First unhappy client

I have the wedding photo woes. The bride had asked me before hand if "I could make her look skinnier" in her wedding photos. I informed her I could not do close ups, take from higher angle etc but ultimately there's not much I can do. We left it at that.

When I sent her the online gallery, she said that she doesn't like the way she looks in most of the photos, needed more direction and was actually crying when looking at her photos. (then proceeded to choose way too many for her photobook of the ones she "liked"). From there, it got a bit messy, complaining about the time it would take her to get the albums (I told her 8 weeks after wedding day), complaining about having to reduce the number of photos in the photobook etc

What do you think? What could I have done better? How do you pose brides who may be carrying a few pounds

I have attached a few that depicts the day.

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I've had something like this happen ONCE in 80 weddings. Through that experience I've learned that there absolutely are people that you can't please. You can't please them because they're just not happy with how they look--in general.

It's possible you could have directed better, provoked / waited for better expressions (though I haven't seen enough shots to judge or know what you were working with). But nothing you do is going to depict her in the way she wants to see herself. No pose that actually shows her figure is going to depict a slender woman.

I have learnt to use s curves and posing to make a slightly curvier women look slender, but for this particular bride I was stumped. I had the feeling she could have had the best wedding photographer in Australia and still been unhappy with the photos

If you look at picture 4, it does look a little weird around her hips. I can't say if it's the dress which is cut that way.

It's a shame she is sad because it's some very pretty images.

The bride is a really big girl and she picked the wrong wedding gown, one that emphasises her roundness. Both not your fault. Your pictures are fine.

She looks pretty in the photos, despite being so overweight. Telling her so (the first part, anyway) might make her feel better.

About posing: her upper arms would look thinner if not resting against her sides. Other than that, I don't think you could have done anything more.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #17208118
The bride is a really big girl and she picked the wrong wedding gown, one that emphasises her roundness. Both not your fault. Your pictures are fine.

This ^^^

I wouldn't have made any promise of making the bride look skinnier beforehand either. You can only capture what is in front of you.

What could you have done better? Manage expectations better both about what would be delivered and when it would be delivered.

All the above, If she is un happy about how she looks you'll never change that without making photoshop do the work in retouching. Out side of posing and dressing there is nothing you could have done other that doing what you said you would. No one can ever, rightly, complain if you stick to that.
5 mins retouch

Very nice pictures of a beautiful bride. It is a shame that she has self-esteem issues, but that is beyond your control...unless you are also a psychiatrist as well as a photographer.

Don't feel bad, these are beautiful. I feel bad for the bride that she was not directed on the gown, because like another poster said - the gown is not the most flattering - she is stunning, you captured that.

You also say that she ordered a bunch of extra photos, she can't be THAT unhappy!
Diane

Check out these 2 Youtube videos by Jerry Ghionis. IMO, he is a superb and creative photographer. At 1 :38:37, in the, "Posing Everyone," video he addresses shooting "plus size" brides.

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=kmi9TPQ57Mo
https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=H2nNxaBA6ss

She's fat, fact, tell her and move on.

Not a whole lot you can do about that. Like others have mentioned, it baffles me when larger brides chose strapless dresses.

In the ceremony photo, she looks absolutely elated.. which tells me everything about her day went perfect. Wrong.

While the complaint sucks, your photos from a technical aspect are spot on. Maybe you could have done a little more during your portrait time to get her out of her funk, but sometimes its a lost cause.

My biggest tool in working with bigger brides is using the groom as a shield. By putting her behind him, you can hide a lot. Look for chairs, walls, or anything that you can use. Shooting down only goes so far... and really only solves the double chin problem.

I also agree the photos are quite lovely... but I just wanted to add, wtf did she make the bridesmaid wear?

I'd shoot her slightly differently, at least for a portrait.

Larger women have double chins and usually larger breasts. If you shoot from above, frame the breasts at the bottom, include the hair and the face. Crop out the fat arm, maybe add a bouquet in there. It comes out as a portrait where none of the fat negative things are visible.

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=GCF4TjmOKSA

And of course portraits 101: Shortlight that face. It makes it appear skinnier.