I hate my wedding photos

Stephb1986_2

You only get married once (hopefully) so you should have the photo's you 1, want, 2, deserve and 3, what you paid for! So drop him a line and tell him your not happy with the photo's and he best do something about it or you are going to name and shame him to all of us.

Steph xx

*Louise*

Aw, sorry to hear your pictures aren't what you were hoping for I hope your re-shoot goes well.

That's the thing about photographers, they will only put their best shots on their sites, so it's hard to tell. Did you get a recommendation from someone which made you choose that one?

My Dad is a photographer, so he done all my pictures. I would have hated having to shop around for someone, because as you have proved - you never can tell what you're going to end up with

Dr_DiNg_DoNg

This a common tale unfortunately.

Although price is not an absolute guide what you get with a cheap photographer is often a guy with a consumer level DSLR using it on automatic. The results from that will , as the OP says, be practically exactly the same as people with other consumer level cameras on automatic.

The problem these photographers have is an age old one, you are taking a photo of a large piece of white (the wedding dress) next to a dark suit on a typical outside day, and its too much for the auto exposure in the camera to calculate . What the camera does is takes an average of all and the result is often over exposed faces, washed out colours etc etc.

The photographer then tries to correct them on the computer , but as most of them will be shooting JPeg there is not sufficient leeway to do much with them .

If you are booking a cheaper photographer I would ask them in the pre wedding meeting what format he will be shooting the files in, the answer you want is "RAW files" , if you hear Jpegs then alarm bells should be ringing, because no decent photographer would ever shoot Jpegs at a wedding.

karen_newcastle

Dr_DiNg_DoNg wrote: »

If you are booking a cheaper photographer I would ask them in the pre wedding meeting what format he will be shooting the files in, the answer you want is "RAW files" , if you hear Jpegs then alarm bells should be ringing, because no decent photographer would ever shoot Jpegs at a wedding.

I would disagree.....I alway shoot in RAW as I need the leeway to correct come images but I know of many top notch photographers who nail their exposure each time and therefore shoot in jpeg. There images straight of the camera are amazing and so I would say this is not the way to determine a good photographer.

The only way is to meet with photographers and ask to see a few COMPLETE weddings....not just a selection of good shots that they show on their websites.

Dr_DiNg_DoNg

karen_newcastle wrote: »

I would disagree.....I alway shoot in RAW as I need the leeway to correct come images but I know of many top notch photographers who nail their exposure each time and therefore shoot in jpeg. There images straight of the camera are amazing and so I would say this is not the way to determine a good photographer.

The only way is to meet with photographers and ask to see a few COMPLETE weddings....not just a selection of good shots that they show on their websites.

So I said "If you are booking a cheaper photographer" and you said " I know of many top notch photographers"

I realise experienced photographers use jpegs quite successfully, but photographers using consumer DSLR's on automatic are not " top notch photographers" , hence why I suggested that if you are making a booking at the budget end of the market, then try to ascertain they are going to shoot RAW, at least then when they are +2ev they have a chance to get something at least!

funky_snow

awww big hugs... its a real minefield and hopefully this thread may help other people.

I've got a bit of an interest in photography - I've had lots of comments from well meaning friends that I'm good at photos and I should get an SLR and try to get paid work. What the average passerby doesn't realise is that if you don't know what you are doing with regard to nailing exposure, focus, white balance then you will get much better pictures from a point-and-shoot camera which is designed to do it automatically versus an SLR where it assumes you know what you are doing, are likely to do it manually - hence the automatic features on SLRs are often disappointing.
Until you spend some time studying what makes a good photo - it can be hard for people to pinpoint exactly what a good photo means to them - does it mean a technically well composed shot, with no distractions, good lighting or that once in a million chance shot of a family relative in a great situation but the technicalities are wrong!
People seem to spend hours/days/weeks/months planning a colour scheme etc. but end up making photography choices on the basis of price but its a minefield - and should I be in the position to plan a wedding i reckon I'll spend more time picking the photographer than the dress!

For the OP - sounds like family and friends have already given you copies of their snaps so there is an option to maybe find a different photographer/processing specialist who may be able to work some magic with the photos you have and put them together artistically in a better way than what you have. Also try to get your photographer to give you all his images and if possible in RAW format if you go down this route.

[Deleted User]

I was a little disgusted to find out my photographer only shot in jpg.. It explains why my wife's dress was over-exposed in the outside shots. He's a good photographer (and since he was used by government for the G20 summit, he's also got a good reputation), but i should have chosen a different one, one that shot in RAW.

With RAW, you can forget about white balance - it can all be changed afterward. You can pull out lost detail in the shadows, in the bright areas, a lot better than jpegs.

My SLR shoots JPG/RAW at the same time.. its very handy for important events.

Also, find someone who'll give you all the originals on a disk - ours made me pay extra afterwards

karen_newcastle

Dr_DiNg_DoNg wrote: »

So I said "If you are booking a cheaper photographer" and you said " I know of many top notch photographers"

I realise experienced photographers use jpegs quite successfully, but photographers using consumer DSLR's on automatic are not " top notch photographers" , hence why I suggested that if you are making a booking at the budget end of the market, then try to ascertain they are going to shoot RAW, at least then when they are +2ev they have a chance to get something at least!

I get ya! Fair enough!

However do you think photographers at this level even 'see' when a dress has been blown out, for example, never mind know how to correct it!

foxxymynx

Have to agree about RAW and JPEG. I personally shoot in both, all of the time (I'm an amature photographer) but for a wedding I wouldn't be happy if the photographer just shot JPEG.

I did use a photographer who is very new on the scene and his images are fantastic. We were really over the moon with them and he gave us a nice discount, so the rule of the more you spend, the better the quality is far from the mark.

I've sent you a PM shelovestobuystuff

LadyMorticia

Dr_DiNg_DoNg wrote: »

This a common tale unfortunately.

Although price is not an absolute guide what you get with a cheap photographer is often a guy with a consumer level DSLR using it on automatic. The results from that will , as the OP says, be practically exactly the same as people with other consumer level cameras on automatic.

The problem these photographers have is an age old one, you are taking a photo of a large piece of white (the wedding dress) next to a dark suit on a typical outside day, and its too much for the auto exposure in the camera to calculate . What the camera does is takes an average of all and the result is often over exposed faces, washed out colours etc etc.

The photographer then tries to correct them on the computer , but as most of them will be shooting JPeg there is not sufficient leeway to do much with them .

If you are booking a cheaper photographer I would ask them in the pre wedding meeting what format he will be shooting the files in, the answer you want is "RAW files" , if you hear Jpegs then alarm bells should be ringing, because no decent photographer would ever shoot Jpegs at a wedding.

My thoughts exactly!

OP - I'm really intrigued by these photos now - not because I think they're not as bad as you say they are but because I'm a photographer and I want to verbally spank the photographer's butt.

OH's dad is a photographer and has done a few weddings. The images were superb and his clients are always happy with the photos.

Wedding photography is a difficult one because you get the people who just think photography is all about pushing a button when in actual fact a real wedding photographer is able to direct people, create compositions and knows how his camera works, and that includes not shooting in auto mode.

I've also known some wedding photographers not to use photos they've taken on their websites, but have just used wedding stock photographs taken from other websites.:eek: