Wedding Etiquette Forum

XP--We got our photos back last week (vent)

And we are pretty disappointed to say the least. The photos from the ceremony and everything before are pretty good. The reception is where they start to get sh*tty.

All of the photos look like they were edited by a rave loving teenager. Everything is blurry and he did some weird effects with the lights. They basically look awful. I emailed him to let him know we chose our favorites, and also to make him aware of something I thought effected our selections of photos. There was ZERO of any of our guests and family during the reception. The only photos we got were of people dancing. Anyways back to my point----part of our package was to have his assistant shooting also. She seemed nice enough and I didn't really pay attention to her. We get back to the hotel room and one of our friends was standing in the hall banging on a door. We went over to investigate (it was his room) and apparently the other friend he was sharing the room with was in there and refusing to let him in. I started banging on the door and let him know he needed to open up. After about ten minutes he came and opened the door and we walked in.

On the bed was the assistant "sarah"............I was pretty shocked and didn't really say anything because I felt super awkward. I never mentioned it to the photographer because it didn't really seem like any of my business at the time. Once I saw the lack of photos from the reception I was PISSSSSSSED. My thoughts now are that she was too busy hanging out with this guy and wasn't shooting like she was supposed to. When I emailed our photographer I let him know what happened, and how unprofessional I thought it was......does she go home with a guest from every wedding? Anyways it took him a whole week to get back to me and this was his response:
I do appreciate the concern regarding Sara.  Thank you for being honest about it.  I’ve spent a decent amount of time looking through everything and found she did cover exactly the number of images that I expect from my 2nd photographers during every segment of your event.  Most, if not all, of the later dancing photos at each wedding are taken by me because I am the tallest and can get the higher angles.  Mingling with guests and creating active social bonds is encouraged among my team.  What my photographers do outside the event is their business as long as it is legal.  This is mainly because they are no longer exercising their profession off the clock and are free to be themselves.  I’ve attended many after-parties when guests have invited me to hang out after weddings.  As I understand, Sara was accepting a similar invite and appreciated the social company of several guests, some of whom happened to be attractive men.  While Sara has apparently done nothing wrong, I completely relate to your position as I have misunderstood the behavior of others in the past.  Please do let me know if there was anyone emotionally or physically damaged in any way due to her interaction with your guests.


UGH!!!!!

Re: XP--We got our photos back last week (vent)

  • I'll also add she wasn't at an "after party" it was just her and this guy.

    I'm just waiting to get our photos on disc back so we can be done with this guy. We have had nothing but problems with him. (he came as part of our wedding package, so he was included with the overall price)

    I have to admit I wish I had done some more research on him before signing the contract, so that was our fault. Although we had seen nothing but pretty positive reviews

