Wedding Etiquette Forum

Hypothetically,


{This is long and boring

)Lets say your wedding photog was a person you knew, who was slightly more than an aquantaince. This person intially offered to do it as a gift since they are a PT hobby photographer, but later said things to you in a way that you felt if you didn't pay them something, you were being rude, so the day of you give them an obviously expected 'gift' of roughly 1/3 what the going rate for a good, pro photog would charge.

Now, lets say this person also happens to be sleeping with a mutual friends husband and bragged about it to most of your wedding guests, and made things slightly uncomfortable. This person also was kind of rude at a fwe different points throughout your wedding and took two months to send you a CD of pictures when she said it would be a week, along with not returning a dress she asked to borrow for the rehearsal (where she took two- 2! pictures, that you didn't get until she sent the wedding pics.) since all she brought was slutty club wear. Lets say you also picked up and dropped off this person, an hour each way, for rehearsal and wedding, and let her stay at the hotel for free with your BMs.

You finally get your CDs in the mail Xmas eve, after you have offered to pick them up in person 3 times and she 'hasnt been home', and you had told her you were hoping to print some and frame them as xmas gifts. The cds have just over 300 pictures total- she has split them into 'raw' and 'jpeg' both of which seem to be the exact same quality. The pictures are beyond awful. Not just 'an amatuer photographer took these', but so grainy and pixelated you can actually count the pixels, so blurry you can barely tell what half are, less than 1/3 are of you and your husband- most are of a bridesmaid she seems to be overly fascinated with. The colors are all wrong- purple dresses look neon blue, peoples skin looks radio active orange, your bright navy blue shoes are a dusky purple She also included the 'oops' group pictures where a groomsman was missing, rather than the ones you took with the whole group. The 'raw' and 'jpeg' discs look exactly the same. You have pictures taken on peoples cell phones that look 100x better. She also has not returned your dress from the rehearsal.

Do you say something, since she should be embarassed to even admit she took these and you are mildly irritated you were so nice to her, or let it go since it won't make any difference?

Keep in mind I am generally a horrible, mean spiteful person and would enjoy making her feel bad.

Re: Hypothetically,

  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_hypothetically?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:a3b310cb-5459-43ca-b9d7-b8c06de74641Post:ea17250f-694b-4299-858a-ddef1f8f7b98">Hypothetically,</a>:
    [QUOTE]Do you say something, since she should be embarassed to even admit she took these and you are mildly irritated you were so nice to her, or let it go since it won't make any difference? Keep in mind I am generally a horrible, mean spiteful person and would enjoy making her feel bad.
    Posted by AlmondWhittle[/QUOTE]
    I would probably say something. You can't let someone who sucks as a photog go around thinking they really have talent. Plus, I'm just mean like that.

    Are the pics even salvageable with some photoshop work?
  • By all means, I would make her feel bad.

    Truth be told, it won't make any difference--the pictures cannot be taken again, what's done is done, and so on...But, I'd be pissed, and feel compelled to let her know it.

    If this had been a pro photog that had been hired, there would be no question as to how this situation would be handled...I think someone  "who was [is] slightly more than an aquantaince" should be handled the same.
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  • Well that just sucks overall. 

    and yes,  I  would say something.






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  • AlmondWhittleAlmondWhittle member
    Tenth Anniversary 100 Comments
    edited December 2009
    I don't know anything about photoshop, but I'm guessing not. I'll post a few.

    Part of me feels like there really is not point, but the other part is RIPPED because shes done a friends wedding, some engagement shoots, band promo pics, etc and they were GREAT- i just feel like she was lazy and put zero effort into this, and I was SUPER laid back about pictures. I didn't want ANY posed pics- we did maybe 10 minutes, and I HONESTLY would have been happy with kodak digital camera style pics- my cousin took a ton, and so did some BMs and a friend and they were great. Its just that these were BEYOND butchered/awful, I'm at a loss for words.

  • Absolutely, speak your mind.  Why?  Because like you said, it might not make a difference, but maybe it will... and at the very least, it could make you feel better as opposed to sitting around fuming about it (which I would be).

    She offered to take your pictures.  For free.  You still gave her a hefty thank you gift.  She then gave you a total of 300 pictures, total, for the rehearsal and wedding.  The pictures are craptastic and were delivered 7 weeks late.

    Yep, I'd let her have it, especially if these are your only wedding photos and you would have hired a pro if she hadn't offered her services.


