Bad wedding photo's

MrsVS

My husband & I got married on 18th Dec 2010.
I had been to several wedding fayres & looked online & on here etc looking for a photographer.
I found a local guy & when my husband & I went to see him, we were extremely impressed with him, his studio. His photographs were amazing & I mean all the photo's, not just wedding ones.
He showed us how he fully edits them, such as taking 'unsightly signs' off doors & buildings to make the photo's look better & he also showed us how a pic where a lady had given birth just a couple of days previous to the wedding so he had made her tummy look almost flat again.
The package we chose - 150 fully edited photo's on a disk with copyrights - was £600. We paid £150 deposit & the remainder was payable 2 weeks before the wedding.
I got ready at the salon so didnt need him at home so he was at the venue (we got married & reception at same venue) approx 45 minutes before our ceremony took place.
We got married at 3pm & after photo's etc, we all sat down for our speaches & meal at approx 4.30pm. We did the speaches, which took about half an hour & as soon as the meals started to come out, the photographer left, which was about 5.15pm ish.
We went on our honeymoon a week & a half after our wedding, 29th Dec. We went for 2 weeks & the photographer told us to call him when we were back.
We did so on Jan 14th with excitement thinking our photo's would be ready but instead he said he was still working on them & they 'should' be ready the following weekend. We were disappointed as we thought that as its a quieter period for photographers, they would be ready but it wasnt the end of the world.
The following weekend, we called again & he told us they'd be ready by the Saturday afternoon so we went to get them. He put the disk on in the studio & as I was looking through them, all I could think was OMG what have you done.
We left the shop & I said to my husband, I dont like them. Like me, we arent picky people at all & are very easily pleased but he too said they were rubbish. He had missed my mum & bridesmaids in the wedding car, missed my dad walking me down the aisle, missed most of our friends (there was a grand total of 32 of us, including all the children so it wasnt like there were loads of people). I had pre agreed with him to digitally remove a tattoo I have on my arm, he hadnt removed it on any pics at all. There were 'TOILET' signs above our heads in some photos & a bow on a curtain looked like it was attached to my husbands head. There was not one single photo of my dad & his partner, apart from on one group family photo, which was ruined as for some reason, my mum's partner was randomly placed on the end, rather than next to my mum where he should have been.
I had previously given him 'key' family members & things that I wanted photo's taking of, such as the wine glasses which had got a single red rose attached to the stems & the scrolls that we'd handmade as favours (we gave to charity instead & printed this on handmade scrolls), the personalised cufflinks we had for my husbands brothers who were our ushers. There was only 148 pics instead of 150 to add insult to injury. We spent so much planning on our little but stunning room. There was only 3 round tables & the top table & I had stressed how important this room was to us but the only pic of the whole room, he had stuck in black & white. When I queried this he said it was cos the room looked dull, flat & lifeless in colour! Utter nonsense, it looked cold & miserable in black & white. Theres more but you get the picture.
I emailed him a very long but polite email ref all the above & the rest & told him how very upset I was.
He called me the next day & said he would it out but it was madness as he'd spent about 50 hours working on them (the biggest utter nonsense I've ever heard) & said they would be ready mid week the following week (so about 6 days). 2 & a half weeks later, I'd heard nothing so hubby called him. He was still working on them.
This went on for weeks until last weekend he dropped off the new disk when we were out.
I assumed that he would be putting the whole 'edited' photos on a new disc for us.
No. He gave us a disc with 33 photos on. Edited photo's with my tattoo & the toilet signs removed. He had also added some more in of the speach but I dont know why he bothered to be honest as they just looked like photo's that were taken by guests with camera's left in the middle of the tables.
Dont get me wrong, there are some beautiful pics but there are more amateur ones than anything.
I am absolutely devastated & Im embarrassed when anyone asks to look at them. My husband went out & bought the basic photoshop & he's made a far better job on some of the photo's than the photographer has on the 'fully edited' ones with his fancy expensive photoshop that he was bragging about.
I dont know what to do. My mum & sister think I should go in & face him & ask for some money back but I just cant face him.
They dont understand as Im usually a very 'bolshy' person & I dont think twice about standing up & having my say but this feels different.
I trusted this man to capture our special moments & he hasnt & so devastated that I just cant face him & even if I did, he may say he wont give me any money back. Were struggling to make up a photobook as theres so little good ones & honestly the photo's taken by 2 of my brothers in law on their entry level DSLR cameras are better than our pro ones.
Any advise out there please on how I could/should handle this?
Many thanks.

