Trying Not to Be Mad at Photog...Please Help Me Put Things In Perspective!!

[Kits55]

To make a long story short; my husband and I made a trade with our photog and his assistant to shoot our Friday night welcome dinner, Saturday for the wedding, and Sunday morning for the TTD.

 

Out of all of the pictures they took the entire time (including the ones they took of the resort, etc when they had free time) we only received 460 photos!! Plus, in our trade it was agreed upon that we would get HIGH res CDs, not low res. Checking on the resolution of our photos they are only about 1.78 MB!!

 

I hate about 40% of the photos COMPLETELY, like about 30%, and love about 30%. I am SOOO disappointed. There were two of them shooting almost continuously yet we only received 460 photos and I hate almost half of them! There are many many photos that I SAW him taking that we did not receive! i.e. rings together, sparkler tunnel, small group photos, mother/son dance, etc.

 

Is this normal? If this is normal please tell me so I can cool down. It doesn't seem normal to me, especially for shooting for 14+ hours (excluding the ones they took while walking around the resort). In all honesty I feel that our photog was shooting more for his artistic purposes than shooting our wedding!! There aren't that many of our entering, during the ceremony, or walking out. Just a lot of him trying to be artistic, which he really is.

 

For those of you that ordered CDs, how many pictures do your CDs have on them?

[boscobel]

I don't think that amount of photos you received seems that off since I am sure they only gave you the photos that they edited. But that fact that you seem to be missing important shots would be an issue. Can you ask him/them if you can view the unedited photos and pick a few out that seem to be missing? If you are unhappy, I would def talkt o him about it.

 

When did you get your photos? If you JUST got them, I would give it a day or two and check themout again. You might find that you like them more then you thought. When I first get a picture, I always look for the flaws, like is my face shining, are my arms flabby, etc. Once I get past that initial "i hate myself", I usually end up enjoying the picture.

[finleys7]

If you have things in writing regarding the amount of photos, that's contractual. 460 doesn't even seem like enough for a communion, let alone 3 days of a wedding celebration.

 

Has your photog communicated anything to you regarding why, or if he will provide you more photos. Unfortunately, when we don't get to choose our negatives, it gives the photog the responsibility of this decision.

 

I would call and write and express your dissatisfaction. Hopefully he will accommodate, as any professional should.

[Alyssa]

We received multiple High-Res CD's totaling with about 1500 pictures. our photogs, Mark and Gwyne Owens took pictures at multiple events (resort, rehearsal, day of for bride, day of for groom, ceremony, reception and TTD)

 

i am sorry to hear that you hate so many of your photos - i think you should reach out to your photog and see if there was a miscommunication along the way and reitterate taht you expected High-Res, edited pics and also you would like to see the rest (maybe unedited) to determine if you want those or not?

[Kristy!]

I agree with Carly that the amount shouldn't be the concern, but it's more the important missing shots that would be an issue. That and the low res. Look at it this way, you like over 100 pictures from your wedding. How many are you going to use to make an album?

 

I know you're not happy, but try to look at the positives. I would also talk to the photogs though to see where the missing shots are!

[Gail]

I agree the missing shots are the key. I haven't received my cd, just slideshow- but adv is 350-400 from what i have seen, but for each event. I am to get that many for each (wedding and TTD). I am sorry you are disappointed. I must say I was disappointed my photogr stopped adding music which I think makes A BIG DIFFERENCE. I have been trying to put that in perspective myself. Did you ask about the shots you are missing?

[mich999]

Start with what does your contract say? Do you get a CD of all photos he took? I would ask for a complete CD of all photos he took and I would also ask him about the resolution, since I assume that was in your contract and that's a really big deal.

 

I agree with others that I wuldn't be as concerned with quantity as with missing shots of important things, but one way to clear it up quickly is to ask how many photos he took and if you can look at them all to see if there are any others you like that he did not include.

[rodent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mich999 Start with what does your contract say? Do you get a CD of all photos he took? I would ask for a complete CD of all photos he took and I would also ask him about the resolution, since I assume that was in your contract and that's a really big deal.

Getting a complete CD isn't common. Usually it's a bad photographer who will agree to this & they will just do a "shoot & burn" which is to just give you the files they took straight out of camera.

A good photographer spends a lot of time sorting out the keepers & the rest. Then they process all the keepers.

It can take more time to give people less images because you have to spend a lot of time sorting. And a processed image is much better than getting an image right out of the camera.

One of the great things about digital is that you can shoot a lot & keep what works. All the ones with people blinking or making an awkward face get trashed. Then the similar ones are compared & the best is kept. Anything that has technical issues is usually trashed unless it's a really great moment.

OK, to the OP. I think 400 sounds low. I'm not sure how many images i got though. Maybe around 800. For a typical wedding, 400 might be fine but for a DW you'd expect more because you do a whole lot of shooting.

Then 400 great pictures is really different than 50 good ones & 350 bad ones. I can't remeber exactly how many pictures I had but I know I had enough to have tons of favorites.

This guy wasn't a wedding photographer, right? doesn't he do boudoir? It's really important to get someone who knows weddings. All types of photography are different & have different challenges. If what he knows is indoor with lighting, then he could be bad at outdoor in the bright sun. Some people can do it all, but not everyone can.

My friend hired a studio photographer for her outdoor wedding & the pictures are terrible. The girl didn't know how to work outside.

This is why it's important to see an entire wedding and preferably one in a similar lighting situation from yours.

Weddings are REALLY hard to do right. They move fast, you can't control the situation & the light is usually very difficult. Either bright sun on dark receptions & ceremonies. Someone might take some nice portraits, but it doesn't mean they can do a wedding.

So likely this guy just didn't have the skills. But, that is part of doing a trade like this. You get a redduced rate because he is using your wedding as practice. it's a risk you take.

[rodent]

I'm not sure what the GB size means. do you know the resolution? if you want to email me one, i can tell you what size it prints up to. PM me & I'll give you my email.

 

High res means different things. Some photographers will give you high res for printing up to 5x7, because they want the larger prints ordered through them. Sometimes it's for profit, but often it's because they don't want a bad 16x20 on your wall. If something is going to be printed that large there are extra steps to make it look great.

[rodent]

also, what makes you hate the photo? is it something about the composition or a technical flaw?