Unhappy with wedding photos... help!

amandajohill · Mar 24, 2012

Can anyone please recommend photo editing software that would help me artistically improve my wedding photos? I'm looking for software that would give professional results.

Bitter Jeweler · Mar 24, 2012

DorkSterr · Mar 24, 2012

Jesus those are horrid... Wow there's not even a picture where your wearing your dress and isn't cut off. These pictures are very dull/flat. A good free software and relativity easy to use is Nikon View NX 2, bump up the exposure, contrast, a tad sharpness...ETC.

Sorry I could'nt be of anymore help.

amandajohill · Mar 24, 2012

@Bitter Jeweler, your message did not show up. Just FYI.

Austin Greene · Mar 24, 2012

I won't say too much as to the photos, wedding photography is one of the toughest types of photography out there, and I don't think I have anywhere near the skill required to lend any serious critique to the photos. What I will say is that it looks to me like most of the photos on the link provided are "SOOC" or "Straight Out Of Camera," with little or no editing having been made. Many also look underexposed. I was a little surprised at the quality of some, and that they would even be posted in a gallery on a professional's site, but that may something about who you hired.

In any case, I'm sorry that your special day wasn't captured as you hoped it would be. We've got some really experienced wedding photographers here on the forums, and I'm sure you'll have some quality advice soon

Toga

Bitter Jeweler · Mar 24, 2012

Frankly, I think Brenda Sison did a very nice job for $1300. I have seen far worse at that price point. You should probably count your blessings and consider yourself lucky.

You might want to remove reference to her site, as links can be tracked back to here via google analytics, or various other site traffic data gathering.

cgipson1 · Mar 24, 2012

wow... most of the shots aren't too bad.. but some of them are. Focus on eyes is soft in most of them. Flash does not appear to be used in any of them.. and could have been for most (indoor shots), and that would have helped a lot with the color and sharpness issues. Kind of pretentious surroundings... and I would consider some of the poses pretty goofy.

Yep.. NX2 is free > Nikon | News | Free download of ViewNX 2 available today

So is Gimp > GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

FastStone is free too... FastStone Image Viewer - Powerful and Intuitive Photo Viewer, Editor and Batch Converter

But.. if you have no experience editing images.. it is unlikely you will be able to improve these! It takes knowledge and experience to do good editing....

amandajohill · Mar 24, 2012

@Bitter Jeweler, I know, I don't want to make reference to her site, but that is the only way people can see the pictures.

amandajohill · Mar 24, 2012

@cgipson1 I absolutely agree with you about the poses. I hated them, and they felt so unnatural, and I feared what actually happened- that they showed up that way.

Austin Greene · Mar 24, 2012

One thing I would mention, perhaps for future reference, is that if you feel uncomfortable doing something, its important to let the photographer know. It may not be seen in the photos at the moment, but as you well know, it shows up clear as day in review.

MTVision · Mar 24, 2012

cgipson1 said:
wow... most of the shots aren't too bad.. but some of them are. Focus on eyes is soft in most of them. Flash does not appear to be used in any of them.. and could have been for most (indoor shots), and that would have helped a lot with the color and sharpness issues. Kind of pretentious surroundings... and I would consider some of the poses pretty goofy.

Yep.. NX2 is free > Nikon | News | Free download of ViewNX 2 available today

So is Gimp > GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

FastStone is free too... FastStone Image Viewer - Powerful and Intuitive Photo Viewer, Editor and Batch Converter

But.. if you have no experience editing images.. it is unlikely you will be able to improve these! It takes knowledge and experience to do good editing....

Can you edit another photographers photos if you don't own the copyright??

OP,
By posting the link to the photographers website - you are in fact leading her directly to this forum and your post. This exact thing has happened a few other times and usually the photographer ends up showing up and posting their own "side".

I didn't look at the pictures so I have no clue what they look like but cgipson is right about the editing. Editing itself is easy but doing a good job takes a lot of knowledge and skill. Did you have a contract with the photographer? If so, I would read through it to see what it says - about copyright, anything about post processing, editing.

Hope everything works out.

amandajohill · Mar 24, 2012

MTVision:
I do have copyrights and she is ok with me editing them. I just need to find a talented experienced editor.

SCraig · Mar 24, 2012

This is not the place for you to be asking for help. We had a recent post that was similar to this that blew up into a lot of finger-pointing and I don't think that should happen again. If you have an issue with the photographs taken by the photographer that you hired then it is my opinion that you need to take those issues up with her and not us. It is unlikely that you are going to find someone willing to edit the photographs for you since they are copyrighted images.

Edit .. we posted at the same time but I still maintain the position that you need to take it up with her.

amandajohill · Mar 24, 2012

I'm totally fine if she posts her own side. I'm just trying to be honest and getting some advice. I have no intention of slandering anyone. I've wanted to keep it to myself, but every time I look at the photos it just makes me want to have a do-over with a different photographer. Don't get me wrong, she's an awesome person and I have nothing against her.