Picture quality taken by wedding photographer

Hi all,

I hope someone here can help me to understand why the resolution/quality of so many pictures from our wedding seems bad.

Let's for example take this picture: 4NT_9019.jpg

I feel like the resolution is not that good and it's not that focused on the couple (it might also be the case that no flash was used, but def. no extra lights nor these "umbrellas" was used).

They have now made the following album page: 6.jpg

Where we have asked for that bakground picture to cover the whole page, but I feel like the bad resolution will make the print-out not to be so good. Some of the other pictures also seems as of lower quality?

Am I correct in this thought? What can the reasons be and are there any ways to solve this?

The album will be 12x30 inches (if I remember it correctly).

Many thanks in advance!

The first sample image is a low resolution JPEG file and it appears that the image is focused on the two Subjects.

"resolution" is not "good" or "bad" but it is "high resolution" or "low resolution".

If you want to accurately ascertain if the first image has critical focus on the Subjects then you need to interrogate an High Resolution file of that image.

Addressing your second question, if there is accurate focus on the Subjects in that first image, and if there is an high resolution file of that image, then it would be technically suitable as a background picture to cover the whole page of an album 12 x 30 inches.

However, you wrote:

"help me to understand why the resolution/quality of so many pictures from our wedding seems bad", (my bold and underlined for emphasis), which leads me to think that there are other issues of concern to you.

Which in turn leads me to ask:

1. Have you discussed these issues with your Photographer?

And if yes:

2.What are the details of those discussions?

WW

Thank you for the quick reply William.

So can it be that a high resolution image has not been used when making the following album page: Page 6 ?

If I look at the file properties it says 6720 x 4480 though. However, there's a DPI of 96.

When it comes to your question, I have brought this up to the photographer, and they are asking me to select other pictures, and to make some pictures smaller in the page (for instance the page we are discussing now). The problem is that there are not that many pictures from different scenes for us to select from, and it would be a bit boring to have pictures only from one scene taken outside at day light (which looks great).

They have also said that it takes too much time to repair an image that is grainy, and that the result will not be so good anyway.

Another pic that we wanted enlarged for the whole page is this: _NT_2162.jpg

I just want to finish the album, so want to know if someone know the reason (if I'm not the wrong one thinking this) and if this can be solved somehow.

I mean, we can't retake these pics... so the situation is as it is now.

The important thing is that it looks good when printed out in the album.

The use of the word "Resolution", in common speak can be confusing.

In simple terms - PPI (Pixels Per Inch) describes what is in the image file and DPI (Dots Per Inch) is a description related to printing.

Regarding the link to the image "Page 6", I am not sure how you measured the "album page", as 6720 x 4480, it appears to me as a composite image made with an Editing Program known as "Picasa". Picasa refers to these Composite Images as "Collages". Picasa is a free program downloadable from the internet.

The image "_NT_2162.jpg" appears that it was edited using "Picasa". This image is grainy and has a red cast, likely from the tungsten room lights. These two pieces of evidence lead one to believe that the image was made at an high ISO using the room lights as the main source of illumination, though there also appears an odd light source at top right, which appears as if could be a Flash which was pointed to that area. Enlarging a small section of that image to fit a 12 x 30 inch book would not appear as a good quality.

Additionally, because you mention that the outdoor pictures look good, it occurs to me that some (most?) of the indoor pictures were made without Flash, which means that high ISO was used. In simple terms, using an high ISO means that the grain (noise) is more apparent and cropping a small area (or enlarging a small area) of an image made at High ISO is more problematic.

I hope that information helps to explain "the reason".

An additional piece of information is that grain (noise) usually appears worse on screen than in a print.

That stated, in my professional (and candid) opinion, the image "_NT_2162.jpg" would be a very poor choice for an album page: additional to the excessive Grain; the Lighting is inadequate; the Colour Cast is strong; and the Subjects are distracted to Camera Left.

WW

Thanks William!

Can you also give your opinion in the following page, one is the one sent by the editor and one I have increased the colors. Maybe it's too much colors, but I just wanted to see the difference as I felt like the "original" edited version lacks some colors (and is more of a grayish tone?).

"Original": 0 Cover page ok.jpg

More colors: 0 Cover page ok_colors.jpg

Which one do you feel would be the most optimal for printing?

Note: There's a mistake done with the bride's arm which I will inform the editor about.

 

"Original": 0 Cover page ok.jpg

 

More colors: 0 Cover page ok_colors.jpg

 

Which one do you feel would be the most optimal for printing?

Note: There's a mistake done with the bride's arm which I will inform the editor about.

The Original

Question for you - are you at odds with the photographer?

The pictures look fine to me.

I agree. My question is, are you having a dispute with the photographer? If so, I don't see that you have much of a case from the samples shown.

I agree. My question is, are you having a dispute with the photographer? If so, I don't see that you have much of a case from the samples shown.

No, there's no dispute going on right now.

We are to give them comments. For instance there's a "third" arm on the bride in this one: edited picture

And I also feel that the face of the bride have some uneven colors.

Apart from that I just wanted to know your opinion of the colors in the picture, I felt that the original picture from the photographer had a grayish/dull tone - but don't know if it's because of my screen as you say the original is better.

This is the original picture

A note is that we have asked if they can fix the back of the bride as it, due to the way she's turned, looks bigger and going out a bit.

But I feel now that they won't be able to do a good job with this (looking at the sample they have sent).

Regarding the question of the colours (your post #5) the ORIGINAL has the more natural (i.e. more "life like") COLOUR BALANCE. Yes there is part of a 'third arm' on the Bride. Yes there is an uneveness of Colour in the Bride's face: part of the might be because of uneven make-up. There is an odd greyish area in the middle of her Forehead, which does not appear to be because of make-up.

Colour Balance can be an issue of individual taste - as an example only - you might like images less 'life like' and more 'warm' (in simple terms more redish than blueish). I have found that some Clients initially like the images too warm and I think that there are many reason for this, the main one being that most people view incorrectly calibrated TV Screens. I think it is important, especially for an Album, to have Continuity of Colour and Style, and for the Album to tell a meaningful Story.

You should discuss your matters of concern, with you Photographer, especially as you mention that you are on amicable terms.

***

It is very important for you to note that the interpretation of COLOUR will vary depending upon the MONITOR being used to view any SCREEN BASED IMAGE.

Also please recognize two other points: firstly the images in the links are Low Resolution and secondly they all appear to be uploaded to a google drive, (so we can see the links): there probably will be some "image optimization" during that upload - which may be distorting what we see, compared to what you loaded.

Taking all these facts into account: it is important to note we are definitely NOT seeing on our computers the colours that you are seeing on yours.

The best practice to compare on screen images, in different locales, is for both screens to be calibrated photo monitors and for each to interrogate only Hi Quality Hi Resolution images only, preferably with access to the raw files.

This is why, these discussions are so important to have with your Photographer, face to face.

WW