My wedding photographer... OMG :-( !

Replaces wrote in post #13593120
those are absolutely stunning with a "sub-par" equipment.

If you call the Nikon D700 'sub par equipment'...

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Tareq wrote in post #13574699
If you pay me about 400-500 pound then i will shoot with my 350D or 30D and kit lens or 50 1.8 or 10-22 or Sigma 12-24, if you pay me 1000 pound then i will use my 5D classic or 1D2n and 24-105L or 16-35L or 50 1.4, if you pay me 1500 pound then i will use 1DsIII and 1D3 with 24-70L and 70-200 f2.8 and 135L, if you willing to pay even little more then in addition to the last gear i will include my H4D-60 there, according to the price you pay i will use the gear and the level of photos, the more you pay, the better you get.

I'd pay for the 30D kit. Here's why, though--The quality of the photography is not linear to your equipment. While I have not seen your work, I'll bet that your 1D work is NOT 300% better than your 30D work. A photographer with an eye for composition can make a pinhole camera produce masterpieces. A hack like me can't reliably get a snapshot out of a 1D3 and lenses with little red lines on them.

I know a photographer who has an amazing ability to compose interesting pictures. He finds colors and patterns everywhere that captivate me. However, the IQ and focus just don't cut it. He's a super artist, but he doesn't have the techniques of using his tools as well as his eyes.

Thread applicability: He has shot weddings full of creative poses and perspectives, but the IQ looks like my low light Instamatic 110 film shots from 40 years ago.

MakisM1 wrote in post #13593608
If you call the Nikon D700 'sub par equipment'...

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Of course it is, it only has 12mp's!

cpam.pix wrote in post #13593669
I'd pay for the 30D kit. Here's why, though--The quality of the photography is not linear to your equipment. While I have not seen your work, I'll bet that your 1D work is NOT 300% better than your 30D work. A photographer with an eye for composition can make a pinhole camera produce masterpieces. A hack like me can't reliably get a snapshot out of a 1D3 and lenses with little red lines on them.

I know a photographer who has an amazing ability to compose interesting pictures. He finds colors and patterns everywhere that captivate me. However, the IQ and focus just don't cut it. He's a super artist, but he doesn't have the techniques of using his tools as well as his eyes.

Thread applicability: He has shot weddings full of creative poses and perspectives, but the IQ looks like my low light Instamatic 110 film shots from 40 years ago.

Then i will use 30D with lens cap on, hehehehe

Well, i know the equipment doesn't matter, but there are people thinking about gear as quality more than artistic way, like i want clean clear photos, when i shoot with 350D and H4D and show him/her, WOW, this H4D shots are unbeatable, ok, you pay me $300 so you will not get it, i will give my my best shots of 350D, you can print 4x8 up to 16x20 so decent.

Well, i was joking about the prices according the gear, but my point was that if i use my best gear and doing my top best artistic high quality, i will do that for low price one or two times only, then i will automatically reject any low prices without taking the contract, i did accept once or twice low price just to make people looking at my work and know what i can do, but if the prices they pay is low then i am sorry, i should look for those rich or well-budget couples who have bucks to pay well, even with low price i will work my best and don't think because i will use my cheap least gear means i will do nothing, who knows, i may get better results than high end expensive complicated gear, H4D is not great at high ISO and not focusing quickly, so even 30D will beat it in this class, but if the clarity at low ISO and the DR and color rendition of MF is something else that will make me to keep those for people who willing to pay more to get top best of the best, even with P&S i will do proper exposure and good composition.

The misses and i went back to the same place we got married last week here in Brazil (yeah, i'm still ere!! LOL )
Anyway, we went to a 15year olds birthday (Apparently its like an 18th B-day in the UK) and the pro photog with a Nikon FF was taking pics and we were collaborating quite abit even though he didn't speak English (Some people !! ) Anyway, after some heavy translation from the misses, he had been in the business for 40 years, but viewing his shots on his display he wasn't using DOF on portraits AT ALL. maybe I am missing something here?
If i remember correctly he was using something like a 18-105mm with 3.5-5.6
But you should have seen his face when i got my 50mm 1.8 mk1 out when he was viewing my display...
also, i was using extended off camera flash and he was using popup flash.
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I have a flash cable and i do find holding the flash above my head while taking pics, very useful for NO shadows on people shots. Anyone else do this or any better tips on this?

j-dogg wrote in post #13588747
Don't feel too bad. I offered to shoot my brother-in-law's wedding for 1000 US dollars. His bride, as usual cutting corners in the cost department, found a girl to do it for 300. 2 days before the wedding AFTER the contract was signed she upped her price to 500.

