help please.

<p>Hi everyone, have enjoyed reading a lot of your posts. My husband and I got married last August and are just now getting our wedding pictures back (even though contract states 10-15 weeks). Despite taking twice the amount of time outlined the images we received have a lot of issues. I booked this photographer after extensive research in my area and paid over $2000 for the 8 hour shoot. I am coming to you all for help so I know what to say to my photographer in the correct verbiage to hopefully correct some of these issues (if they can be corrected).<br>

There are only 3 formal portraits of my husband and I looking at the camera, is this a normal number? There are only about 10 of us together in formal pictures even though we slotted quite a bit of time for that.<br>

There are only 2 pictures of my whole bridal party together, is this a normal number?<br>

In some of my pictures my face is almost washed out, and to an extent blurred so that part of my eyebrow is missing. (for some reason i look very pale in this picture).<br>

In the next picture taken right after this one its completely opposite my face looks orange and my body is very pale. (i wore light facial makeup to avoid this issue) In the same picture there is a circle around my eyes making them look black. <br>

In our ceremony pictures standing at the altar we had a lit chandelier hanging behind us. In 20-25 pictures there are fireball looking circles on either the preachers face, or my husband and I's face. <br>

In the pictures of my maid of honor walking down the aisle - she has red eyes in both of the pictures of her by herself. <br>

There are not any pictures of my bridal party sitting at the head table during the reception at all, not sure if this is normal or not?<br>

There are not any pictures of our rings and very little of our flowers :(<br>

And lastly, there are ZERO pictures of my full length dress hanging before i put it on. The photographer asked me to put my shoes on the veil along with my jewelry so she can take pictures of all of them together before i put them on, but somehow they are missing. <br>

Like I said I'm just gathering info to see what you all think and if some of this can be fixed. I have contacted her many times in the last few months and get the run around about everything.. so Im trying to get factual info to present to her to eliminate the back and forth. I know photoshop works miracles but i do not know the extent of its capabilities. Looking forward to your alls info! thank you for reading.</p>

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<p>You'll have a stronger case if you have the contract listing the specific types of photographs that were supposed to be taken; this can work against you if points such as "full length" are missing. Also, if you can do a physical comparison on what you got and what was to be reasonably expected by comparing it to the sales material (website, pamphlet, catalog) you <em>may</em> have a shot at compensation.<br>

Note: I'm not a lawyer. I just play one on TV</p>

<p>Thank you for both your replies. I can live with the missed pictures if some of the pictures were able to be edited to remove the horrible light balls on my face (these appear in 20-25 of the most important pictures). Like I mentioned in the initial post I have no knowledge of photography, so I am clueless to what can be edited.. etc... So thats why I was looking for advice here :) I listed all of the other things to understand what the norm was for those specific pictures.<br /> I am linking the contract, it does not mention specific pictures - however it does say that in the pre-event consultation the bride should produce a list of specific photographs to her, which I did. She also requested that I pull pictures to my pinterest profile so she had an even better idea of what I was looking for. The brochure she gave me to choose the different packages lists specific pictures and even gives an outline on "what to expect".<br>

I have reached out to her about the specific issues outlined above, and she has not responded. She told me a month ago before I received the pictures back that "she had heard from her editing team and they were almost complete with my pictures". I did not question that just assumed every professional photographer had an editing team. She is a very well known photographer and has made several comments on her Facebook that she has "30 sessions of the next 5 days" or last week "she just completed 18 sessions in 4 days before she left to shoot a wedding in Aruba". So I assumed an editing team (whatever they do) was helping her manage her workload, but the more I thought about it, she never mentioned that to me and it clearly says in the contract she edits her pictures... So maybe thats where the problem is?<br>

Or maybe Im completely off base?....<br>

<br /> If anyone would like to look at the gallery I can also link that as well.</p>

<p>contract: https://app.iris-works.com/customer/contracts/d2503f02-b807-425c-b3d4-99528e560be4</p>

<p> </p>

<p>oh and i forgot to mention... The day of our wedding she asked me if it was okay for her to leave an 1 1/2 hour early because my makeup was completely gone and my hair had fallen and we could arrange a makeup session whether it be wedding related or something more, she ensured me she had all the photos she needed and were just missing ones of the groom and myself leaving the reception and sparkler pictures (more pictures that were included in my list to her). Of course I agreed, as a bride on her wedding day, why would i want pictures if the photographer thought i looked bad? I have not had this extra make-up session due to the 7 1/2 months it took to see her final products for me to know what kind of make up session is needed. </p>

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<p>First, the contract states that you should expect delivery in 3-6 months... That's 12-25 weeks, not 10-15. However, as you say, she exceeded even this (frankly ridiculous) timeline by 1.5 months... That's frankly ridiculous regardless of what your facebook stream says about how busy you are (IMPO).</p>

<p>The ceremony picture you posted illustrates how bad decor decisions can destroy your photography. Putting a strong backlight immediately behind that sheer white curtain is a<em><strong> terrible</strong></em> idea for the photography. You <strong>are</strong> <em>properly exposed. </em>The damage to the picture is due to the unfortunate decor choices. IMPO, the photog is not at fault for that. Frankly, given the position of the light, I don't see an easy solution - from the photog's perspective. However, <em>this should have been discussed prior to the event!!</em> She should have been informed about it, thought about it's disastrous impact, and counseled you to turn off the stupid light. </p>

<p>... a shame, because the MOH's expression is priceless! (I can see the thought bubble now: "I <em>told</em> them to turn off that darn chandelier!")</p>

