Terrible wedding photographers

[Jake64]

My wife and I were over at a friend's house and she was showing us her wedding photos and they were just dreadful. The photographer used a pop up flash for the entire thing, I have no doubt about that given the nature of the shadows. In the group shots, some people were out of focus. For portraits of the wedding party, there was too much depth with traffic on the nearby street in full focus. They paid $1800 for their wedding photos! They seemed to think they were good so I guess that's all that matters but I was still blown away at how someone can make money on being a photographer but not take good pictures from a creative point of view or without knowing their equipment. The photos were no better than what you could get with a point and shoot.

I am interested in wedding photographer/photo horror stories so let's hear them.

 

[apaflo]

Jake64 wrote:

I am interested in wedding photographer/photo horror stories so let's hear them.

Everybody to their own... but I don't see much value in such stories here. I'd like to see the opposite: examples of good wedding photography along with descriptions of the techniques used to produce the work. Likewise narratives about how someone learned those techniques are wonderful too.

I want to learn good photography, not how to denigrate somebody else's work.

 

[kgbruce01]

Jake64 wrote:

I am interested in wedding photographer/photo horror stories so let's hear them.

I believe a photographer who has so called 'bad' photographs is MUCH, MUCH better than the photographer that complains about them and has nothing to show... don't you?

 

[William DIllard]

Jake64 wrote:

My wife and I were over at a friend's house and she was showing us her wedding photos and they were just dreadful. The photographer used a pop up flash for the entire thing, I have no doubt about that given the nature of the shadows. In the group shots, some people were out of focus. For portraits of the wedding party, there was too much depth with traffic on the nearby street in full focus. They paid $1800 for their wedding photos! They seemed to think they were good so I guess that's all that matters but I was still blown away at how someone can make money on being a photographer but not take good pictures from a creative point of view or without knowing their equipment. The photos were no better than what you could get with a point and shoot.

I am interested in wedding photographer/photo horror stories so let's hear them.

My first wedding was pretty bad. I got by because I have a natural talent for post work which saved me. Let me say that I did notwant to do the wedding in the first place. It would take a long time to explain the reasons why but it was a situation that I had to do it for the couple. The main problem I had was inexperience with flash, not to mentioned that the lighting was terrible anyway. The place was cramped and I did not have a wide angle lens that I needed for some positions I found myself in. The experience did not destroy my confidence but actually increased it because I went over every single mistake I made with care. I did some other events later and found out that experience is a great teacher.

One thing I wish I knew going into the wedding was that the focus assist only works on the most center focal points. I was using off camera flash but I was misfocussing shots due to not having the focus assist in sync with the focus points on my camera. It was one heck of a time to learn something like that. After that I would practice shooting in almost total darkness which was a good idea. You should be able to nail the shot in near darkness without much difficulty. Also I did not know about high speed sync on the flash which makes shooting flash in the AV mode downright easy. Now I love using flash and want to use it as much as possible. It is with practice pretty predictable. The thing is with these fast lenses it is easy to not learn how to use flash. Then all of a sudden you thrust into a situation where it is a must and you are lost.

If you know how to use flash and you are sensitive to shutter speeds you should not have a problem. And two bodies or a short zoom lens is a must.

 

[Klaus dk]

I know how you feel. Really trying to do ones best always and for nothing, and then seeing someone else charging $$$ for something you would never let out of the camera is really annoying.

The trouble is, where do you take that wrath? To the happy couple? - no need to spoil their joy. To your wife? - she has heard you going on about photography for so long that she will let your words in one ear and out the other. Ah, you can take it to DPreview, but here you can expect all sorts of answers, sympathetic and not so sympathetic, plus you may get into all kinds of conflict.

My best advice is to get over it. Sadly, some things are beyond our sphere of influence. We can only do our best to those we like or love, and hope this will spread good karma.

 

[nwcycle]

I would not usually comment on this but.....until you have shot a few weddings then you have no idea what is involved, Hours and Hours, back when I shot Film, OMG, pain in the ass drunks wanting a pic of everything, you are the first one up and the last one to leave, before there was PP, and digital, I shot exactly 12 weddings, I shot only a few after digital came out, I have zero patience fpr weddings and the such, you cant bash others work until you can post some of your work and let the forum bash yours.

