my head, blessed my husband's head and put my arm in his (great moment that was not captured). Anyway, I can only complain so much. So you ladies agree that I should at least have a conversation with him? We have a good relationship because I booked him over a year ago and we have stayed in contact. I feel like he just let his game drop on our wedding day but we can't go back and recapture photos that just aren't there. So do I just express my disappointment and leave it at that?
Ditto... Does he do a lot of print work or weddings? You mentioned he was featured in magazines. I am just wondering if that was for ads or actual weddings. Some photographers are fantastic at fashion shows/print ads etc while others are excellent wedding photographers....
I feel you. I told my photog that they were free to get up close and personal, and actually in the way to get good photos. Instead they decided to take shots from 40 yards away to capture the scenery. They never got any up close shots.
He's been featured in the "real weddings" sections of magazines and he really usually does do an awesome job! He has storybooks on his webpage that have the entirety of a wedding and the pics look great. Our engagement photos turned out AMAZING, seriously amazing! I had no doubt in the world that he would do an awesome job! We did have our ceremony in a catholic church but our priest said we could do anything.... open flames, red carpet, dramatic centerpieces near the alter and the same went for photography but our photographer did not take advantage of the flexibility. I wish I could show some pics but they are still on the proof page and are copyrighted. I'm more bummed about the pics that were just missed and the way the lighting turned out. Our reception area really looked fantastic and there was way too much flash used. I'll show you an example. A good pic compared to a washed out pic (which is similar to what the photographer captured). Thing is I know he is better than this, I don't know how he or we dropped the ball. Ergh!
IMG_4814.jpg (2423.5 KB, 183 downloads) 1 year old 17248726_475.jpg (39.7 KB, 198 downloads) 1 year old
using a harsh flash in that space makes it look like Dexter's Kill Room, not a pretty wedding reception. I thought a professional would understand this. How do I even approach him about my concerns. I still think he is a great photographer, I just think he dropped the ball on our wedding day...... which SUCKS!
@mightysapphire what did you end up doing? Did you say anything after you got your pics back?
Who took the pic you like? I knew exactly what you were saying before you even showed the examples. While I do believe you should say something to him, I'm just going to play a little more devil's advocate here. That light is REALLY drastic and he *may* not have been able to get clear (not blurry) action shots without the flash, or even if he could, your skin might have been red from the light in all of them. Ideally he could have used enough flash to light the subjects but keep the colored lights in the background like this photo of the Asian couple. Or at least mixed in a few shots with jsut the natural light, redness and all, like the second one I posted here. I think the light is delicious in some pics, but I doubt the bride would have wanted all her photos to look like that.
I'm so sorry you have to deal with this, but YES you need to say something!!
Do guests have any nice shots? Maybe approach with some of your guests shots that he may be able to touch up and make better and include in your albums, etc. Can you set up a table with centerpiee so he can take those pics you so want and are missing? There's definately a way to make it better, even if it means he coughs up the money for a new bouqet to take these pics!!
I'd approach him calmly and explain just as you did here, how excited you were once you saw your epics and how you feel now. Write it down, let him offer a solution but come to the table with a few of your own. Your guests pics may be what save it for you, dont be afraid to ask for them!
P.S. I definitely think you should say something to him though. If there is a reason he didnt capture the essence of the natural light there, he could at least give it to you. You sound like a pretty reasonable person, so I'm sure you'd understand if there was a good reason.
omg i would be sooo upset, definately say somthing so that this doesn't happen to other brides... he might even offer some compensation, or at least a reason... although as you say u can't have a re-do.
I'm kicking myself. One of my friends is a professional photographer and I told him not to bring it because he deserved a night off. He could have been a life saver! lol. I am beginning to contact guests to see if they have any pictures that will work. We also had another photographer there that was hired to take picture of guests in front of our paparazzi backdrop and she is the one that took the red picture that captures the way the room looked. She is supposed to be sending a cd soon so hopefully she'll have more great detail shots! I'm definitely going to say something to him. I'm not as upset with the bad pics because I know that they can be touched up..... at least a bit but I do think it sucks that he missed so many major parts and details of the day. How do you not capture my dad giving me away? My husband and I also saw eachother before the wedding because our photographer talked us into it and then he didn't even get a pic of my husband sneaking up on me. There is one picture of me waiting in anticipation, one picture of my husband walking toward me and one picture of us hugging but not pictures of him walking up on me. Our photog said that he always gets the best pics when the couple has some alone time before the ceremony and he didn't even get us in the same frame. Okay, I'm done complaining (again). I am going to contact him on Monday night and hopefully come to some resolution. What a bummer.