  • Yes, thankfully the ceremony and posed photos are all good. So that's a plus.
  • loca4pookloca4pook member
    1000 Comments 25 Love Its Name Dropper First Anniversary
    edited March 2013
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_xp-we-got-our-photos-back-last-week-vent?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:b167d250-548c-4fba-9dd2-3d2736850a62Post:f4a1c8b6-4b87-4eb5-b72a-6ac63ee5d64a">XP--We got our photos back last week (vent)</a>:
    [QUOTE]And we are pretty disappointed to say the least. The photos from the ceremony and everything before are pretty good. The reception is where they start to get sh*tty. All of the photos look like they were edited by a rave loving teenager. Everything is blurry and he did some weird effects with the lights. They basically look awful. I emailed him to let him know we chose our favorites, and also to make him aware of something I thought effected our selections of photos. There was ZERO of any of our guests and family during the reception. The only photos we got were of people dancing. Anyways back to my point----part of our package was to have his assistant shooting also. She seemed nice enough and I didn't really pay attention to her. We get back to the hotel room and one of our friends was standing in the hall banging on a door. We went over to investigate (it was his room) and apparently the other friend he was sharing the room with was in there and refusing to let him in. I started banging on the door and let him know he needed to open up. After about ten minutes he came and opened the door and we walked in. On the bed was the assistant "sarah"............I was pretty shocked and didn't really say anything because I felt super awkward. I never mentioned it to the photographer because it didn't really seem like any of my business at the time. Once I saw the lack of photos from the reception I was PISSSSSSSED. My thoughts now are that she was too busy hanging out with this guy and wasn't shooting like she was supposed to. When I emailed our photographer I let him know what happened, and how unprofessional I thought it was......does she go home with a guest from every wedding? Anyways it took him a whole week to get back to me and this was his response: I do appreciate the concern regarding Sara.  Thank you for being honest about it.  I’ve spent a decent amount of time looking through everything and found she did cover exactly the number of images that I expect from my 2 nd photographers during every segment of your event.  Most, if not all, of the later dancing photos at each wedding are taken by me because I am the tallest and can get the higher angles.  Mingling with guests and creating active social bonds is encouraged among my team.  What my photographers do outside the event is their business as long as it is legal.  This is mainly because they are no longer exercising their profession off the clock and are free to be themselves.  I’ve attended many after-parties when guests have invited me to hang out after weddings.  As I understand, Sara was accepting a similar invite and appreciated the social company of several guests, some of whom happened to be attractive men.  While Sara has apparently done nothing wrong, I completely relate to your position as I have misunderstood the behavior of others in the past.  Please do let me know if there was anyone emotionally or physically damaged in any way due to her interaction with your guests. UGH!!!!!
    Posted by coolwhipz1[/QUOTE]

    OMG, that is totally unprofessional. I would have been annoyed, too. I am sorry that happened to you and it sucks even more that the pics were bad :(

    I agree with others. I would totally write a review explaining what happened. IF nothing else, she would realize it would call her out on her "ho" behavior to others....
  • Sounds very unprofessional to me.  Photographers rely heavily on reviews and word of mouth.  Sounds like the best you can do now is post your review to vendor sites to help other brides.
  • yeah i am absolutely planning on a review, but wasn't going to post one anywhere until we had ALL of our photos and don't need anything from him again.

    im not really wanting a refund, i just wanted to vent to someone who could understand why I am annoyed.
  • AJuliaNJAJuliaNJ member
    Knottie Warrior 1000 Comments 250 Love Its Combo Breaker
    edited March 2013
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_xp-we-got-our-photos-back-last-week-vent?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:b167d250-548c-4fba-9dd2-3d2736850a62Post:f4a1c8b6-4b87-4eb5-b72a-6ac63ee5d64a">XP--We got our photos back last week (vent)</a>:
    [QUOTE]And we are pretty disappointed to say the least. The photos from the ceremony and everything before are pretty good. The reception is where they start to get sh*tty. All of the photos look like they were edited by a rave loving teenager. Everything is blurry and he did some weird effects with the lights. They basically look awful. I emailed him to let him know we chose our favorites, and also to make him aware of something I thought effected our selections of photos. There was ZERO of any of our guests and family during the reception. The only photos we got were of people dancing. Anyways back to my point----part of our package was to have his assistant shooting also. She seemed nice enough and I didn't really pay attention to her. We get back to the hotel room and one of our friends was standing in the hall banging on a door. We went over to investigate (it was his room) and apparently the other friend he was sharing the room with was in there and refusing to let him in. I started banging on the door and let him know he needed to open up. After about ten minutes he came and opened the door and we walked in. On the bed was the assistant "sarah"............I was pretty shocked and didn't really say anything because I felt super awkward. I never mentioned it to the photographer because it didn't really seem like any of my business at the time. Once I saw the lack of photos from the reception I was PISSSSSSSED. My thoughts now are that she was too busy hanging out with this guy and wasn't shooting like she was supposed to. When I emailed our photographer I let him know what happened, and how unprofessional I thought it was......does she go home with a guest from every wedding? Anyways it took him a whole week to get back to me and this was his response: I do appreciate the concern regarding Sara.  Thank you for being honest about it.  I’ve spent a decent amount of time looking through everything and found she did cover exactly the number of images that I expect from my 2 nd photographers during every segment of your event.  Most, if not all, of the later dancing photos at each wedding are taken by me because I am the tallest and can get the higher angles.  Mingling with guests and creating active social bonds is encouraged among my team.  What my photographers do outside the event is their business as long as it is legal.  This is mainly because they are no longer exercising their profession off the clock and are free to be themselves.  I’ve attended many after-parties when guests have invited me to hang out after weddings.  As I understand, Sara was accepting a similar invite and appreciated the social company of several guests, some of whom happened to be attractive men.  While Sara has apparently done nothing wrong, I completely relate to your position as I have misunderstood the behavior of others in the past.  Please do let me know if there was anyone emotionally or physically damaged in any way due to her interaction with your guests. UGH!!!!!
    Posted by coolwhipz1[/QUOTE]

