HELP: What would cause these shadows?

[Tulsa]

Get a refund, Thats not just bad lighting, thats crappy images.

 

[silverstar123]

Here is more info, I presume this is the exif data?



It's official, she has refused to refund us any money. Unfortunately I'm leaving for a week long vacation in a couple of hours, but when I get back I'll be creating a website telling the whole story. If she loses even one job from it, it will have done its job, and it would have been cheaper for her to refund us the money we requested.

Believe it or not, but that's us walking down the aisle at the end of our ceremony. I chose to show you the sequence of photos so you can see it wasn't one photo to get the silhouette effect, these are the only photos (and supposedly edited) from her of us walking down the aisle after being married.

 

[reznap]

That's really heartbreaking. See that white tent above? A bounced flash would have filled the whole area with nice diffused light. Even the pop-up flash would have helped these photos a ton.

I hope you find some kind of justice, I wouldn't give up on pursuing a refund either. If you lived around here I'd offer to do a free shoot with you two, I feel so bad (but if you and the new husband will be in the Cleveland area let me know).

Well, have a great vacation, try to put this out of your mind for the meantime and enjoy yourself. Good luck to both of you

 

[ababysean]

Here is more info, I presume this is the exif data?



It's official, she has refused to refund us any money. Unfortunately I'm leaving for a week long vacation in a couple of hours, but when I get back I'll be creating a website telling the whole story. If she loses even one job from it, it will have done its job, and it would have been cheaper for her to refund us the money we requested.

Believe it or not, but that's us walking down the aisle at the end of our ceremony. I chose to show you the sequence of photos so you can see it wasn't one photo to get the silhouette effect, these are the only photos (and supposedly edited) from her of us walking down the aisle after being married.

How much did you pay her? and who is it? I'd love to see her wedding portfolio that you saw before you hired her/him?

 

[atabrem]

yep.. refund!

 

[ajkramer87]

If you want you can send me some of the shots and I can try to at least edit them so that you can see who is in the photo.

 

[Dao]

oh my!! those are not even snapshots quality. If the photographer did not have a external flash, at least she could spot meter the subject face.

 

[arcooke]

This is horrible, and the fact that she won't refund your money is disgusting. I'd have half a mind to take this ^$(*!@ to court.

 

[KmH]

Be careful.
Unless you own the copyright to images you post on the Internet, you could be commiting copyright infringement, which would be a violation of federal law here in the US.

US wedding photographers own the copyrights to the images they make, and usually only grant a non-excluse use license for part of those rights to a bride and groom, not a complete transfer of copyright.

You would be well advised to explore the provisions of Canadian copyright law, before you create legal difficulties for yourself, if you haven't already. In Canada you also need to be aware of moral rights.

You will also need to use care making a web site that disparages the reputation of the photographer, as you could wind up on the wrong end of a defamation action.

None the less, it is a violation of TPF forum rules to post images you do not own the copyrights to: The Photo Forum - Photography Discussion Forum - FAQ

* You agree to only post images and/or other material to which you have exclusive copyright, or permission from the copyright holder that you are able to present to TPF Staff. Under no circumstances will any instance of copyright infringement be tolerated.

I am not a forum moderator, nor am I a lawyer. However I have made my income from intellectual property for many years and am pretty familar with both US copyright statutes (Title 17 USC), and US copyright case law.

 

[adversus]

Did you sign a contract with the photographer? If you did, check the contract for dispute resolution. I haven't done paid photo shoots, but in my professional life I do contracts all the time for consulting work and they ALWAYS include dispute resolution clauses for exactly this type of issue (work delivered is not to spec etc.).

 

[silverstar123]

One last post before we leave.

Thanks for pointing out copyright laws. I was pretty sure I was ok because in our contract there is no mention of the photographs becoming copyrighted to her, the photographer.

Taken from CAPIC - The Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators, Canadian Photographers, Canadian Illustrators, Photographers, Illustrators, Photography, Illustration

Section 13(2) of the Canadian Copyright Act states that the copyright owner is the one who commissions and pays for the ìengraving, photograph or portrait. In other words, provided a client or buyer commissions the production of a photograph and pays for such a work, the client/buyer automatically holds the copyright on the photograph and/or ìengraving - not the photographer or person who created the ìengraving - unless the buyer and photographer/creator have an agreement to the contrary. The Copyright Act applies this provision to a ìportrait or ìother original created on a commission basis, but doesn't specifically define what types of commissioned illustrations this includes.

As far as defamation goes, as long as what I put on the website is the truth, there is nothing that is actionable on her part.

adversus, we did sign a contract, but there is nothing about dispute resolution in it.

For those who want to check out her portfolio, knock yourself out. Like I said before, not amazing, but good enough (or so we thought) considering our budget. But regardless of her portfolio, no one representing themselves to be a professional should provide images like what we received.

www.eternityphotography.ca

 

[KmH]

Whose truth?

Everything is actionable. That's what courts are for.

 

[ababysean]

OMG!
ok, what you get is what you saw.
IMO, everything under her wedding port is really bad, and I don't know why you would hire her or pay this person anything...
You did not give a dollar amount, but I'm assuming it is very low.
Every other pic has selective color, major photoshopping to add blur or totally under exposed.

What did you pay?

ok lol
I'm looking through her babies and other galleries.
I'm sorry. If you saw this before you hired her, I would say that at least part of the decision was your fault...

 

[Josh66]

Put in a call to the BBB.

United States and Canada BBB Consumer and Business Reviews, Reports, Ratings, Complaints and Accredited Business Listings

They serve the US and Canada.


edit
She is probably not even legally 'in business', so I don't know if they'll be able to help. I would think they can though.
A call can't hurt, and you may get some kind of resolution to this. It really sucks that you got screwed over so bad.
I haven't seen whatever it is that you saw that made you decide on this person, but it wouldn't surprise me if this 'pro' "borrowed" someone else's images to build a portfolio. I hope it works out for you...

 

[enzodm]

As far as defamation goes, as long as what I put on the website is the truth, there is nothing that is actionable on her part.
http://www.eternityphotography.ca

In my opinion, it is better if you try to obtain refund (KmH is telling you very sensible advice). Having a web site showing crap pictures will just give you some sense of justice, but is not as effective as a letter from a lawyer. Here we have consumer associations that support in these things, I suppose also Canada has something similar. By the way, steps you took until now are in written form? Is her refusal written or just told?