Fat Bride

[vfotog]

wow. I think the OP is the one with some problems. VERY judgmental towards the bride's appearance. The bride chose the dress. She saw herself in it. She knew what her weight and shape was. Guess what? So did her fiancé. He married her too. So if he loves her the way she is, who are you to decide that her body isn't good enough? If she didn't like the photos and asked you to alter some of them, that's different. But in this case, you're the one who decided you didn't like her appearance. That's not your place to do. Perhaps if you find larger people distasteful you shouldn't shoot them; you'd save yourself a lot of time in unrequested PP.

 

[vidrazor]

vfotog, I think as a professional you have to think ahead of the curve. As a professional you should know what will look good and what won't. Just because someone may know they're overweight doesn't mean they're going to like how they look in photos, especially photos taken at a momentous time in their life. If the client doesn't like what they see, they will almost definitely blame the photographer. So you have to go out of your way to make sure the images look the best they can. I've retouched countless images of beautiful professional models photographed in ideal conditions, and there has never been a single image that wasn't totally retouched. Ever. Under the worst of conditions (such as these), as a professional you have to go above and beyond the call of duty. So ultimately Cinka did the right thing for the job and the satisfaction of the client.

 

[RLM]

****ty situation to the OP (⌒-⌒; )

But between this post and the guy looking for advice on how to shoot lesbian porn (sorry dont have the lnk) i had a few good laughs.

Please post what happens in the end with this problem.

 

[vfotog]

vfotog, I think as a professional you have to think ahead of the curve. As a professional you should know what will look good and what won't. Just because someone may know they're overweight doesn't mean they're going to like how they look in photos, especially photos taken at a momentous time in their life. If the client doesn't like what they see, they will almost definitely blame the photographer. So you have to go out of your way to make sure the images look the best they can. I've retouched countless images of beautiful professional models photographed in ideal conditions, and there has never been a single image that wasn't totally retouched. Ever. Under the worst of conditions (such as these), as a professional you have to go above and beyond the call of duty. So ultimately Cinka did the right thing for the job and the satisfaction of the client.

The comparison doesn't work. A professional model who is hired to look good isn't remotely the same as a bride who hires a photographer to capture one of her most important and happiest life-cycle events. This isn't a photo meant to create the illusion of perfection and sell a product. It's meant to be a reminder of a real person's real-life wedding. The OP was really insulting in describing the bride. Would you publicly talk about your clients that way? It's far from professional.

 

[hildandr]

I would say that you should do it for some but not for all of them. If she sees the ones where shes got the flab them she can ask you to take them out like the other oones. That way you your not spending all this time up front editing and she's still happy, and you don't have to make something up about why they're taking so long to process.

Andrew Mark
Andrew Mark Photography | » Weddings and Portraits with Flare

 

[vidrazor]

>>The comparison doesn't work.<<

Sure it does. It's best foot forward. In both cases. The end result is to create a positive image of the objective. I have retouched overweight models to look perfect. I highly doubt the wedding images were retouched to the point of making them look completely transformed. I'm sure they were retouched to take away distracting visual elements. I would've done the same thing.

>>This isn't a photo meant to create the illusion of perfection and sell a product. It's meant to be a reminder of a real person's real-life wedding.<<

That's a matter of opinion. Weddings are quite the fantasy fest, if you think about it. People want to have positive memories of the event. We look at such events through rose-colored glasses from the word go. It's a personal call as to how each individual will handle such assignments.

>>The OP was really insulting in describing the bride. Would you publicly talk about your clients that way? It's far from professional.<<

If the client was positively identified, you would have a point. But the client is not identified. Furthermore, this is supposedly a forum for professionals to discuss issues with other professionals. You yourself have made valid points, and the OP will have to take all comments into consideration when dealing with similar situations in the future, but in the end as a professional you have to make judgment calls based on your own judgment and personal experience. Personally I agree with the decision made by the OP. You don't, and others are somewhere in-between.

 

[AmberNikol]

I don't know if I would have edited them that much, as most have said, she knew what she looked like so maybe a tiny bit but not to the extent of what you did.


I hope to hear how it turned out for you.