Sure enough, the wedding day came and went. I wasn't there, but I should have been, because her Rebel + kit lens and onboard flash took about 400 photos of NOTHING. Someone forgot to put a memory card in their camera. She has ZERO wedding pictures. I didn't care about gear, some of my best work is on my Rebel and a Tamron superzoom. But I remembered my memory card for those shots.

My brother's wedding photographer used an 18-105 and a d7000, but DIRECT FLASH. I was there with a 35mm Elan 7e and 50 1.8 and got better lighting on Neopan 1600. I wanted to grab a napkin and a rubber band and put it on his flash when he wasn't looking. Argh.

Now the crew who did my cousins wedding were awesome. 5DII and 85L, 100L macro, and their work looked fantastic. They're hired if I ever get married.

It has to be more than just forgot to put memory card in the body. She didn't bring ANY memory card with her. You would realize you didn't have a memory card when you can only record and review/chimp one photo at a time!!!!

Dr.D wrote in post #13590517
Not sure you should worry. This is my friend's site and I think he does a awesome job. When I went out shooting with him the first time I thought he was joking when he pulled out his XTI with a 18-55. I asked him what other lenses he had and he didn't have any. I held his camera for a min. while he climbed over something and noticed a ton of dust on the lens. I suggested he cleaned it and he told me he should wear glasses since he couldn't see the dust, WTF! I personally think he does some awesome work with what he has.
http://www.veniality.c​om/

Well, your friend isn't shooting weddings with his XTI and kit lens. Looks like he is more into artistic photography. Some of his shots he applied some glow into them. That tends to soften the look. Couple of them have blown out highlights. I wish his samples are bigger.

Tareq wrote in post #13574699
If you pay me about 400-500 pound then i will shoot with my 350D or 30D and kit lens or 50 1.8 or 10-22 or Sigma 12-24, if you pay me 1000 pound then i will use my 5D classic or 1D2n and 24-105L or 16-35L or 50 1.4, if you pay me 1500 pound then i will use 1DsIII and 1D3 with 24-70L and 70-200 f2.8 and 135L, if you willing to pay even little more then in addition to the last gear i will include my H4D-60 there, according to the price you pay i will use the gear and the level of photos, the more you pay, the better you get.

Seriously?

sharkwave wrote in post #13597090
Seriously?

No, not really

Sounds like you got hit by a "Fauxtographer"

RhysPhotograph.Me wrote in post #13591924
I don't know what you've been told, but size matters baby!

A few from my first wedding...

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I'm going to be quite surprised if the Op's wedding photo's don't suck tbh, although the Op is at fault tbh for not being more involved in the selection process.

Yes you can shoot a wedding with the below camera like the Op's wedding tog... and produce some nice images even, but your swimming upstream. A master tradesman picks the best tool for the job, rather than just makes do with the tool he happens to have in his hand.

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Could not tell whether is was crop or full frame until I read the EXIF data.

If you don't care about the quality of the wedding photos, none of the photogs behavior should matter. If you didn't participate in making the decision or doing any research, then you basically let everything go as if you didn't care. Shame on you for not doing more to try to get better photography - you have nobody to blame for your blasé approach and end results except yourself for being lazy.

I have absolutely 0 sympathy for anyone who does no research before choosing a vendor (suggesting indifference about quality) and then complains about quality issues related to the vendor. You had a chance to avoid problems.

Don't be passive about a decision and then claim to care about the result. It's like voting.

When I got married, I was really poor and well our photos came out of 1 35 MM roll of film, that was handed to us by the photagrapher, I had to develop them myself, I have to say I did get some half way decent prints.

Congratulations on your marriage.

I do have a little question though. I thought photography was a language you didn't need words for. So you could been involved in the process of picking a photographer by looking at their work, before deciding on who to hire. No need to know Portuguese for that. When you had found a photographer who's work you liked, the rest could have been handled by your now wife, like booking, etc.

So, my question is... were you really not interested at all in your wedding?

CyberPet wrote in post #13600616
Congratulations on your marriage.

I do have a little question though. I thought photography was a language you didn't need words for. So you could been involved in the process of picking a photographer by looking at their work, before deciding on who to hire. No need to know Portuguese for that. When you had found a photographer who's work you liked, the rest could have been handled by your now wife, like booking, etc.

So, my question is... were you really not interested at all in your wedding?

Give him a few years to truthfully answering this question. Lol. Jk

Hopefully everything turns out for the best. Good news is your going in with ver low expectations which might be a blessing.

Please keep us updated and all the best to you and the misses.