Wedding Photos Feedback

john crossley wrote in post #18436061
So you have paid this so called award winning photographer an extortionate amount of money for the privilege of editing your own wedding photographs. Priceless.

I'll remember that the next time I take my car in for a service. I'll give the local Audi dealer £500 and then service the car myself. That'll teach them.

The £400 is what the "award winner "reckoned he paid the "bloke with a Nikon". The £250 what the award winner originally wanted. When you have someone who is known to be good insisting that all they want what can you do! We offered more....

You joke about car servicing I have had a vehicle back from a service once that clearly hadn't been touched! I asked for all the filters, oil and a refund and yes I did it myself! Main dealer too, disgraceful!

deronsizemore wrote in post #18436073
To me, that shows even moreso that he was inexperienced. No way he worked on these in post for two days and got this result unless he just had no idea what he was doing. I know everyone's post processing preferences are different (and that's okay), but c'mon...

Maybe he's got the same pc as me and it takes 2 days to boot up!

thc1979 wrote in post #18433228
But would you pay someone $400 for poorly composed, out of focus images and accept that's the limit of their talents? Considering the bloke was constantly chimping the images I assumed he was checking them and they would be ok otherwise he'd have re-shot them. Some of our guests did better with their iPhones. Certainly not on par with his advertised portfolio.

I think we paid about £400 (UK), it was a mid-week wedding and he was there with us for about 3 or 4 hours. Maybe what I'm saying is that although we didn't pay top price for a top photographer I was expecting the photos to technically ok.

I'm not sure whether to ask if he's sent me the correct set of photos?!

thc1979 wrote in post #18438319
The £400 is what the "award winner "reckoned he paid the "bloke with a Nikon". The £250 what the award winner originally wanted. When you have someone who is known to be good insisting that all they want what can you do! We offered more....

You joke about car servicing I have had a vehicle back from a service once that clearly hadn't been touched! I asked for all the filters, oil and a refund and yes I did it myself! Main dealer too, disgraceful!

Well in post No.11 you clearly state that you paid the photographer £400.

john crossley wrote in post #18438375
Well in post No.11 you clearly state that you paid the photographer £400.

As the value of it as I was looking for comments based on what it cost, yes I incorrectly stated we paid this but this is apparently what was paid.

Just to get this price thing out of the way and save people picking holes in it, we know we didn't pay much but it wasn't because we weren't prepared to. If who we booked said £700 or £900 we'd have paid it, we weren't on a budget.

As an example, if you walked into a nice looking coffee shop and asked for a large cappuccino and they tried to charge you a quid for it what would you do? Pay the quid or ask if that was right? Similarly if they charged you £5 for it you'd expect it to be pretty good.

Wedding photography is no different and although I felt we'd been undercharged I queried it as we'd seen his work it and he confirmed that's what he wanted, twice.

What I'm saying is whatever is charged you'd expect a minimum standard. Maybe I'm over-expecting of it as I know about photography, but I did expect in-focus, well exposed photos with correct white balance and no motion blur or excessively crooked (except artistic but clearly we weren't paying for artistic).

To send me what was sent and then say that two days had been spent on post is quite frankly ridiculous.

Also the original photographer claimed to be LSWPP LBIPP and LMPA but I've found SWPP and MPA have not heard from him for years and and BIPP have never heard of him. Wouldn't bother me if he'd done the wedding as I'm 99% sure it would have turned out fine.

thc1979 wrote in post #18438404
As the value of it as I was looking for comments based on what it cost, yes I incorrectly stated we paid this but this is apparently what was paid.

thc1979 wrote in post #18438319
The £400 is what the "award winner "reckoned he paid the "bloke with a Nikon". The £250 what the award winner originally wanted. When you have someone who is known to be good insisting that all they want what can you do! We offered more....

You joke about car servicing I have had a vehicle back from a service once that clearly hadn't been touched! I asked for all the filters, oil and a refund and yes I did it myself! Main dealer too, disgraceful!

So you're saying that you paid the "award winning" photographer £250 and he then paid an "inferior" photographer £400 to photograph your wedding. I'm sorry but it just doesn't add up.

thc1979 wrote in post #18438413
Just to get this price thing out of the way and save people picking holes in it, we know we didn't pay much but it wasn't because we weren't prepared to. If who we booked said £700 or £900 we'd have paid it, we weren't on a budget.

As an example, if you walked into a nice looking coffee shop and asked for a large cappuccino and they tried to charge you a quid for it what would you do? Pay the quid or ask if that was right? Similarly if they charged you £5 for it you'd expect it to be pretty good.

Wedding photography is no different and although I felt we'd been undercharged I queried it as we'd seen his work it and he confirmed that's what he wanted, twice.

What I'm saying is whatever is charged you'd expect a minimum standard. Maybe I'm over-expecting of it as I know about photography, but I did expect in-focus, well exposed photos with correct white balance and no motion blur or excessively crooked (except artistic but clearly we weren't paying for artistic).

To send me what was sent and then say that two days had been spent on post is quite frankly ridiculous.

Also the original photographer claimed to be LSWPP LBIPP and LMPA but I've found SWPP and MPA have not heard from him for years and and BIPP have never heard of him. Wouldn't bother me if he'd done the wedding as I'm 99% sure it would have turned out fine.