All due respect, its irritating when you here that someone could have done a better job than you, and you want to waste time in the forum to hear stories? I stick to Pets, Babies, and focusing on motorsports, ...And BTW, that $1800.00 comes out to about $35.00per hour not including prints....

 

[GHwell]

I do not judge other peoples work because I am seeing the end result not what was going on at the time. I know from experence that if it can go to hell at a wedding it does. I had a brand new 580 fail the first time it fired. Equipment fails, brides don't get dressed, fights at receptions, drunks knockiing over light stands, that one was $700 down the drain, and on and on . I have had people tell me I am better and people tell me I an not as good as someone else. Hell I know that. I try to always keep learning and try to have good equipment and fair pricing for my area. After that I do not care. Weddings are hard work with a lot of time spent not just on wedding day but all the client meetings post work etc.

 

[sunshine eternal mind]

What the clients need to do is to do their homework. What photographer I am hiring and the evidence of his work. I would not be be surprised if they hire the guy and didn't bother to check. Its their money and lifetime memories. Just the other day someone posted a wedding picture on FB and it had some ugly shadows. Other times I have see missed focus shots and even blurry ones.

 

[nwcycle]

One reason and many more I would NEVER do a wedding again, and I have even been asked by family members, is no one is ever happy, and god forbid you make a buck...

but drunks are my #1 reason.......

 

[Tazz93]

The fact of the matter is there are a lot of people out there making money and charging the going rate without ever getting any formal instruction let alone training. Its unfortunate but true. Alot of them are better sales people than photogs and that's all that's needed to get the business. As far as satisfaction, I'm sure you've seen people rave over poorly executed images because the subject matter was all they cared about (or worse really knew about). For them, photos are about re-living a particular moment and once the viewer gets that feeling many are satisfied.

 

[Novens2]

A couple should preview the work of the photographer they engage. On the other hand for a photographer who is obviously amateur and learning they should charge accordingly and feel ashamed if they gouge an unsuspecting couple.

 

[Paul Farace]

I have seen the same situation: someone's wedding album filled with crap photos showing total lack of professionalism or technique that they paid good money for. But if they like it, you smile ans say "I'm happy for you..." and drop it. Only recently learned to do that, and not fully in any case )

Sadly, the on-camera pop-up flash (tesitment to lack of talent and technique) is probably tomorrow's CREATIVE, trendy feature! Like blue-green-yellow skin tones (oh... how creative and cutting edge!)... don't get me started! But I am really looking forward to the day when superimposing the profiles of the couple in a brandy snifter are BACK IN CREATIVE TERRITORY!!!

 

[Kent Johnson]

You get what you pay for. $1800 is rubbish, quite frankly.

Do the math and figure out what the person could be doing in another profession that you actually value at that same price. Not much, I'd wager.

Wedding photography is ridiculously hard to do well on a consistent basis. Period. Pick another profession that you personally feel is ridiculously hard to perform and look at what they charge.


Kent

 

[apice]

I have to agree about not trying to judge others. Wedding photographers are somewhat judged as sleazy car sale men or lawyers(No offense to the auto or judical community), but during my 30 year career, I've shot my share of weddings and its gotta be the worst 8 to 10 hours of my life. I would rather have root canal for 8 to 10 hours!

To come up with some of the shots these people get, blows me away. We know what goes into shooting a wedding and its hard work.

But one thing that gets me mad is these photographers price gouging customers and submitting sub standard quality. Just because you bought a Nikon d4 or a Canon mk(sorry canon guys) whatever, doesn't qualify you as a professional and you should not charge based on the fact what you think you should get. My few weddings that I do are by referral not by solicitation and I'm pretty honest about the fact that, as good as I think I am, weddings are not my forte and I charge accordingly.

