Great wedding photos, unhappy clients?

[bigtwinky]

I didn't get the impression that the OP was here to get help on composition and lighting. If the intent of the OP is as its written, it comes off as

"I took these amazing wedding pictures, everyone tells me they are amazing, but the bride and groom hate them. Does everyone get this? Where you do a great job and the people don't appreciated your talent?"

 

[kinoflo]

Wow. I went to work and checked back, and this thing is still going. You guys are awesome.

Okay, confession time, and please hear (read?) me out: I am the client, and I did pay for these photos. I did not alter them; other than posting them to PhotoBucket, which reduced the size of the pictures, you're seeing them the way they came off the disc.

And I am amazed as you are that they turned out so bad. Chris's reputation seemed immaculate, and in hindsight, I guess he just didn't have that much experience with weddings. He's a great guy.

No, I'm here because I've been trying to drag out of his assistant Amy either (a) copies of the pictures that weren't edited, hoping there are salvageable colors in there, or (b) a confession that the work was just awful.

She hasn't responded to (a) except with a promise to look. To (b), her answer is that not only are the pictures awesome, but I don't know what I'm talking about, and that I must be doing *something* to make the colors come out wrong. That's what she said this week, that's what she said two years ago.

Infuriating. And so I came here to get some expert opinions. I hope you'll notice I didn't try to sway the discussion. Amy really did think they were awesome, and I really thought they were awful.

The comments came back harsher than I had hoped for, but they were honest, and I want to thank you guys for that.

I agree with farmerj, I think Chris may have been having a bad day, or the dark environments really caught him off guard. But I think it's equally important to admit your mistakes. This shoot didn't go well at all.

And please remember that for your future clients: even if they have no photography training at all, most people can spot a bad picture when they see it. And even if the picture isn't bad, the customer is unhappy. Work on that, not on trying to convince them they're wrong.

And also remember who is representing you, and follow up on *how* they represent you.

All right, hopefully mysteries solved, and hopefully no reputations (permanently) damaged

 

[bdavis]

Sorry, but these look like some quick, thoughtless snaps that were taken by some guest using a compact camera. There's really nothing to them ... horrible lighting, ugly skin tones, no likable compositions, no feeling. I can understand why they are unhappy and I hope that you are not being paid for these photos.

Direct flash is always the wrong way to use a flash indoors. It makes people look sweaty and gross and it creates nasty, sharp shadows that are basically impossible to get rid of.

Don't be too discouraged. Clearly, you are just beginning. Everyone's first few thousand shots look like crap (mine included).

What would be good to know is: how did it go about that you were the photographer for the wedding? Is it family? A friend? A friend of a friend? Somebody who thought, "ooh, look, there's someone with one of those newfangled big cameras with the big circle thing on the front", and asked you to do it?

Wedding photography is not something you can tread lightly into on the first day you buy an SLR. Heck, I don't think I ever want to do wedding photography.

How would you suggest to improve this? You cant always bounce a flash off of a ceiling, sometimes the ceiling is just to high. How far to the side should the flash be to get away from the direct flash look? With a stroboframe, the flash isnt to far off center, but is it enough? And how do you get away from the harsh shadows that off camera flashes usually produce? When the camera is straight above the camera, the shadow is usually hidden behind the subject, but if its off to the side by a couple feet, then you can normally see a pretty good harsh shadow behind the subject, even if the background is far away. And you cant always get the flash far enough to the side so that the shadow will appear out of frame.

I suppose you can have dedicated flashes set up down the isle and other spots you plan to photograph, but I like the freedom of being able to move around with off camera flashes.

I think the above picturse can be helped alot by adjusting the color balance in photoshop. : ) and some photoshop work.

Ever heard of bouncing flash off walls? Maybe bouncing off a high ceiling with the bounce card up to have the reflected light be the main and the light coming down from the ceiling as a fill?

 

[DScience]

who's Chris and Amy??

 

[kinoflo]

who's Chris and Amy??

Chris Hartt, whose name farmerj spotted in the photos' metadata, and Amy, his assistant, who digitally edits the photos.

 

[Josh220]

who's Chris and Amy??

Chris Hartt, whose name farmerj spotted in the photos' metadata, and Amy, his assistant, who digitally edits the photos.

It doesn't look like any editing was done... I could do better editing with iPhoto, let alone Lightroom or Photoshop...

 

[Clawed]

Okay, so were these shots the best of the bunch, or some of the worst? Obviously, that is an important consideration.

 

[Josh220]

Okay, so were these shots the best of the bunch, or some of the worst?

I can only hope these are the worst of the worst. However, I have a feeling they are not.

 

[farmerj]

who's Chris and Amy??

Chris Hartt, whose name farmerj spotted in the photos' metadata, and Amy, his assistant, who digitally edits the photos.

I would have a REALLY hard time believing that these were taken by the Chris Hartt I linked to above from Plano Tx.


Either way,

You came here mis-representing what is happening. You made it seem as if YOU took the pictures, when in reality you didn't.

As you did not take these pictures, it's also a little bit against the rules to be posting them in the first place.

What gives with posting pictures that are 2+ years old.


Seems there was another recent posting with similar "issues" not long ago.
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/general-shop-talk/165695-help-really-bad-photo-advice.html

 

[kinoflo]

Okay, so were these shots the best of the bunch, or some of the worst? Obviously, that is important since you are posting them as the client.

I tried to pick some of the better photos that still showed the key problems, so I guess I'd say they're better than average.

 

[Clawed]

Okay, so were these shots the best of the bunch, or some of the worst? Obviously, that is important since you are posting them as the client.

I tried to pick some of the better photos that still showed the key problems, so I guess I'd say they're better than average.

Well, it's certainly bogus to have wedding pics that do not meet your expectations, my wedding photographer was terrible so I feel your pain. I am getting into wedding photography as a result, and I am terrified of the prospect of having my clients dislike my work.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

kinoflo,

Please read your PMs

 

[kinoflo]

Well, it's certainly bogus to have wedding pics that do not meet your expectations, my wedding photographer was terrible so I feel your pain. I am getting into wedding photography as a result, and I am terrified of the prospect of having my clients dislike my work.

Good luck! I have a friend doing the same thing. I think as long as you're your own worst critic, things work out.

 

[epp_b]

It would have been better to the state from the beginning that you were the client. There are enough honest people here that would tell you if you were being a whiny customer or if these pictures are truly bad.

Now that we know the situation in full, I can tell you this while being completely tactless: you got ripped off. These are truly awful pictures by any measure. No amount of processing can recover the complete lack of skill of the person behind the camera.

If the photos you posted are the average in the bunch, I'm scared to see what you considered the really bad ones.

 

[Clawed]

Well, it's certainly bogus to have wedding pics that do not meet your expectations, my wedding photographer was terrible so I feel your pain. I am getting into wedding photography as a result, and I am terrified of the prospect of having my clients dislike my work.

Good luck! I have a friend doing the same thing. I think as long as you're your own worst critic, things work out.

I know that I would own up to a poor job at least. Plus, some of the mistakes your photographer made look like rookie errors. I havent been shooting that long, but I know not to shoot someone in the face with your flash like that

My photographer was stoned, had his fly down all night and pulverized everyone with his flash for the duration of the shoot....