Wedding Disaster

Barney12

Barney12

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My brother got married earlier this year and used a togg from the trusty yellow pages. As he was on a budget he agreed a deal where he paid £400 for the day's photography in return for the images (un-edited) on disk.

Unfortunately, it all turned out to be a bit of disaster. The pictures are all fairly terrible; poor composition, poor exposure (many are completely blown or very underexposed). The guy was using a flash and those shots that are OK (ish) have an unbelievably sharp edge to them, it looks almost as if they've been poorly cut out and pasted into the background!

I dont want to put these pictures on a public forum as they are not mine but what I would like to do is try and rescue a few as a present to them both. As you can imagine his wife is devastated.

I consider myself to be "average" at PP but portraits and wedding shots are most definitely not my area of experience.

A few questions:

1. Are there any "standards" in terms of PP for wedding album shots?
2. What will be the best way to deal with the images with the sharp edges? (I was going to look at creating some DOF with a very very slight feather to take the sharp edge away.)

I can upload a few of the pictures to a private Flickr page if anyone would be kind enough to take a look and give me some advice? Funds permitting I might even get someone to do some of the work for me.

Just as a nail in the coffin the guy shot the day as JPG's so no RAW files are available. The images are 3104x2072.

Many, many thanks in advance.

Barney
 
Hi Barney,

Are you using Lightroom? I have some nice presets which would come in handy, especially for the desaturated look that you see many wedding photo's with.

PM me your e-mail address if you want them and I'll share these little gems to help a fellow tog :)
 
-Rob- said:
If the bride and groom aren't happy with the end result then you should tell them to try and get some or all of the money back from the photographer depending on how bad they really are.
Click to expand...

They did try but were told that as they we're being supplied images on disk they were "as is". In some ways I can see the toggs point.

I've been trawling through the 434 images and there are a number which I think could be quite good with a bit of PP.

Its an interesting point really. I would imagine many of us would be unhappy showing 75% of what we shoot? We always have our "keepers" and I guess lots of us do a little PP on almost every image even if its just a little cropping and straightening? But then I'm FAR from anything like a pro!

Then of course an image nicely mounted in an album looks better anyway.

I suppose what I'm saying is that perhaps expectations of a disk full of shots straight out of the camera are a little high for a couple on their big day?

Just trying to be balanced and objective in my thoughts.

Barney
 
Just uploading some of the pics now. Will PM those in the thread with a URL.

Thanks guys!

Barney
 
Barney12 said:
I suppose what I'm saying is that perhaps expectations of a disk full of shots straight out of the camera are a little high for a couple on their big day?

Just trying to be balanced and objective in my thoughts.

Barney
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I'm a little suprised he did this for just the reasons in your post. I do a DVD only package, but they are all processed and presented properly and only the 'keepers' from the day not everything. Anyway thats a whole other discussion

Hugh
 
Barney12 said:
They did try but were told that as they we're being supplied images on disk they were "as is". In some ways I can see the toggs point.
Click to expand...

I am no pro either but I have done a wedding and provided the B&G the photos on a disk "as is" but I still shot all the photos in RAW and checked the exposures of all the images before converting to JPG and any that were unusable were deleted.

Just because the tog offered the photos straight from the camera on to a disk doesn't mean they should be any lesser quality than if he was producing an album or putting them online to be viewed.

I'd like to see the images on your flickr if you PM me the URL.
 
Hi

I'd be interested in seeing the images too, if you could pm the like please

Thanks

Lisa
 
PM me too - the more the merrier, you might even find if everyone has a go at a few of the best we can produce a nice set!
 
Barney, I've e-mailed the presets, give them a try.

If you're ultra stuck I would do some work on a selection of them for you, for free of course as it's all in good practise.

Best of luck with them :thumbs:
 
I've just had a look at the images you PM'd a link to and I've provided a comment on all of them.

The photographer has clearly shown himself up as a very budget photographer that clearly doesn't put too much thought in to his work and has made little effort to delight his customer. Some of the images show real potential as nice images but either the exposure or the composition (or both) will let it down. Had they all been shot in RAW then they could easily be recovered but in JPG you're never going to get a really nice professional looking set of images out of work like that.
 
Can i have a look at these photos too...

:wave::wave::wave:
 
I'd like a look too, please. :)

And Jaffster, any chance of those presets my way too? Have a copy of Lightroom I've never used, so would like to compare results with photos I've already processed. Cheers :thumbs:
 
Sounds like a real nightmare ...

I really don't know how these guys operate. He must know his work is sub standard unless he's a complete mental case!!! How someone could ruin such an important moment for the sake of £400 is beyond me.

Out of curiosity I wouldn't mind seeing the images but if you want to keep the access limited I understand.
 
could I suggest you either kept access to these images limited, remember these are still going to eb copyright to the main tog and by publishing them you may be inviting trouble for yourself. Why not limit it to those who are in a genuine position to help?
 
I find it really nice that members are willing to help out a fellow member in thier own time and skills, well done you lot.
And as i am useless with PS there is no point in me seeing the shots although it would be nice to see some before and after pictures( if copyright allows)
 
I have to admit I'm puzzled why he'd let you have images as they come off camera, most people would do a basic edit at the very least (and delete any duff shots) pretty much all shots need some sharpening, and many will need a tweek to fine tune even if your good in camera (if you shoot in raw it essential anyway) maybe he's not so hot on PP skills?
If your stuck I'm happy to help out as well. Wayne
 
boyfalldown said:
could I suggest you either kept access to these images limited, remember these are still going to eb copyright to the main tog and by publishing them you may be inviting trouble for yourself. Why not limit it to those who are in a genuine position to help?
Click to expand...

Hi All, firstly apologies to everyone for the delay in replying to my own thread :(

A combination of being poorly (Note: Don't catch swine flu, its really not nice! :gag:) and also trying to get permission from my brother to send these images out a little more freely (Well to be honest its more his wife who is rather upset by the whole episode). I am going to take note of boyfalldown and restrict the offers of help to the first few who responded I really don't want to cause more problems.

BUT, can I just say a HUGE thank you to everyone who replied. This really is an amazing forum of friendly, helpful people.

Whilst being off sick I've been using the images to hone my own skills and am quite pleased with my results. (I realize that by not being able to post these results this thread is rather useless!! Sorry.)

Best wishes

Barney
 
Glad your on the mend, my sons had the swine flu as well and he was really poorly (hospital job) but he's fine now I'm glad to say.
It's great when so many people offer help, I'm sure your'll get some great shots sorted out.
Wayne
 
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