Feeling really blue about my professional pics - advice from OMs and togs please [:(]

Aww saspip, I am so sorry you feel like that about your photos.

I would send the lady a message just asking if she has any other shots of the one with your Mum. Like you said, she might have taken more. I would also ask about the shots you are missing. Perhaps when she was culling the images she forgot to look at the 'must have' list and accidentally didn't include them in the final edit.

Did she said she was going to give you a set amount?

Oh no I am so sorry to here that you weren't happy with your photos!

Did she just send you the photos or meet after with you to go through them with you to make sure you were happy etc

Maybe ask if she will meet with you to go through all of the images she took edited and unedited to see if there are some that you are happier with, she will after all want you to be happy with her service and product so you would want to recommend her. Word of mouth is very important in wedding photography.

Have you contacted her at all yet?

Just phone your photographer, and tell her know your concerns. But before you do, Be prepared to be told that there arn't any other images, as it may be that any images that didn't meet with the standard of quality she delivers, doesn't exist any more. I can't speak for her, as I have my own work flow, which may be different. I never promse that every "must have" image will be created, weddings are very fluid events, and can move very quickly, but i make every effort to meet the expectations my couples have, and exceed that. Sometimes things happen which are not controllable, such as a guest stepping into the aisle just at the first kiss, for example, which is annoying, but once that moment is gone, it is gine forever. I don't know what you are missing, but fingers crossed she will be able to sort it out for you.

It is normal to feel a little down after a wedding, with the images usually being the last wedding reated thing to deal with, then not not loving the images could be a combination to bring you down, if that maes sense. hugs, either way, I am sad for your disappointment, everyone should have images from their day that they love.

Teri M

Thank you everyone for your replies. It's sadly kept me up most of the night thinking about what I'm going to say to her. I have contacted her briefly but only because the disc she sent us only had half the images on it (cue first panic that she hadn't taken any of the speeches / first dance) She had but it looks like there was a fault on the disc so we had to wait until quite late to get all the images uploaded online where we could look at them which is when I posted this.

We didn't meet to go through them. She didn't offer but also we live in London and she's 100 miles away in my home town so it wouldn't have been practical. The images missing seem pretty easy to get to me and were on my list, it's H, me and my grandma which is so important because she's getting on and obviously we don't know how much longer she'll be with us and then there's the obligatory everybody shot crowded round the bride and groom. I realised on honeymoon that neither of those had been taken but I kept telling myself she'd done something different. like got us both speaking to my grandma, or taken a picture of everyone on the lawn from up high when I wasn't looking but I was kidding myself because they just weren't taken.

I know I can't do anything about the group shots that are poorly spaced but it really irritates me. I assumed that a professional tog would take time to position people / tell them to turn i / move closer etc but on the day it felt quite rushed and I just thought the pics must be right but they're not. So there's two issues really, the missing shots and the quality of the ones we have received. There are some lovely photos in there but I'm just so disappointed by the majority that it's hard to focus on them at the moment ☹️

We paid for a disc with 400 images on it and we've got 412 so she hasn't done anything wrong there.

It's so odd you say this Teri because I had been expecting wedding blues but we've been back from honeymoon for 2 weeks now and I just felt buoyantly happy at being a wife which I thought was strange and I was waiting for something to spoil it. I guess this is it!

I too felt the same about our photos. I was just so upset.

Due to rain, we were moved inside quickly. This resulted in there being NO group shots. So, I have no family style posed pics at all. Only a few where I have literally grabbed a guests or family member walking past to get a pic with. All the other pics are me getting ready, in the chapel, general crowd shots & the majority of the albumn is OH & myself with the bridal party. Even those pics arent great!

I was just glad to have 1-2 shots that we can blow up for the wall, but I was terribly disapointed not to even get 1 pic with bride, groom & grandparents etc. I was given the disc with every shot she took, whereas at least your TOG might have more at home she hasnt sent.

Try to focus on the pics that ARE great, because in a year, you wont want to sit down & go through 200 or more pics that you dont like.

As all the other TOG replies, I really do feel for you.

I haven't been a member of Hitched for long but will be a member for a long time as the advice in the 'Planning' section about photography is very genuine.

I am a documentary style photographer but, I always ask and get the must have shots. It's part of the contract that I insist is agreed and signed (I'm glad that it's also listed on here in the 'choosign a photographer' guide).

Unfortunately, there are many photographers that don't deliver. It's not something that photographers talk about too easily but there are photographers who cover weddings and nothing else, there are photographers that work Mon-Fri and then try and develop their passion over the weekends. There are cheaper photographers but, due to their passion they love making their couples happy with their photographs.

It's the photographers that don't really care after they are booked that are the problem.

I do hope that you get the photos that are missing.

I can totally understand where you are coming from, i had the same sort of issues, some shots i'd wanted missing and unevenly spaced guests etc and did feel a little dissapointed with the photos. Having said that, there were some lovely ones too. I emailed our photographer about missing shots, i really wanted some of us arriving in the cars/getting out etc but unfortunately she said all those hadnt come out well so she didnt send me them, also a lot of the group shots she said had come out very dark due to the bright sun but after me asking, she did send me those which i brightened up myself on the computer so they may have some they just havent sent you as they dont think the quality is there, im sure if you ask and say you would like them even if they dont think they are good enough they will be able to help you, as i explained to her i would rather have the shots unperfect than not have them at all! Hope you manage to get something sorted out x

I feel you need to do a few things here

Firstly you need to look at the body of work as a whole and see how it compares to the photographers presentation to you. Have they delivered what you asked for, and have they delivered what you would expect, after seeing their work and website etc..

Secondly, I do know that some people just hate themselves in all photographs. You need to decide if you fall into this group.

Thirdly, look at the set of photographs and decide are they a great set of photo's "but I just don't like them because Im a bit down or because of what I did" or They are a poor set of photo's, the photographer didn't get the best out of anyone.

To be absoloutly fair, I would have a third party look at them and give you thier observations. you will then know if "post wedding blues" is driving your feelings, or that your feelings are in fact spot on and you have something valid to go back to the photographer with.

I have a photographer colleague that has been at the other end of this one, and its tricky for them too. The groom was a grumpy bugger all day, and hardly spent a moment with the bride, so it was no surprise that there were very few "happy looking bride and groom shots". However there were "happy groom drinking with his mates" shots and "happy bride dancing with her girlfriends" shots

I dont know about the missing ones, but is there any editing in Photoshop that can improve the ones that you do have? ie moving people closer together? I'd be happy to help if I can ?

Sorry to hear this Saspip. When we got our photo's back, our photographer sent us well over 900 images. this also included a couple of edited images for us to see what they could do. I have to say that i wasn't overly impressed with a good few of our shots. There are very few photo's that i'm in that i like, but that's more down to my critical view of myself.

It was actually my mum and MIL that asked about some shots that weren't in the photo's that they remembered being taken. so we contacted the photographer and they apologised and sent out a new set of discs with the missing images on them. We ended up with over 1000 images to look through and could only pick between 40 and 55 for our album. We get to keep the discs though so we can get other photo's printed as many times as we want.