Within 36 hours of shooting a wedding, the bride has been tagged in 8 albums already

[stillinamerica]

Well the title says it all. I shot a wedding on Saturday, got home at 9:30pm and it is currently less than 48 hours since the ceremony start time.

During the wedding I noticed so many cameras, people carry l-lens bags, red stripes on xsi's, pop up flashes everywhere, it was out of control.
I was the paid pro for the wedding and new that there was a potential for lots I photographers as the bride was an art major and had just graduated.

But seriously, 8 people have already tagged her in albums for her wedding day, and quite frankly most I the images are crap. Now I am not complaining about this I am actually quite pleased because my work is so different, in a better way.

I am just curious If others have experienced it.

I feel bad for the bride because I course in some pics he has orange skin, others a yellow dress etc etc and this is what people are seeing.

Her album is ready my end now and I am preseanting it to her when they return from their honeymoon. I am really pleased with my work, but feel bad for her.

I have had some brides at ceremony's have in the program, a note requesting no pics be made, when I meet with brides this is normally discussed an you find that most prefer people to be watching them rather than the bank of their camera.

I think I am going to discuss with brides putting something I to the program 'kindly requesting no sharing on social media for 7 days or so'. Thoughts?

[nicksan]

Don't try to control something that can't be controlled.
You mentioned yourself that the photos are crap and that you aren't worried.
I see TONS of cameras at weddings I shoot and I don't worry about it unless they get in my way. I'm there to capture the wedding day and deliver the product to the client. Nothing more. Nothing less.

[jenwales]

The bride is probably thrilled to see any pictures of her wedding. She doesn't care if the pictures her friends take and post aren't of professional quality.

Good luck trying to limit what people put on Facebook.

[SOK]

I sense you're not "actually quite pleased" otherwise you wouldn't be asking our opinion on banning sharing...which I think is madness by the way.

Sounds like you were commissioned to shoot and produce an album, not race the general public to post on FB. Concentrate on what you were paid for and don't stress about "crap" pics with "orange skin". If you ensured your balance was paid in full before the shoot you definitely don't have anything to worry about.

Oh...and if you DO find a way to engineer what people do and don't put on social media....be sure to let us know :P

[vipergts831]

Originally Posted by nicksan

Don't try to control something that can't be controlled.
You mentioned yourself that the photos are crap and that you aren't worried.
I see TONS of cameras at weddings I shoot and I don't worry about it unless they get in my way. I'm there to capture the wedding day and deliver the product to the client. Nothing more. Nothing less.

^ This.

[scorpio_e]

So why even try to control social media? Let her friends post whatever.

[KirkS518]

I must be missing something. You're a professional photographer, and you create professional images of events you are hired for. Amateur photography is not banned from the events you work at, are they? Why do you care about the amateur's images being posted on social media sites? They are crap, and they don't have your name on them, do they? If they were better then yours, would you prefer that?

If I was a bride that you proposed a 'No posting of wedding photos for 7 days', I'd either expect you to have my photos in 24 hours, or find a different photographer.

Wedding photos are very distinctly done by either a pro, or a guest. Everyone knows which photos were done by the pro, and which were not. I could see a florist or caterer asking for exclusivity, since people will think the crappy centerpieces done by Aunt Millie, or the potato casserole by the friend from work being confused with the pro's work, endangering their professional reputation. Photo's posted on FB by Uncle Jim are recognized as being done taken by Uncle Jim. Photo's posted on the bride's FB are recognized as from the pro, and if it wasn't taken by the pro, they'll more than likely say "This was taken by Uncle Jim".

Rather then spend time and energy worrying about this, use the time and energy to book another wedding.

[hyogen]

I don't think this is a matter of the pro photographer's ego at all.

i'm sure if you were the bride or groom or their parents...you'd rather have professional pictures of peoples' faces and expressions enjoying the wedding, rather than a picture full of iphones and big DSLRs and flashes....

i was best man at a small wedding of 30 people in mexico lately, so I couldn't add to the problem by being camera happy which I probably would have--but when I looked at the pictures I saw that about half the people were taking pics with their iphones and digicams while watching the procession.... their eyes obviously on their phone screen instead of the actual wedding taking place..

It's as silly as if people are taking group pics of themselves with their hands outstretched with their cameras facing them WHILE someone who has been asked or has volunteered is taking a group picture for everyone! They might as well just hand the guy all of their cameras and ask to take a picture with their camera--I'm reminded of that new Samsung Galaxy S3 commercial :P

Getting professional photos of people taking photos is infinitely more silly. It's a bit selfish and mindless of people to post photos before the nice, professional ones come out. Maybe a little like the groom seeing the bride in her dress before the wedding? I'm sure some brides and grooms simply won't care--but it's safer to assume that a lot of time, painstaking effort, and money went into making every part of their wedding as beautiful as possible.

That said, I'm glad your photos turned out nice. When I got married last year, luckily there weren't too many people taking pictures with their iphones--but probably because the majority of the people were made up of my parents' friends :P Kinda scary how just a month ago both of my parents switched to nicer smartphones than mine after having a basic flip phone for 15 years...haha

[neimad19]

This has happened to me before so don't panic, I have a system that works 100% of the time - 60% of the time.

So what you need to do is, track down the names of the 8 people who tagged the bride. Once you have their full names you can find out where they live (you may have to be-friend a police officer for this) make a list of the addresses starting with the ones closest to where you live.

This is the tricky part.

You will need to break into each house one by one. Hopefully they left their computers on and logged into Facebook. If they aren't logged onto facebook you will have to abort mission, extensivly learn programming languages and exploit firewalls holes in these peoples computers to gain their Facebook login's and passwords. Once you have breached their computers, one by one un-tag said bride and try to leave no trace of your self.

You may have to do this multiple times during the 7 days to keep the bride untagged.

Good luck

[SOK]

^ I laughed!

[CTP]

Its never going to go away, just learn to deal with it.

[auroraskye]

I have had couples ask that people don't take photos during the ceremony in particular, and let me do my job, which is nice, but not everybody is that educated. You can't prevent her from being tagged - all you can do is try and be speedy with your sneak peek so everyone can be wow'd by your photos

[FlyingPhotog]

Could be worse...

I know a photographer who shot a wedding and within 48 hours, the couple split up!

[memoriesoftomorrow]

I have 10 sneak peek images up on FB within 2 hours of getting home after finishing the wedding and a further 10 images up a day or so later... Having the couple tagged in other people's albums is a massive bonus as it sets my pictures apart even more from the snap shots taken by the guests.

[Mark1]

Originally Posted by SOK

I sense you're not "actually quite pleased" otherwise you wouldn't be asking our opinion on banning sharing...which I think is madness by the way.

Im thinking the same thing. Sounds like your work is actually on the same level with all the Uncle Eds. If it is so much better, I would WANT all the bad stuff up for people to see. This way when they see your work, it really stands out and wows people. I would only be worried about others snapshots if your work is not any better.