Bride went from loving her wedding pics to "not up to my standards"

clickchick_23 · Oct 10, 2009

Ok folks, I need some advice.
This summer I shot my first wedding. I met the bride through a her mother. I made it extremely clear that I had never shot a wedding on my own, and I had only been a second shooter. The bride was ok with that (especially considering I was WAY cheaper than anyone else she had looked in to). Shot the wedding, was pretty pleased with my results considering it was my first one and ALL outdoors on a day that couldn't decide if it was cloudy or sunny. I posted the slide show of the pics online and both the bride and her mother called to tell me how much they loved the pictures and they wanted to reccommend me to friends. The bride ordered 2 prints and a panoramic of the whole wedding party jumping in mid air. Suddenly today, I get a phone call from the bride and she is literally chewing me a new one about how crappy the pictures are ("Did you even look at these!?!?!?") and they are not up to her standards or worth what she paid for them. She tells me my first step is to call the lab and find out what went wrong, and if that doesn't work, she's expecting some other form of redemption. First, I'm crushed because I put an extrodinary amout of work into them, sencond I'm confused because she told me repeatedly that she loved them....and now I'm angry and frustrated! I told her I would try to make it right, but how many times can I reprint things until I get them to her standards (she thinks all the prints are too dark, grainy, blotchy, insert any negative adjective you can think of relating to pics, she said it). Any advice!?!?!? HELP!!!!!

Billhyco · Oct 10, 2009

post up one that she is complaining about, i'd like to see just to get both sides of the story. also, are you sure the print lab didn't mess up something?

Overread · Oct 10, 2009

Bill makes 2 good points - the first that we can't make any judgement about the images or your abilty without seeing the images and that yes the lab could have got something wrong - could be some colour calibration problem between you and the lab themselves - so that would be the next important point to check.

Also when/if you post an example shot it would be good if you could post a 100% crop from the shot- that is a crop taken from the shot at fullsize - that way you can post a resized version of the shot for the net and a cropped out section of the shot (a crop suitable for web display in size) with no resizing - so that we have an idea of the fullsize look of the image

RMThompson · Oct 10, 2009

Is it because they ordered prints from the web versions?

MelodySoul · Oct 11, 2009

It sounds like you need to clarify with her what exactly the issue is. Is it just with the prints or did she change her mind about the photos in general?

clickchick_23 · Oct 11, 2009

MelodySoul said:
It sounds like you need to clarify with her what exactly the issue is. Is it just with the prints or did she change her mind about the photos in general?

I believe it's just the prints. I'm calling the lab on Monday because some of the images do seem a bit darker in print than they do on my computer screen. I'm not claiming to be a pro and I made that EXTREMELY clear to her. This was supposed to be more of a favor to a friend.....the friend being her parents. I don't believe the quality is outstanding....nor should it be I guess for someone who up until this wedding had never done any type of professional work. Here is the link if anyone cares to look at it. PLEASE be gentle in your comments.

ale:

Mayer Wedding | Roxio PhotoShow

Double H · Oct 11, 2009

I thought your had some very nice shots, some that any bride should be more than happy with. There were a few that needed some color balance, and a few that looked a bit out-of-focus (could that have been the slideshow I wonder). Overall, I say you did a fine job. Check with your lab, try another lab and compare. Make sure your monitor is calibrated properly. Don't back down.

clickchick_23 · Oct 11, 2009

Double H said:
I thought your had some very nice shots, some that any bride should be more than happy with. There were a few that needed some color balance, and a few that looked a bit out-of-focus (could that have been the slideshow I wonder). Overall, I say you did a fine job. Check with your lab, try another lab and compare. Make sure your monitor is calibrated properly. Don't back down.

Thank you thank you thank you!!!!! You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear that I didn't totally screw this up!

DeadEye · Oct 11, 2009

I allways review prints then forward them to client. I gotta see them first then I know what they get.

Mpix Pro shipps fedex on all orders and its only 4.00 or free on large orders.

Overread · Oct 11, 2009

Monitor calibration could be your falling point. Do you have/use a monitor calibration device - like a Spyder? I know there are free online options, but they do not work as your eyes are highly subjective and adaptive to the light from a screen, whilst a hardware based calibrator is not.
Its an important step to helping you get a calibrated screen so that when you send images tothe printers you can get a kown result back (a period of trial and error where you send test images off is also good to do so that you know your images will print well).

I also second the advice of Deadeye - getting the prints yourself to check first might make deliveries a little longer, but it does mean you can prevent problems like this occuring in the future

iolair · Oct 11, 2009

This is your first wedding shoot, and its important you sort this out. Personally, I would travel over there and look at the exact prints with her, get her to show you what the problems are. Then you know for sure where you are, and you get plus points for customer service.

robdavis305 · Oct 11, 2009

You can tell that they were not done by a pro and you made that clear to the bride before you took them. Some are out of focus and the whites could have been whiter since the camera sees 18% grey. And some are a little grainy and has a little noise, but overall I think you done a fine job and not trying to be nosey but considering her gripe it would be nice to know what you did charge her.

epp_b · Oct 11, 2009

I'd say that you have some good shots and a few great shots, though what I mostly see is that a quite a lot of them are underprocessed with the wrong white balance. That's not too bad, even less so if you were shooting in raw. I think there are a good number of them could go from "good" to "stellar" with some more processing.

clickchick_23 · Oct 11, 2009

Overread said:
Monitor calibration could be your falling point. Do you have/use a monitor calibration device - like a Spyder? I know there are free online options, but they do not work as your eyes are highly subjective and adaptive to the light from a screen, whilst a hardware based calibrator is not.
Its an important step to helping you get a calibrated screen so that when you send images tothe printers you can get a kown result back (a period of trial and error where you send test images off is also good to do so that you know your images will print well).

I also second the advice of Deadeye - getting the prints yourself to check first might make deliveries a little longer, but it does mean you can prevent problems like this occuring in the future

I didn't know there was such a thing to calibrate the monitor. I do think this is where I could have my issue. Is spyder the best one to use?

clickchick_23 · Oct 11, 2009

epp_b said:
I'd say that you have some good shots and a few great shots, though what I mostly see is that a quite a lot of them are underprocessed with the wrong white balance. That's not too bad, even less so if you were shooting in raw. I think there are a good number of them could go from "good" to "stellar" with some more processing.

Can you give me a little more info on what you mean by more processing? Do you feel these images are too dark online? Thanks for the help....obviously I'm super new at this!!!