Photography meltdown (long)

smw42

We're at a standoff with our photographer.

When we signed the contract we were under the impression that we would receive ALL images shot from the day on the high-res DVD, not only her top picks. The contract reads "All unedited high-res files on DVD."

After doing our e-pics she sent us a dvd of 50 from a 4 hour shoot. I requested more, and she sent a second dvd of 50 (all perfectly good images). I asked why they were left out and she said she normally only delivers her top picks. After a long phone conversation it became clear that this was going to be the case for the wedding as well. She agreed to do a larger edit, but will not release all the images to us (not even as proofs). I requested the b&w images to be deliverd color and this a problem with her as well.

She said flatly that if we are looking for a photographer to deliver all the images from the day she will refund our deposit and we can find someone else.

FI wants to find a new photographer- I'm ready to have a breakdown at the thought of meeting with more photographers 4 months out. We're happy with the work of our current photographer, but the thought of not getting all the images is very upsetting.

As a side note, my degree is in photography and I work in print production and she's well aware of this and it seems like she's a bit threatened? I don't know.

Thoughts? Ideas? I'm at a loss.

USER876

Different photographers handle this differently, but I agree it seems to be a bit misleading.  There is nothing wrong with a photographer weeding out bad shots, but these should not be more than 10-15% of the entire shoot IMO.  It sounds like she doesn't have a high % of keepers and doesn't want her bad work floating around on DVD's.  I think the question of WHY needs to be asked.

I don't view this as an issue as long as you get a complete set of pictures that covers all the important events.  It is typically for a photographer to take 2-3 pictures of the same thing in case someone blinks or the camera misfocuses.  As long as you get a picture of that particular thing, I don't think it's an issue for them to weed out the bad versions.  For a full day including prep it should be AT least 400-500 pictures minimum.  Ask her how many pictures she thinks you will get?  If she says something like 200, then something fishy is going on.

The B+W issue shouldn't be a problem, all pictures are photographed in color and converted later.  If you read my other post you will see why some photographers change certain pictures to black and white   hehe.

smw42

Thanks USER- what you mention is dead on about getting "that particular thing" There were entire backgrounds and areas that we walked around for our e-pics that were missing, which is what started this conversation in the first place with her. Thanks for your input

akmackay

That's a hard one. I know how you feel though as I can be very picky with photography too. We had an hour, maybe hour and a half e-session and got like 150 photos, not including the ones he weeded out (which I even thought there should be more- and your session was 4x as long!). I also think the way the contract reads could be read in two ways- meaning ALL photos, as in every single one, and all photos of her choosing to be on the DVD. I think it's normal that it's all chosen photos- like if they take a pic just to see how the focus is etc, you don't need those. But she seems skeptical to show you others. Did she say how many pics she took for the e-session? Seems odd you would only get 50, and as User said, I would check with her to see how many she can guarantee for day-of. At this point, would you think that you could even get another photographer you would be happy with? Would you be worried that b/c of this, she would not do as great of a job?

USER876

4 hours seems excessive for an e shoot.

Look at the file numbers and you can get a feel for how many pics she skipped out on showing you.  Maybe she had difficulty with the lighting in a certain scene and is anal about what she presents to clients.

I would still ask about how many pics to expect from the wedding.  Also ask her if her top pics doesn't include any from the parents dances or cake cutting, does that mean she won't get any pics of those events?  The answer may help you decide if it's time to move on.

mbcdefg

Our photographer said we'd get X amount of edited, high-res files on one CD. And we'd get an external hard drive with every single photo taken on our wedding day, albeit non-edited. We wound up getting around 700 edited photos on the CD, and MH said there were a couple thousand on the hard drive. We also have the right to print them wherever we want and to do what we want with them.

As far as B&W vs. color, nearly everything was in color. A few were in B&W (like, under 10), but the color shot was also included.

What does your contract specifically say?

Danes983

If you really feel that your missing "something" from your pictures, then I think you should go with someone else.  I dont care if the contract can be interpreted 85 ways. You are paying and you have to be happy.  These pictures will be around forever.  If she is offering you your deposit back so you can pick someone else what I would do is start looking and interviewing now.  Hopefully you will find someone who you want.

goaliegirl

I think you really need to find out approx how many pictures you will get from her.   We had all day coverage from our photographer and we have over 1900 photos, that we have all rights to.    I would get in writing how many you are supposed to get then go from there.

smw42

Our contract is extremely brief- and I guess that's part of the problem we're having with her. I can ask her for more information, but as polite as I'm being she's becoming very defensive.

Danes- I think you're approach is how we're going to go. I've already contacted a few photographers that I found on WPJA.com that are available, so we may interview those and take it from there. If we don't find anyone that we're comfortable with that can deliver what we're looking for, we'll stay with her. But if we do, we may just go ahead and get our deposit back.

TuffysMommie

Honestly, that would bother me. Just because a shot isn't "perfection" to the photographer doesn't mean that I personally won't like it. As stated in some of the other photography posts, I don't necessarily know the difference between "a good shot" and "a not good shot." I might find someone else based on what you said. 

uppereastgirl

I agree with those who say that you should talk to her and get clarification of what you'll get day of.  We knew ahead of time that our photographers would be taking out the day photos (eyes closed, tongues sticking out, mid-bite, upskirt shots, and apparently they had one wedding with a lot of nip slips in the past).  I was fine with that, and we still ended up with 1600 shots.  I am not madly in love with every single one of them, but I'm glad we don't have to sift through those when I'm looking at my photos.

Multiple shots of the same thing are trickier.  I've seen lots of proof sets that included multiples of the same exact shot -- just taken maybe seconds apart, but not really adding anything to the mix.  I trusted our photographer to make the call on which is the best of those, and I'm happy to not have five pictures of my sister and me standing next to each other in the exact same positions, only my smile is 1 mm wider from one to the next because I was in the process of smiling.  But if you don't trust your photographer's judgment, maybe you want to ask for all of those. 

And yes -- you should get copies of each unique shot that isn't bad.  I'd definitely ask for those.  If she won't budge on that, you don't want to work with that photographer.  You shouldn't be getting only her 500 best shots if she took 1500 pictures, and she is not the best judge of who and what is important to you.  Maybe there was a shadow on your grandfather's face when you were chatting with him under the tree so it isn't the best photo she ever took, but for all she knows that conversation with your grandpa may be one of your favorite memories of the day.

It is also possible that because the engagement shoot isn't a money maker for her, she cuts it down to the 50 best, but that she doesn't do that with the day-of.  I could definitely see her e-pic policies differing from her wedding policies.

Reilly626

Who is the photographer?  I would be annoyed!

jchristel

I think your plan is a good one.  I'd be less concerned about coming to an agreement than I would about her defensiveness and willingness to give up and give your deposit back.  I don't know if I would feel comfortable working with someone with a "my way or the highway" attitude.

GiaM1179

Oh my goodness!!!!! Was this photgrapher in NJ? that is what i am so scared of i have heard horror stories about photography studios. I have not yet started looking for myself but i did go with my girlfriend when she was looking and most places she went said they would proof a certain amount but then you would recieve the remaining pictures on a high resolution disk. To me that sounds ok but to never get the remainder of your pictures to me sounds alittle ridiculous what are you paying them for then? I am so sorry and i really hpoe it all works out for you!!!!!!