What's a "normal" number of good photos?

seujoanne

I got our E-pics back over the weekend and picked out about 15ish that I was pleased with.  Many of the "bad" ones were my fault or my FI's fault - but I'm a little worried the same thing will happen on our wedding day.  Any reassuring input???

Buttercup509

15 out of how many? If your photographer takes a picture and it isn't that great because of something you or your FI did, they should take another and tell you to sit up straight or whatever.

SoonToBeMrsHoz

My photographer only delivered engagement pictures where we both looked good, and there were 200 something photos.

I agree with the PP , that the photographer should have guided you...

Is it possible that you are being too critical of the pictures?

Tiffany618

I agree with PP... however if it is a concern for you (even if you are being critical of yourself) you can call your photographer and share your concerns to make sure you get the flattering poses you want for your wedding day.

Mariah09202008

We got about 75 pictures back that were edited and "good" pictures.  I'm sure there were about a million others that didn't turn out but my photographers weeded through them for us...which was such a blessing to me.  I agree with the others, if you have concerns you should definitely talk to your photographer.

ewinkler1977

Do you mind sharing the link of the pics. 

Sometimes we are our biggest critics and it can be hard seeing ourselves in pictures.

fallbride1109

I got 104 and I loved most of them.  And out of my 875 from the wedding, there weren't  many I didn't like.  15 seems like a pretty low ratio to me.

MarieSD

I had a friend who took her e-pics just before I did, and she had the same problem. I haven't seen her pictures, so I don't know whether she was just being self-critical or not. And this was a photographer she loved, so it wasn't a bad photographer.

Based on her experience, I had prepared myself to not like a lot of them. As it happens, I actually like more than half of them. (The ones where I don't - we look good - but I don't like how my body looks. Luckily, I think I can crop them).

I don't think your experience with e-pics is unusual, and it doesn't necessarily mean you won't get good pictures on your wedding day. This was my thought about it - depending on your photographer's style and your wedding venues, after all, your wedding pictures will be capturing a lot more action/people/events and have different lighting/backgrounds - way more opportunities for great shots.

And after looking at lots of photographer's sites, I hardly ever see wedding photos I dislike because, well, weddings are generally pretty and you'll be smiling most of the day. Unlike e-pics, where I found I was mostly standing awkwardly waiting for the camera to go off, and kept forgetting to smile/pose.

llc2011

We got 121 pictures, and I loved probably 90% of them.  Of course the ones I didn't like, was more of a critical on my body type of thing, nothing to do with our photographer.

If it's the style of the photos, then I would talk about it with your photographer.  Only 15 is a pretty low number to really like.

seujoanne

I think it's a case of me being overly critical.  Some of the poses were cute but made me look pregnant.  I've gained a fair amount of weight since college and am still struggling with my "new" body.  A lot of them I looked at with an attitude of "Oh my gosh, look at my fat arms!"  I think if I would've worn something different - with sleeves and a dress without an empire waist - that I would've had a different attitude. 

It was also super hot and windy, and we both felt really awkward because we're not used to having our pictures taken...  I'm also not used to wearing dresses - I'm definitely more of a tom boy type - so I think that caused some of my issues with the pictures as well.

There were about 130 pics taken over 1 hour.  I just went back with an "objective" eye and do think the issue is with how I feel about my body right now - a lot of the pictures would be cute if I didn't have my fat arms in them! 

Thanks for the help, guys.  I the Knot!

bsn1752

Well, let's see em!    Do you mind sharing the link? Or would you rather wait?

Tiffany618

I'm the same way about my arms, and my chin.

It was my motivation to work my butt off before the wedding.  I made a lot of progress since the e-pics, but can still pick out more than plenty of imperfections.   I highly recommend showing to your Mom, friend, sister, etc.   They don't see what you see and I promise you they will love them.

seujoanne

Oh no - I showed them to FI and my family.  My mom said "well, there are a few cute ones you can use."  Yeah - I think that's part of my issue!  She didn't mean anything by it - I hope! 

I'll share them when I can put only the good ones up on FB. 

MarieSD

Oh, yeah, I can relate. I couldn't believe when I went through the pictures that I forgot to suck in my stomach - ruined some otherwise great pictures.

We happen to have another friend who takes photos as a hobby offer to take our engagement pictures for free. I still wanted the engagement session with our photographer because it came with our package. Is there someone you know that's even semi-good with a camera that'll take a few pictures of you guys? That'll give you another chance to wear an outfit you like better. And another opportunity to get more comfortable with each other in front of the camera! I couldn't believe how just adding a photographer with a camera made us suddenly all shy and awkward around each other.

ETA: Just read what you wrote about comments from other people. I got some fun comments, myself ... mostly on the pictures that actually turned out best. Quite a few people said something along the lines of "you look so good in the pictures ... you don't look like you at all in them!" And a lot of people asked me why I don't do my hair and makeup like that everyday. Gee, thanks.

Tiffany618

Aw, man.. I'm sorry!!

I'd talk to your photographer.  Maybe you could voice your concerns and get another session at a reduced rate since your already working with them!

Good Luck!

seujoanne

We actually did an "informal" E-session with my sister, who dabbles in photography.  The pic below is from that session (where I wore jeans!) and is totally not retouched or anything.  So we have a lot of good pics to use.

I did speak to my photog earlier this week about having a studio session where we don't have to worry about the weather elements and she quoted us a very cheap price to have those done.

Just gotta figure out this arm situation!  I wonder if I could find some tan arm Spanx before September.  Ha. 

KurtisKronkPhotography

As a photographer, I will say that it really varies depending on the photographer, and by the definition of 'good' photos. I'd say I typically deliver between 40-60 edited images in the form of a guestbook, plus display print(s).

Anything beyond that is usually just lots of redundant photos which aren't as good as the ones we narrow it down to. I find that people really get hung up on the number of images rather than the quality of the images. After all, what are you going to do with 200 images? It comes down to editing (and not just in the artistic sense, but in the hit-the-editing-room-floor sense). If you can tell the same story with fewer but better quality images, I think that's the better way to go.

Of course, I haven't seen your images, so I can't really tell you whether or not you should be worried, but I think the number of images means less than you would think.

Terriniski

If you're concerned about how this will translate to the wedding photos, look at the pics you did like and tell the photographer that those types of angles or shots are what you want to see more of in your wedding photos.  We told our photographer that we wanted lots of candid shots because we don't look very good when we're posed or looking straight at the camera.  We have plenty of candid shots of us that we absolutely love from the wedding.  We took the standard posed shots as well, and we got some that we like, but we didn't worry about the ones we didn't like because there were plenty of others to choose from.