I pretty much will shoot anything under the sun and I pretty much have. Wedding are big buck$$$$ and draw the attention of a lot people who are in it for only the money. I'm lucky not to have that burden and have other avenues. I'll leave it to the people who are experienced at this.

 

[quallsphoto]

apaflo wrote:

Jake64 wrote:

I am interested in wedding photographer/photo horror stories so let's hear them.

Everybody to their own... but I don't see much value in such stories here. I'd like to see the opposite: examples of good wedding photography along with descriptions of the techniques used to produce the work. Likewise narratives about how someone learned those techniques are wonderful too.

I want to learn good photography, not how to denigrate somebody else's work.

Ditto.

Several years ago, I heard that the way law enforcement agencies train staff to detect counterfeit money is to diligently study the real thing. I try to apply that principle to wedding photography . . . By studying the "real thing" -- wedding images with great lighting, exposure, posing, or those that capture the emotions of that instant in time -- it helps me to improve my craft.

So like the previous poster, I don't see much value in wedding photo horror stories unless they are part of a larger teaching lesson. I try not to share negative comments with others unless they specifically ask me for a critique.

To put things in perspective, another DPR member made the following statement about why great wedding photography is so difficult:

". . . But shooting weddings is way hard -- you have to be good at architectural, fashion, photojournalism, traditional portraits, night/dark and day/bright, cat-herding, wedding planning, people skills, a little bit of sport, etc, etc, etc... all in an environment built on decades of built-up dreams and expectations, tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars focused on a single day, hundreds of family/friends with differing rules, priorities, and goals, a bunch of (unknown) family dynamics, with no control over the timing of the day (shooting outside in a clear day at noon is awesome, right?!)... toss in a lot of alcohol and plenty of religion for your subjects and no rest or food for yourself.... and you have to do it all with zero chances for 're dos'. . . . photographing a wedding well has got to be one of the absolutely hardest endeavours you can do undertake with a camera." ( http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3358619 )

Just my 2 cents.

Happy shooting!

quallsphotography.com

 

[miked58]

I have done many weddings but the most pressure comes from the couples who are a bit unenthusiastic..I had one groom who was 220kg or more and unable to get up from the ground unassisted and was constantly breathless. He did not want to be photographed at all. Hard to get a happy couple when one of them is incredibly self conscious. The wife was also well strapped into her gown and had a pained expression and also short of breath.

 

[Michael Fryd]

Jake64 wrote:

My wife and I were over at a friend's house and she was showing us her wedding photos and they were just dreadful. The photographer used a pop up flash for the entire thing, I have no doubt about that given the nature of the shadows. In the group shots, some people were out of focus. For portraits of the wedding party, there was too much depth with traffic on the nearby street in full focus. They paid $1800 for their wedding photos! They seemed to think they were good so I guess that's all that matters but I was still blown away at how someone can make money on being a photographer but not take good pictures from a creative point of view or without knowing their equipment. The photos were no better than what you could get with a point and shoot.

I am interested in wedding photographer/photo horror stories so let's hear them.

Of course the optimist would see this situation as demonstrating the marketing and client management skills of the wedding photographer.

Here is a wedding photographer that has a happy client, even though you think the work wasn't very good.




What happens when you deliver sub-standard work to your clients? Are they upset, or are you able to manage the situation to keep them happy?




Making money with photography is not about producing good photography, it's about running a business. Obviously your friend's photographer has some very good business skills. The fact that you are surprised by this suggests that you might be able to learn some valuable skills from their wedding photographer. (I am not suggesting anything about your photographic talents - I have not looked at your work)

 

[MPrince]

Depending on where you live, $1,800 for wedding photography is not exactly going to buy high-end results.

That's about how much I paid for my daughter's wedding photography, and I wasn't particularly pleased with the results.

But she was happy with it, so I guess that's what counts.

 

[GHwell]

$600 to $1300 is the range where I live. People spend less that $4000 on the average for every part of a wedding including. I mean everything. So If i get 1/4 of the total that is pretty good.

 

[Maijakarin]

Thanks for this information. It’s definitely helpful me in my marriage also, I will arrange a knowing person of photography and I am sure other people will know surely.