 

[TylerV85]

I had this same problem earlier this year...and I did use all the poses that cover up this flaw...but there was literally nothing more I could do...

What matters is the bride's self esteem? Do you think she is self-conscious about her weight?

The bride I shot that had this problem was not too worried about her weight and she ended up loving the photos just as they were.

 

[Stephen.C]

vfotog, I think as a professional you have to think ahead of the curve. As a professional you should know what will look good and what won't. Just because someone may know they're overweight doesn't mean they're going to like how they look in photos, especially photos taken at a momentous time in their life. If the client doesn't like what they see, they will almost definitely blame the photographer. So you have to go out of your way to make sure the images look the best they can. I've retouched countless images of beautiful professional models photographed in ideal conditions, and there has never been a single image that wasn't totally retouched. Ever. Under the worst of conditions (such as these), as a professional you have to go above and beyond the call of duty. So ultimately Cinka did the right thing for the job and the satisfaction of the client.

The comparison doesn't work. A professional model who is hired to look good isn't remotely the same as a bride who hires a photographer to capture one of her most important and happiest life-cycle events. This isn't a photo meant to create the illusion of perfection and sell a product. It's meant to be a reminder of a real person's real-life wedding. The OP was really insulting in describing the bride. Would you publicly talk about your clients that way? It's far from professional.

This guy's only posts are him whining / scolding.
Either a bad troll or a dumb guy.

 

[RockstarPhotography]

fat bottom girls you make the rockin world go round!!!!!!!!

 

[vfotog]

vfotog, I think as a professional you have to think ahead of the curve. As a professional you should know what will look good and what won't. Just because someone may know they're overweight doesn't mean they're going to like how they look in photos, especially photos taken at a momentous time in their life. If the client doesn't like what they see, they will almost definitely blame the photographer. So you have to go out of your way to make sure the images look the best they can. I've retouched countless images of beautiful professional models photographed in ideal conditions, and there has never been a single image that wasn't totally retouched. Ever. Under the worst of conditions (such as these), as a professional you have to go above and beyond the call of duty. So ultimately Cinka did the right thing for the job and the satisfaction of the client.

The comparison doesn't work. A professional model who is hired to look good isn't remotely the same as a bride who hires a photographer to capture one of her most important and happiest life-cycle events. This isn't a photo meant to create the illusion of perfection and sell a product. It's meant to be a reminder of a real person's real-life wedding. The OP was really insulting in describing the bride. Would you publicly talk about your clients that way? It's far from professional.

This guy's only posts are him whining / scolding.
Either a bad troll or a dumb guy.

are you name-calling? ooh, my feelings are just so hurt. isn't it past your bed time? if you knew anything about professionalism, you'd know you don't go on a public board and go on and on about your client's "flab." You're a junior in high school. You know exactly what about business?

 

[Chris of Arabia]

I think it would be a good idea if the slurs being cast about each other's experience (or lack thereof) came to halt. Please be so kind as to give each other's opinions a degree of respect, you may not agree with them, but name calling is not the way forward.

As an aside, one tip I did pick up from a professional post-processor once, was that if you want to help out a subject who is carrying more weight than they'd like, just reduce the width of the image by no more than 5% - the client will be pleased with the outcome and will never know what you did.

 

[digital flower]

:addpics:

 

[Stephen.C]

The comparison doesn't work. A professional model who is hired to look good isn't remotely the same as a bride who hires a photographer to capture one of her most important and happiest life-cycle events. This isn't a photo meant to create the illusion of perfection and sell a product. It's meant to be a reminder of a real person's real-life wedding. The OP was really insulting in describing the bride. Would you publicly talk about your clients that way? It's far from professional.

This guy's only posts are him whining / scolding.
Either a bad troll or a dumb guy.

are you name-calling? ooh, my feelings are just so hurt. isn't it past your bed time? if you knew anything about professionalism, you'd know you don't go on a public board and go on and on about your client's "flab." You're a junior in high school. You know exactly what about business?

Although I agree with you there about going on a forum, almost all of your posts are just scolding. Oh yeah plus one for the bedtime joke. Really got me there.