White_Sapphire

What a horrible experience! I'm really sorry that I can't offer any advice to you, but I couldn't read and run.

I'm sure someone on here will be along soon to help; there are a few pro photographers who lurk on here.

x

sammy_wheeler

haven't got much advice
really sorry to hear you have had a rubbish time

firstly- did you sign a contract- what does it say?
what would you like to happen now?-you cant turn back time and redo it- so what can help you feel better?

MrsVS

Thank you White_Sapphire.

I also need to add that as part of the package, we were told we would have a password given to us for the client log in on his website & also be given a DVD disc of our photo's with 3 of our chosen songs playing in the background.
We haven't had either of these.

MrsVS

Thanks for the reply sammy_wheeler.
Yes we did sign a contract but it just says 150 fully edited photo's on a disc with copyright.
It was quite a basic contract with the cancellation policy etc on but we never doubted him for a second.
The above he said was part of the package but he only verbally said this, its not in the contract.

That is what I have said to my family.....I can't have what I want as I can't go back in time but they said I need compensating. Which is true. But I just don't know what to do & I really don't feel comfortable with facing him.

gordikin

What compensation do you want?

PinkLipgloss

A friend of mine unfortunately had a similar experience.

She was in tears when she received her highly anticipated CD. Not sure if she pursued the issue with the photographer as she got married abroad however I edited the photos in PhotoShop (cropping out unsightly backgrounds, fixed skin blemishes etc) and then ordered her a wedding photo book on Jessops. She was absolutely delighted with the outcome - it was amazing the difference a little bit of editing made.

The only problem with photos that cannot be easily fixed with a bit of know-how is blurring. So long as your photos are not blurry I think you will find they are salvageable!

Just thought - is the photographer a member of any professional organisation that you could complain to?

Best of luck,

Lipgloss

ajmoney

Do you have wedding insurance? Ours has a clause about having photos re-done if there are any problems. That is the least this photographer should expect.

MrsVS

PinkLipgloss wrote: »

A friend of mine unfortunately had a similar experience.

She was in tears when she received her highly anticipated CD. Not sure if she pursued the issue with the photographer as she got married abroad however I edited the photos in PhotoShop (cropping out unsightly backgrounds, fixed skin blemishes etc) and then ordered her a wedding photo book on Jessops. She was absolutely delighted with the outcome - it was amazing the difference a little bit of editing made.

The only problem with photos that cannot be easily fixed with a bit of know-how is blurring. So long as your photos are not blurry I think you will find they are salvageable!

Just thought - is the photographer a member of any professional organisation that you could complain to?

Best of luck,

Lipgloss

Thanks Lipgloss. My hubby has already made a better job using basic photoshop. Theres no blurry pics. Theyre just amateur & basic (not edited) & some total random ones thrown in which you just wouldn't want or expect in a wedding album. Its not so much that that bothers me though. Its what he missed, what we cant get back that upsets me the most.
It doesn't say on his website if he's a member of a professional organisation so I doubt it.
Thanks for your advice though & maybe when we have enough decent pics to make up the photobook, I will be happy with them. I just won't have the ones he missed.

MrsVS

ajmoney wrote: »

Do you have wedding insurance? Ours has a clause about having photos re-done if there are any problems. That is the least this photographer should expect.

Nope no wedding insurance.
He can't get back the photo's he didn't take though & we couldn't even go back & re-enact it all if we wanted as my hubby's family came over from South Africa.
Thanks for reply though.

MrsVS

gordikin wrote: »

What compensation do you want?

I don't mean to sound rude at all but is this a trick question?
Personally I don't want anything other than the photo's he missed but that isn't going to happen.
So I feel we deserve at least some of our money back.
Afterall, we paid him £600 for fully edited photo's & we didn't get that.
We had an agreement (which was via email so have proof) of photo's that I defintately asked him to take & he didn't.
We paid for a professional photographer & we got amateur photo's from him after we trusted him to capture our special moments on our wedding day.
I'm having sleepless nights over this as it's just going round & round in my head, not knowing what to do.
This was so so so important to us & he ruined it.