@LBPhotography
P.S. I like your pics! I wish you would have been our photographer! :-)
@phatenigma: I never ended up saying anything about it. I didn't figure there was anything they could fix about what they screwed up. If it was poor image editing, you can ask your photog to redo it. But just NOT taking certain photos? Kinda hard to remedy. I feel like both the primary and secondary photogs were on their heels the WHOLE TIME trying to keep up with us. And my family was like wrangling kittens. But like even our first dance photos aren't as good as the ones my brother took with his PAS. Same with cutting the cake. And they included a picture of me totally trashed in the final set. No clue why I would want that in my memories. I know I got trashed, don't need a "trashed bride" shot in my album. But hey, thanks.
So yeah, never told them anything.
Maybe you can have "day after" shots and have him redo the two of you together to remedy those shots not being taken. The detail shot in the above picture is amazing and I am happy you had those pictures.
@LB omg those are amazing and I really like your signature pic as well.
@phatenigma: Contact him. I find it odd that he was published/featured and he goes and doesn't shoot any of your details. Every major/indie wedding site I send my work to says more than half of the submissions need to be details. I think magazine requests more details than their online brethren. So definitely talk to him about this, as well, as the other aforementioned missed images.
Did you know up front that he uses fish eye lenses? I honestly dislike that kind of look and lens.
As for flash during reception, bounce and/or remote flash works wonders to light and create wonderful reception images. ;)
@phatenigma: Did you see the proofs on the computer/website only? I only ask as I was terribly disappointed in my daughter's pictures too and was complaining about how many important pictures I thought he missed. Turns out he didn't miss them at all,and when the box was delivered of all the printed proofs, all the things I thought were missing,really were not. He just chose not to put them up in the online proofs (I suppose since there were so many of them). I was SO relieved, as I was pretty upset. They didn't arrive til at least 6 weeks after her wedding,so maybe hold off a bit if you've only seen a handful of them? I know how it feels, but maybe give it some time,or contact him to see if you can have access online to all of them even if they haven't been edited as yet.
@phatenigma: Lol to "dexters kill room".
If I were you, I would totally say something to him. You paid GOOD money for his expertise and didn't get it. It sounds to me like you could have hired a photographer for a fraction of the cost and gotten the same caliber pictures.
MY FBIL & FSIL hired a photographer that they thought was great. During the wedding she was super personable and seemed to capture everything that they wanted. Well, a few weeks later they get their pictures back and there are BIG BLACK SPOTS all over the formal pictures that were taken outside. When I say all over, I mean they were on my FSIL's face! The photographer had sand on her lens and didn't even know it! She offered to photoshop it out (uh, duh!) but part of what they had paid for was an online gallery for their guests to view and in all of those pictures, were the big black spots. Also, the majority of the pictures just did not look good (she made my FSIL look like she was completely bat-shit crazy in a few). Needless to say they were super disappointed and never ended up ordering any of the pictures that they had already paid for (they paid $2500 for their photog).
If this were to happen to us, I wouldn't hesitate to contact the photographer and make a big stink over this. These are pictures that you can never re-create.
Every time you write "Dexter's kill room" I just start cracking up. I would probably say something, in the hopes of 1) getting some money refunded or something and 2) preventing this problem with future brides. Good luck!
@phatenigma and diva... Thanks for the compliment :) Really Phatenigma, I hope it works out for you and he does something to make it up to you. He had to realize that lighting he was using was unflattering to the venue, and should have kept messing around with settings until he found something that worked a little better.
Also, awards are sort of a load of donkey doo. You can win the most remote and unknown award for photography in the world that only two other people entered to win and call yourself an award-winning photographer.
@LBPhotography:I so agree with you and I LOVE the way you captured those wonderful moments with your brides. If we (as brides) can learn anything from this I would say it is to be realistic with our photographers. Not everything can be captured the way you want. was he aware of your dramatic lighting? They are not superhereos...however with all his experience he should have been able to find a way to get the lighting correct...if not, then maybe have a shoot with the lights not so dramatic. I would wonder if a fashion photog or news photog would have done a better job? I am no expert at all, just offering up suggestions. I would say something and hopefully he can edit them. I feel like he mis represented himself...that is not ok, you did everything right and paid a lot for it.
I would def talk to the photog and ask if there were more shots that didn't make it to the proof page. 5k is alot of $ to pay for photography and I'd def want to see results for it.
You are not being rude for asking questions. And I'd ask if they can change the look of some of the pics (ie Dexters' kill room look).
Also ask any of your guests if they got good shots of the reception tables, favor table, etc too.
Hey Everyone, thanks for the advice! He did know about our lighting and said he was really looking forward to it. I have only seen proofs online but there were over 1,000 so I don't think I'll be surprised by more when the hardcopy proofs come. I am beginning to contact guests to see if they have additional pics and I wish we could do a "day after" shoot but my husband and I live in a different state and we are about 10 hours away from our photographer so it wouldn't be costly for us to drive there and reshoot. My husband and I were thinking about hiring a local photographer and trying to recreate something ourselves. I don't understand why he didn't take more detail shots because we specifically said "take lots of detail shots because we'll be submitting to magazines". I know everyone has off days it just sucks that our wedding was his off day.
I posted on my fb page and said that I was bummed but didn't say why and our photog wrote "Hopefully your wedding pics will cheer you up!" Yikes, we're going to call tomorrow.
@Caitmarae Your story actually (unfortunate for your future in-laws) made me feel a bit better. I don't know what I'd do if there were spots all over the pics..... crap. I hope everything will be resolved okay.
I'm so sorry! I know what disappointment feels like here. Our e-pics seemed a bit of a bummer, but our photog helped by retouching the ones in which we utlimately picked and we ended up being really happy.
Did your package include retouching? They may do basic retouching on all of them, and do more retouching on a higher quality.
@phatenigma: Oh no!
I agree that you should ask to see if there are more (hopefully) & then see if they can be edited.
What a bummer... yeah you should have been SUPER happy after sending that much money...
Definitely say something! If not just for your own peace of mind and to stick up for yourself. Maybe he can make it right. Remember, he wants you to be a happy client (if at all still possible). Maybe the photoshop thing or a discount. Or maybe he recreates some detail shots for you? Just ask him!
Good luck to you!
Bettie
@phatenigma: Definitely talk to him about it because it sounds like you guys had discussed what you wanted beforehand, so he should've aimed for those things. Photography isn't cheap and you generally do get what you pay for and it sounds like you guys went out of your way to try and get quality photos. If anything, it would help him to let him know that you're not satisfied with what he's done and that he clearly needs to pay attention to these things at his next wedding.
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Hi Bees,
We just got our wedding photos back today and I am so disappointed. I searched everywhere for this photographer and fell in love with his work. Our e-session was great and we got over 80 really fantastic (frameable) shots (pretty awesome for an e-session right?) He is a $5,000 photographer and he didn't even get a picture of the church or reception site. We had a hollywood themed wedding and by looking at the photos you could never tell. He didn't get any of the detail shots... like the cocktail tables, favor tables, dessert set to cut the cake, not even a good shot of my bouquet or of the other flowers. We had the entire room draped and had uplighting and instead of the photos capturing how romantic it was it looks like Dexter's kill room with how much flash he used. The photos of our vows look like they were taken by a guest sitting in a back pew and he used the fish eye lens on way too many things (including all of our guest shots, so our guests look like circus freaks) I could go on and on. This guy has tons of awards, has been featured in national publications, and is not cheap. What do I do? It's night like we can go back and have a do-over. Should I say anything to him? We even had him travel in 5 hours and paid for his hotel room (Friday AND Saturday night) Has anyone else ever been in this situation. My top 3 things... 1. dress, 2. photographer, 3. videographer. This is a pretty huge deal to me. Ergh!!! I feel sick right now. There definitely are a few frameable pics but there is no way he captured the story of our day and the "good" pics are pics that any photographer could have taken.