Obnoxious Bride = Terrible Pics. What to do?

Hi Everyone. I posted this in the ladies thread first, then decided to get others inputs as well.

Friday I shot a wedding. I have shot a bunch of weddings before, however this one was a disaster. Every time the bride saw me, she stuck her tongue out, grabbed her boobs, and flashed the peace sign. There are 1291 pictures for me to look through (I usually take more but there were maybe 30 guests there and not much going on), but half, if not more, have her tongue out, or her acting like a fool.

Would you be upset? Do I have a reason to be? I'm devastated because this reflects me as a photographer too.

I just can't understand why you would want all your pictures to look so....unclassy.
Also, what should I say to the bride when she looks at the photos to order?

I attached 2 links as examples. please don't judge my work solely on these photos.. haha.
Also, I only use flickr for each customer to view their albums and order their prints.

***edit:: I took down the links so I wouldn't embarrass anyone if this thread was found. If you choose to see the images please message me***
Thank you!

Did you not pull her aside at some point and ask whats up? I would have done that after a little while of getting frustrated. if you couldn't deal with her, then I would have at least pulled the groom aside and asked him if this is what he wants to be paying for.

The selfie generation. She got what she wanted. Deliver the quality of image that you promised and the content was up to the subject. It may just be her "style" and she might be happy with the results.

Blimey.....I pity the Husband !

Cant really blame anyone but herself in this instance, can she !

Sometimes we have to work in very tough conditions, and this one is especially terrible. Sometimes we just have to be content that we did our very best, the bride doesn't really like photos, and keep our logo off of the images.

My head spins. The sudden headache.

But I have to assume that the husband did know what he got, and wasn't forced under gun threat...

Well, it's 100% obviously not the photographers fault when someone behaves like that. As noted earlier, I would have suggested that you did talk with the groom quite early on during the day. If that would have helped? Totally impossible to say

I hope you charge enough as a fixed fee for that days work, that you don't require lots of print sales to make the required profit.

Heh, strip your name from the EXIF info, send her a CD of jpegs and thank heaven that it's over.

Wow, what a classy lady.

sspellman wrote in post #17045869
Sometimes we have to work in very tough conditions, and this one is especially terrible. Sometimes we just have to be content that we did our very best, the bride doesn't really like photos, and keep our logo off of the images.

Yes - this is not a good time to have photos with prominent logo on any online sites. There are too many web sites that now and then wants to set to gether a "the worst of the worst" theme articles. And these photos will qualify for a worst-of-the-worst wedding photos article.

Looks like she is wearing hightop sneakers, so obviously she has a sense of humor! I'm no pro, but I think the quality of your images is very good. My brother is one to always stick his tongue out, or grab his wife's boob. Some people will never change! Now I look back at the photos and laugh. At the time I could of slapped him, and probably did more than once!

yes! I did ask her "do you want all your wedding pictures to have your tongue in them?" and she just laughed at me.

I wouldn't have been upset if it was just a few images that she did it, but it was literally every time she saw my camera pointed at her.

All of the girls in the wedding had on chuck taylor's which was definitely cute! (IMO)

My head was definitely spinning the entire day....and the following day. I was devastated because, like you all said, my name is going to be on them...one way or another.

The groom did not want any say in the photos, he just paid for me to be there. He didn't even want to be in them. hence why he is looking away in the one photo (and there are a lot of him doing it, but I know he wasn't feeling too well either---he lost his voice right after the vows)

I am just worried that I will get blamed for them. I did manage to upload 11 good ones onto my Facebook page that she "LOVES" but I'm worried that the handful of classy ones won't over power the hundreds of terrible ones.

If you care to see the 11 I uploaded as sneak peaks, here is my Facebook page link, they are the last in this album.

https://www.facebook.c​om …41.425151084175​881&type=3

One of the key skills in wedding photography is managing the subjects. Both in terms of herding them into the right groups in the right places, and making sure they don't wander off, but also in directing them into suitable poses and setups. The first couple of times she did this would be OK to not mention it, grab the shots as "character shots", but then have a word and diplomatically point out that the shots will look better if she follows your direction. If that fails, get the groom or one of her parents to have a word with her.

It really is on the photographer to control and direct the formals. Even if they don't want formals, and have requested just reportage style shots, you need to point out that posing like that is making candid reportage shots impossible, and could she please just ignore the camera.

However, if you made all possible efforts to reign her in on the day, and she ignored you and continued regardless, then it isn't your fault. If she complains, just point out how much you tried to stop her doing those things and she carried on. If you didn't make much effort to try and stop her, then she can turn around and say, quite justfiably IMO, "those look terrible, why didn't you tell me to pose differently". If that happens, then I don't know what you can say as an excuse. It really is your job on the day to put a stop to it, so how hard you tried is key to how you deal with it, if she is unhappy.

As for reflecting on you as a photographer, see above, did you do enough to try and stop her? If you did try and stop her, then you can simply say to her that because of this issue, you would rather not be associated with the results as they do not show you in a good light, so could they leave your name out of it, when they post online etc.

Obviously, you can only do that if you had said at the time the results wouldn't be good if she didn't stop, or you would be admitting that you cocked up.

Did I mention she mooned me? Ugh. I didn't want to be one of those "bride/bridemaids ass photo--photographers"

Were you the person that the bride hired for wedding coverage? It's not really clear.

I think the bride probably knows what she's going to get; however, if this was completely unexpected after your pre-wedding consultations, you might have the bride help you do a second round of culling, using in-person proofs or a proofing site.

I did try to stop her, as did the matron of honor and best man. They both told me that I was doing the best I could and if she didn't get the images she wanted, it was her fault.

I tried very hard, and at one point even told her that we NEEDED to do photos right then, because her sister was leaving and she had absolutely none with her yet or with the rest of the maids and she responded with "what do you mean I don't have any with them yet?!" and I looked her dead in the eye and said "every time I pose you and am almost ready to take the picture, you run away or make a face at me." Thats how I ended up getting the ones I put online.

She started drinking after the ceremony, so I'm sure that didn't help matters.
But I do have back up from the MOH and Best Man that the three of us tried to get her to stay for photos.

Whether they take my side if something were to arise, would be a different story.

nathancarter wrote in post #17045930
Were you the person that the bride hired for wedding coverage? It's not really clear.

I think the bride probably knows what she's going to get; however, if this was completely unexpected after your pre-wedding consultations, you might have the bride help you do a second round of culling, using in-person proofs or a proofing site.

Yes, I was. Sorry I didn't make that clear. Both her and the groom hired me, and signed the contract. The groom paid me. So I'm sure he will be less than thrilled.

Thank you! I was planning on culling out a lot and then setting up an in person proof session.