    <div>I think the fact that you caught her after the wedding was besides the point. She obviously made the connection during your wedding, and the photos suffered for it. The issue isn't just that she socialized after the event. He is totally minimizing it. I find his e-mail insulting. The issue is that her socializing DURING the event resulted in missing photos.</div><div>
    </div><div>Do you have any lists that you provided ahead of time of your must-have photos? Right now, I'd be putting another e-mail/letter together providing every bit of evidence I have (how many hours I hired them for vs. how many they worked; his samples vs. the photos you actually received, any contract that states he was to do things that he didn't actually do), and making the argument that he did not keep the promises of quality he made.</div><div>
    </div><div>It sounds like there are 3 categories of photos:</div><div>1. ones that are good</div><div>2. ones that might have been good without his stupid editing</div><div>3. ones that just didn't happen</div><div>
    </div><div>I'd purchase the ones I like from category 1 and ask him to reedit category 2 to try to get a few more good ones. I'd ask for a discount equal to the value of any photo you asked him to take that wasn't included.</div><div>
    </div><div>I'd also write a terrible review with all of the details you shared here.</div>
  • I agree the fact she was in the room in sort of a non-issue, I only was mad about it once I saw the selection, or lack there of, of the final photos. We had the both of them from about 2 when we started getting ready to 1130 when we left. So that's about 9.5 hours and we were only presented with 490 photos. I did the math and that's 245 photos each for the entire time, and roughly 25 photos per hour for each.

    Now I don't have any experience in how many photos would be typical for this amount of time but it seems extremely small. Can any of you share how many photos you received?
  • We got about 600 edited photos from 6 hours of shooting, (just one photographer), so yeah, that seems low!
  • I had about 1200 photos from one photographr for 6 hours and another for about 3.  So I agree, it's very low.
  • I had about 850 for 6 or 7 hours of two photographers.  I also think that looks low.  

    His response to your concerns was not very professional.  I hope you can finish your business with him (asking if he can re-edit any of the reception photos is a great idea if you think any of them are worth giving it a try) and then write up your reviews.
  • I know you said that the photos were poorly edited. Can you get a copy of the unedited digital copies?

    I would get all those in hand as soon as possible...and then get the prints before leaving any feedback about him or taking further action. Otherwise, you might not get anything. I've heard unbelievable horror stories where the couple didn't get their photos at all because they complained.
  • coolwhipz1coolwhipz1 member
    Fourth Anniversary 100 Comments Name Dropper 5 Love Its
    edited March 2013
    you know I never thought to ask for the unedited images, but I will definitely be asking for those now. thank you for suggesting it!

    and I thought the amt of images was low, I just wasn't entirely sure on what the "norm" was. ill see if I can get ALL photos taken that night also

    thanks to everyone who has responded!
  • For my first wedding, they said to expect 1500 photos and they shot around 2000. I'd say 500 of them were "good" which I granted them judgement to narrow down to and then we picked 200 to print.