<p>...However, your example of the bridal portrait also shows that she wasn't exactly on the ball with her exposure settings. Your face and skin are blown -badly. The background is a terrible choice - and has nothing to break up the brick - and is too close (or the lens choice didn't allow shallow enough DOF) to blur out the background pleasingly. It's a great example of 'what NOT to do' in a bridal portrait. If I had to guess, I'd guess she left the camera on 'average' metering (evaluative mode), which exposed 85% of the image correctly (unfortunately, that happened to be the brick)- while shooting @ f4-f5.6. Oops.</p>

<p>In a nutshell, the failures of the first one (ceremony) is your fault (unless she also did the decor), the second (bridal portrait) is hers.</p>

Ian thank you for your response. I guess I

overlooked the part at the bottom where she

says it would take 3-6mo. Under the heading

digital negatives it states 10-15 weeks and

she will upload them as she edits so they will

be done sooner. So there are 2 different dates

in which one would assume the latter part was

added on due to her taking more sessions.

The decor was suggested by the wedding

planner at the venue and honestly since I am

not versed in photography the lights behind

me never posed a problem until now after the

fact of course. My photographer took many

close ups of the altar with the light on hours

before the ceremony. I guess she never

thought it would create an issue either but

however it did... the light could have easily

been turned off, am I too wrong to think that

she has too much experience for a mistake

like that? I mean after all she sent me the

pictures knowing the quality and didn't say a

word. It's disappointing to say the least. The

trend you saw with the bricks is sadly the

theme for many of my pictures. Thanks for

sharing your knowledge I truly appreciate it.

<p>I have no knowledge of her, or her experience. If the bridal portrait is indicative of her skill overall though, it wouldn't surprise me that she was challenged by the background light - however, that circumstance has the potential for disaster, and unless a photog has actually shot a scene with that specific lighting challenge, ten years and hundreds of weddings worth of experience may mean little to nothing - in my opinion, that circumstance could easily trip up even an experienced pro. Additionally, the flaring around your faces is something that may <em>or may not</em> have been apparent at the time, further, lens choice can cause dramatic variation in that. As I said, <em>you</em> are properly exposed. </p>

<p>I've been tripped up by unfortunate backlighting before, though never in such a bad combination (with immediately to the rear reflective material, faces viewed from the side, and no alternate angles available) - especially during a critical sequence (ceremony). While strong backlighting is something that <em>always</em> throws warning bells in<em> my</em> mind, if she hasn't had unfortunate experiences before, she may not have known to be wary. </p>

<p>Personally, I would (and do) review/edit/tweak every single proofed image, and I would have only forwarded this to you if it was the best of a bad lot. I also would have spent a lot of time trying to pull something out of the flare (potentially possible). I'm not sure what the RAWS look like, but I would guess that something can be salvaged from them. What I do not know is whether this jpeg represents the best recovery possible, or a default export (ie. no attempt made)...</p>

Thanks for your helpful response yet again!!! It's just really upsetting that over I waited over 7months and there was not just one picture

with my face and the light there are at least 20-25. It's also disappointing that there was not an explaination given. I am in no way trying to

say bad things of her whatsoever but as a paying customer I expected more... Like I said the theme is consistent throughout the pictures

but I am not even sure if she edited team like I mentioned above she said she had an editing team which would explain why I didn't get an

explanation...

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<p>While I can certainly understand why you are upset, I think the first step is to open a dialogue about the problems with the delivered images. I would go through your images, take notes on both what was and was not included, and the image quality problems.</p>

<p>I would write up a complete list using the file numbers so she can refer to the specific image when looking at a complaint.</p>

<p>I would ask her if she has the missing images (from your shot list), and if she can provide them.</p>

<p>You should ask whether or not she can re edit, or recover the IQ problems with the ceremony, and blown skin and face in your portraits. You should be prepared to ask for RAWs if she says she cannot improve them. With those, it is <em>possible</em> that another pro could use them to generate <em> better</em> versions (though it is also possible that no improvement is possible - you should be mentally prepared for that.)</p>

<p>In fairness though, you should divorce the problems with the photography from those which are clearly not her fault (like, for example, the hangar...), as difficult as it may be, keeping your discussion <em>rational, </em>and <em> specific, </em>and <em>not</em> personal, is the best way to start the discourse.</p>

Wish you luck. Seems like an inexperienced photographer. lot's of touch up work is needed and I'm not sure if the

photographer can do it.

<p>'I booked this photographer after extensive research in my area'. I think your research was not deep enough. The fact she had a large number of bookings would have been a red flag because she probably was not doing them all herself and would not have had the time to devote to each one to do the job properly.<br>

I, as well as most wedding photographers, do my own editing and I deliver up to 600+ edited photos with 10 days so I think you got a bum deal. </p>

<p>Do you have contract?<br>

Wish you great luck!</p>

<p>I would also want to know, did you fill out any sort of pre-wedding questionnaire or give the photographer a specified shot list? I like to have them prior to the event to make sure I get as many of the desired shots as possible.</p>

<p>However, as with most weddings- no one pays attention and everyone gets tired of formal photos after 15 minutes. Sometimes with high adrenaline events (like your wedding) you might not remember specific details- like pushy in laws or other strange circumstances that would have led to shorter formal session.</p>

<p>If your contract states that they are to be fully edited, I would ask kindly that at minimum the red-eye and overexposed shots be fixed. (make sure you retain copies of your photos just in case of childish behavior). If the contract doesn't specify editing- sorry, but you are out of luck :( </p>

<p>The time range of delivery is unreasonable, sure.. but I always give people benefit of the doubt. Maybe they lost a loved one- or went through a divorce or some other awful thing. I guess count your lucky stars you got photos, since the majority of these stories start with "I never got my photos"</p>