So if the images do not meet with your expectations, why don't you ask for a refund of your £250 which you are perfectly entitled to under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

john crossley wrote in post #18438414
So you're saying that you paid the "award winning" photographer £250 and he then paid an "inferior" photographer £400 to photograph your wedding. I'm sorry but it just doesn't add up.

No it certainly doesn't. But as he vouched for his quality of work we had no reason to doubt. After all why would someone do that. At the time though we didn't know he was inferior, as we didnt know who he was, only that he'd contact us. In hindsight I'd have preferred a refund. He was going to refund us but then arranged it instead.

For now I'm happy that the "man with a Nikon" is going to give me his files, after that I may ask for a refund as it is a joke to have to edit your own files to make the best of what you've got from someone claiming to be a professional photographer.

The humourous bit is the BIPP said if we'd used one their members there would be something (not sure what) they could do.

john crossley wrote in post #18438420
So if the images do not meet with your expectations, why don't you ask for a refund of your £250 which you are perfectly entitled to under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

I will do but currently I'm more interested in saving my wedding photos. Most just need cropping, white balance or possibly converting to B&W. but since they're not technically mine I have to be careful how I deal with it.

I did offer the photographer the opportunity to edit them with me or send me raw files, he said he'd send the files.

thc1979 wrote in post #18438413
As an example, if you walked into a nice looking coffee shop and asked for a large cappuccino and they tried to charge you a quid for it what would you do? Pay the quid or ask if that was right?

I was in a pound shop (dollar store) at the weekend. Now they have gone multi price point, so some items that were a pound are a little bit more. I asked the salesman if he now got many customers showing surprise those goods weren't a pound anymore. He said there were very few, but many still kept asking if what they were buying really was so cheap.

I think it's about time that we were given links to both togs websites (via PM) so we can see for ourselves, and decide if there's any funny business going on. What i found in my years as a party DJ was this. Guy at a wedding likes D.J A, goes over and asks fee, is told £150.00, so books him for 1st July. Three months later another guy at a wedding goes over to A and asks same question for same date. A replies in one of two ways, either 'I'm booked, but as a favour/seeing you're a nice guy/it's a better venue (choose which one) I'll do it for £200.00', or just a straight lie 'No, I'm available & it's £200.00 for 6 hrs 7-1.' Second guy books DJ A. About 1 or 2 weeks before the wedding (in case one cancels) first guy gets a phone call citing illness, equipment or something else, and that a replacement DJ has been hired to fulfill the gig. Back then. 25 yrs ago, balance was paid on the night in cash. The really dodgy DJ's would even take a third or fourth booking, and the cost would be £250 or £300.00. Some wouldn't bother to tell the customer he'd booked a replacement. So DJ B turns up to an unsuspecting customer, saying 'John sent me', which as you can guess would, at such a late stage, leave no chance to book a replacement. I got used to it happening. On one occasion, DJ A had been paid in full. Luckilly, I was aware of his reputation, so didn't unload until I was paid (less than the fee, but what I usually charged anyway). This, I'm pretty sure, is what happened to you. I don't gamble, but I'd bet money on this being what happened.

thc1979 wrote in post #18438317
Online : https://www.dropbox.co​m …FR9zfFSZuuD2yOL​CoV-a?dl=0

Download: https://www.dropbox.co​m …FR9zfFSZuuD2yOL​CoV-a?dl=1

I just had the quickest look, but the things that struck me without pixel peeping at all is :

1) not very creative. No high or low shots. Most seem to be taken from the same point of view.

2) Some fast glass required, these all have an "iPhone" look if you know what I mean. Too much DOF IMO.

3) The PP has no imagination at all. They all look like they were imported with a colour profile and Auto toned.

This does not make them bad if that's what you want..... But I always see wedding imagery as a chance to be creative. I mean you have the Bride and Groom prisoner and they want to look good.

That's just what I think.

George Zip wrote in post #18438557
1) not very creative. No high or low shots. Most seem to be taken from the same point of view.

What I thought, as most iPhone photos are taken from head height.

Main things for me were:

- out of focus images. Most of the out of focus images were back-focussed

- awful white balance which could have easily been corrected during the two days post processing

- use of flash not required and not used well. Most of these will have to be turned to B&W

- colour fringing on the white dress in some photos again is a one click fix during the post processing

- motion blur

thc1979 wrote in post #18438870
What I thought, as most iPhone photos are taken from head height.

Main things for me were:

- out of focus images. Most of the out of focus images were back-focussed

- awful white balance which could have easily been corrected during the two days post processing

- use of flash not required and not used well. Most of these will have to be turned to B&W

- colour fringing on the white dress in some photos again is a one click fix during the post processing

- motion blur

Not cool.

Like I said, I just flicked looked at the thumbnails, and passed judgement on a first glance without having a good look.

Motion blur and bad focus are my pet peeves. Unless I want it of course. Mainly because I can't fix that. I actually shoot at 400 minimum all the time as insurance if someone moves, or I have had too much coffee or I just suck. I only ocasisionaly miss focus. I have disciplined myself to use the focus points rather than focus recomompose. I am really quick now. I would never deliver an image that was oof. As painful as it is... Most other things you can fix. But you can't fix those. But this is not about me, not sure why I rambled.

Sorry for your bad photos. It sounds like events conspired against you. But on the other hand, congratulations man.... I bet you will look back on this and laugh.

Good luck with everything

At least we got something. A previous poster here had all his photos lost!