    I'm not sure if that's normal, that's just what I had. i'd look at other websites for local photographers to see what they write in theirs.

  • It sounds like she may have been helping herself to the open bar. Do you know if she was drinking during the reception? Did she appear drunk in the hotel room? Feeding vendors is fine, i wouldn't even have a problem with my vendors helping themselves to some cake, but helping themselves to the bar would piss me off to no end. That's unprofessional, they are hired by me and I won't put up with drinking on the job. if you can prove it through the photos, even check with some of your friends personal photos, you may be able to get a partial or even full refund. It may depend on your state, because alchol use on the job can be cause for breech of contract even if it isn't written in the contract. I think it's called gross neglect. I'm not lawyer but I did watch an episode of the people's court with my grandma about a similar issue with a wedding photographer.

  • Am I missing something? where does it say she was drinking? instead of focusing on what  she was doing, I would focus on the poor quality. Likely more pictures were taken, but didn't make the photographers " first cut". Sorry your pictures didn't come out how you wanted. Ditto PP about asking for unedited photos.

  • I don't think she was drinking, if she was I didn't see or know about it.

    And what I meant with the "rave obsessed teen" comment was the way he edited him them made them all look like there was swirling lights in the photos and he edited them to look that way. So it was both that the only reception photos are of people dancing. So if you weren't dancing then there wasn't any photos. All the reception photos are of the same 10-15 people who spent most of the night on the dance floor. 



     


    As you can see there is some odd editing going on here. These were only from the preview photos we got. I cant post any of the final photos b/c I dont have them yet. But these two are a pretty good example of the rest. I think they look blurry and look like total crap. In some of the other ones he somehow edited them to be completely blurry with streaks of color surronding the people.

    Thankfully all the ceremony photos look okay, so we at least have those. We had gone through prior wedding photos he had taken and never saw anything like this. When asked about the editing on this he said "sometimes the creativity of the artist and client just dont mesh well"
  • No, but if they were edited differently, the light wouldn't have been the main focus of the photos, and they would have looked a lot better.

    I hope we are able to get back the unedited images so I can see what these photos looks like without any editing. There was a couple photos in the final gallery that looked like someone was holding glow sticks around my uncle and swinging them back and forth and the table was real fuzzy, while my uncle was not the least blurry and completely in focus.

    I emailed this morning asking if we could have back all images, even those he deemed "unusable" by the end of this next week. I'll give you ladies an update as to what transpires.
  • ugh.

    well I guess they cant be re-edited then. thanks for letting me know. I guess I just assumed it was an editing issue, but I guess its more of a sh*t photographer issue.

    well at least the ceremony photos look pretty good. I just want to get my photos and be done with this already. Ill let you all know how this turns out
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_xp-we-got-our-photos-back-last-week-vent?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:b167d250-548c-4fba-9dd2-3d2736850a62Post:edc1e7e4-5a00-40a4-9b3a-2b15678e5d2c">Re: XP--We got our photos back last week (vent)</a>:
    [QUOTE]I agree the fact she was in the room in sort of a non-issue, I only was mad about it once I saw the selection, or lack there of, of the final photos. We had the both of them from about 2 when we started getting ready to 1130 when we left. So that's about 9.5 hours and we were only presented with 490 photos. I did the math and that's 245 photos each for the entire time, and roughly 25 photos per hour for each. Now I don't have any experience in how many photos would be typical for this amount of time but it seems extremely small. Can any of you share how many photos you received?
    Posted by coolwhipz1[/QUOTE]


    That is SUPER low. We had our photog from 8am to 10pm (he also had an assistant) and his final edited number for us was like 2700 pics.  That doesn't count the shots he didn't plan to keep. I know that's high, but a good photograher should be averaging at least a photo a minute IMO with 2/3 of them being "keepable".
  • And ditto what stage said... it's not editing, it's angle and movement causing the blurs/lights.
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