  • rings


    SIL orange



    sil not orange


    The BM dresses are this color- the shoes are actually a bright royal blue.



    my ring- the only picture she took of it.


    programs


    garter toss


    bouquet toss


  • I can make this one a touch less orange

  • I'm going to say that you should tell her how you feel, but this is one of those do as I say not as I do type of things.  I had a similar issue, and I didn't say anything.  I waited a year for mediocre pics, and none of them were edited (I have no idea how to do this on my own).  At least they weren't blurry for the most part, but it aggravated the crap out of me.  It kind of still does.  I take some solace in the fact that we paid her much less than a pro would have cost, but we did pay her, even though she said it was a gift.
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  • That really sucks and is why I'm opposed to using friends favors as wedding gifts instead of actual vendors.  I would absolutely speak your mind to her, and I would even say you should ask for your money back.  If you can find someone who knows photoshop well, I think you can salvage some pictures that have poor color.
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  • I agree that I would say something and also ask for my money back.  Those pictures look horrible.
  • edited December 2009

    Hey Almond! Nice to see you around.


    That really sucks that you're so unhappy with your photographer. If it were free, that would be one thing- but because you've paid, you'd expect some sort of professionalism with the whole thing.

     

    Had you seen her work before? To be honest, I actually sort of like the bouquet/garter toss pictures there, and I can see what she was going for with the programs picture. I don't think they're hideous, although perhaps not fantastic nor what you were wanting. Do you have more to share?

     

    In any case, I think it's worth asking her if she has more pictures (eg. unedited, presuming she edited those she gave you), and letting her know that you were surprised that what she provided you wasn't to the standard of her regular work (presuming that's the case).

  • edited December 2009
    Ok, I correct my reply a little: I see where she was going with the bouquet/garter toss pictures, but now I look at the enlarged version I realised that EVERYTHING is out of focus there (I had thought by the smaller picture that the bouquet/garter was in focus while the rest out, which would have been far more visually appealing!). The more I look at them, the more I feel the suckage. Did she get many that you actually like?
  • First - I'd ask for any/all pics she has that she didn't include.  Ask for all unedited originals.  Uncompressed.  And I'd show up at her house and just wait, if she couldn't get them together asap.

    THEN I'd tell her what she sent you originally is crap, and that you have no idea how to salvage anything reminiscient of wedding photos from it, but that you feel like she owes it to you to make an effort to do so. 

    And, I'd look around for a pro photog and ask if they might be willing to try editing a few for a reasonable fee. 
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  • I think that she generally did a shiiitty job, but just wanted to say that some of my pics had the colors messed around with for artistic purposes.  But I also got the original files, so if I didn't like it, I didn't have to use it.  Think she was trying halfass to be 'artistic'?

    If you have nothing to salvage from the friendship, then say something, and I agree with squirrly that you should do it in person and see if she has anything else to give you.
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  • The orange skin is from poor white balance. I would go and buy Photoshop Elements. It's about $100 bucks and will do what you want. Work with only the RAW photos or else your grainy issue will get worse.

    Take the RAW images and do "Quick Fix". It should fix the colour issues. If not, change the white balance.

    Overall the colour issue should be easily changed. Based on what you showed me, she had the incorrect lens and flash on the camera. In order to get anything other than completely dark photos, she had to bump up her ISO to about 1800 which is why they are grainy.

    You can download a program called "Ninja" from the internet. If you process the photos through that it can reduce some of the grain.

    Or, accept the grain as a stylistic feature.

    As for the blur, even with the blur feature on the Photoshop program you wont be able to do much with that.

    All in all, for abotu 300 photos you can expect to have about 30 hours of editing labour to fix them as best as you can. This can get really pricey. The Photoshop Elements is relatively user friendly, if you are willing to put the time into it.

    Sorry for your crappy pictures. It is clear from what you showed me that she was inexperienced and unable to handle a darker venue. Her equipment was off and her ability to troubleshoot was lacking.
  • The funny thing is her other pictures from weddings, etc are AMAZING. In focus, cropped, and barely needed editing- she did a friends wedding and it came out GREAT. And sun, you're right, tiny they dont look TOO bad but when you view them full size they are incredibly out of focus. And some of the pictures, the files are NAMED "outoffocus1", "blurry3", "brideoffcolor" so she knew what she was doing. We will never get our money back, her FB updates lately are constantly about her financial issues, so as mad as I am I think I might just send an email letting her know I was unhappy and expected better. I'll feel better and maybe she'll feel a little bad, which is about the most I can ask for.

    Luckily I have a lot of other pictures, but maybe I'll play around and see what i can fix. Thanks for all the advice!
  • I'd let her know that you really thought you'd be gettng photos like what she took at other weddings and while you're happy she took photos, you can't help but be upset that the photos she took aren't what you wanted and they're all you have from your wedding.

    And I'd ask for the dress back asap as well.

    As far as her sleeping with a married man, someone should call the jerkwad out so the wife knows. 
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