Finally got our professional pics but I am gutted

Sorry to hear that daisy bell. Do you have any wedding insurance to cover something like this? I'm sure the photographer Is devastated too as.you said she tried to get the files recovered by 3 different companies and it's the first time it's happened to her.

Did any guests take any confetti shots? I know you said they were all on the picture but maybe they handed their camera to someone else to take a photo for them?

Thanks. We do have wedding insurance but it's not really about the money for me. We did get plenty of beautiful pictures so I don't feel liek we didn't get value for money, we just didn't get some of the pictures that she took and of course the ones of us and our guests in them are the hardest to digest that we'll never get them. I don't really think getting money back would make me feel better about that.

The photographer was definitely the only one who took pictures of the confetti shot. We only had 10 guests and they were all in the picture. Everyone put their cameras down for the picture and there was no one else they could've given their camera to. So yeah that one is definitely gone. But I would be a lot less upset if at least we had one other picture of everyone together. :/

I'll send the photographer an email today to ask about the ones I noticed missing just to check that she might not have them somewhere.

We do have a pic of our first kiss that a guest took that is decent quality for a guest picture but I wouldn't do a professional album and add in guest pictures as it wouldn't really "go" together.

Ouch! I feel your pain! It's really hard to know that you haven't got some memories of your day immortalised like the rest.

On the very first wedding I ever photographed I had a card failure and thought I'd lost all of the group shots - fortunately for me and the couple I was able to recover all of the images. But since then I've switched to only shoot on cameras that write images to two memory cards at once - I never want to face that again. I felt absolutely gutted until I'd got those images back.

In your position, I'd definitely take your tog up on the offer of a reshoot of the missing detail pics.

Thanks, yeah I had the thought, wish that she had used one of the cameras that can take two storage cards. But nothing we can do about it now.

I am just so upset, she does about 50 weddings a year and she says it's never happened before. Why us? Why our wedding? It's just not fair. Meh.

The group shots were actually the first pics I asked about and the ceremony to make sure they didn't get lost. It is mainly the confetti shots, the pics of my parents and me and some portraits.

Hello Daisy Bell

I read this and just wanted to reply and say how sorry I am that this has happened.

You must be feeling absolutely dreadful - yes, it could have been worse like you say, but that doesn't really help you. Take her up on any discounts or re-shoots though. I know it's not the same but is it possible to get all your guests together again and ask your photographer to get some lovely pictures of you all as a gesture of goodwill?

All the best x

Not really as most of our guests came from Germany for the wedding. All but one of our guests had to travel for our wedding so it's really unlikely.

I'm sure she can do any editing needed to make your guest pic of the first kiss fit enough to use it.

I can understand you must be so upset. In practical terms when these things happen compensation is usually worked out according to the volume of missing shots and how important they are.

Obviously, I don't know what you paid, but if 10% of key shots are missing then you might expect 10% refund. This is not an issue for your wedding insurance, it's entirely between you and the photographer. (You'd only refer to the insurance if there was a bigger issue, eg photographer went bust before delivering images or you needed to sue a photographer)

The shots of stationery would not really be considered key shots, but your kiss shot would be.

I think if you can work some package of compensation out then that will be best for all involved. If the photographer is very generous you might even get a free album. Thankfully, it's a minority of shots that are missing and you say what has been delivered is very good.

Also, I suggest you maintain a good relationship with the photographer and ask if they will edit some of the guest photos for you, in order that they can be incorporated into an album if the quality is good enough.

I am really gutted for you, honestly, I would hate to be in that photographers position ever. If you need any editing done I would be glad to help if possible.

All my cameras shoot to two cards and have done since they first came out, I'm too scared to lose a clients photos and from memory it only happened once and that was in November last year, from a top brand card that was only 2 months old ( I renew all my cards once a year) but luckily I had the photos on the other card, My heart sank when I tried to upload the faulty card and it said I needed to format it ☹️ it does happen.

If you need any help just drop me an email.

Thanks for the replies, especially from the photographers. Very helpful to get your perspective on this.

We paid £900 for a half day digital only package.

I am not sure what would be considered key shots at a wedding, but to be honest, I don't think all that many are missing. Our first kiss is the main one and maybe a group picture of everyone together.

I will ask the photographer about both those and may ask her whether she can edit my friend's picture for us and for the group shots, whether she could use two separate photos to create one, as we do have group shots with everyone in the same place so lighting should be fairly similar etc. Maybe there is something she can do to basically add people from one picture to the other. That would really make me feel a lot better.

I am not really that bothered about getting a refund - we may take her up on a discount on an album though.

I am so annoyed this happened to us of all people, I was so conscious of the possibility of "data loss" and I remember asking her about how she backs up data after weddings before the photos go to the couple. But of course, I didn't expect this.

Sorry I keep coming back to this and keep saying to myself not to reply but it infuriates me that there are photographers out there that are only in this for the money, if you are shooting 50 weddings a year then 1 you can afford a camera that shoots to two cards and 2 I would have thought you would have killed the shutter quite quickly so will have to upgrade.

I just find it hard to believe how many photographers dont care enough about their clients photos, these are once in a lifetime chance of getting stunning memories of a couples wedding and what do they do but shoot a wedding on sub standard gear, sorry as I said it really infuriates me that this is happening.

Even with modern technology things go wrong, I think every couple should ask their photographer not what their backup is but how many cameras they take to a wedding and are they the same model camera but most importantly do they have the ability to write to two cards at once, if not then walk away, its too risky to trust someone who doesn't use this technology, after all its been around for years so why not use it.

My number one priority is to deliver a stunning set of photos but most importantly to actually deliver all the photos and not lose them.

Another reason why a camera can write to 2 cards is a must, its not always the cards fault.

Just seen this posted on a facebook group, I hope she can recover the files.

"Question. I'm in tears right now. Is there any way to recover photos from a compact flash card. It was in my camera with about 2000 photos on it and the format button in the menu screen got hit on accident and it formatted the card and then said no images. Please help!!!! Fingers crossed someone knows a way to get the photos back.

This wouldn't have been a problem if she was using a camera that writes to 2 cards at once."

Sorry to hijack your post Daisy but thought anyone coming to this post will be forewarned.

Yes, these are recoverable.

I had a card "go bad" on me. Fortunately not at a wedding. It was a good brand, a brand I have used for years, and this particular card was less than 2 months old.

There is an issue with fake cards(not in the case of my one, it came from a reputable dealer). these fake cards look like high end cards and often are sold in online auctions....People can buy these thinking that they are getting a good deal....caveat emptor....

I would never use a new card without having tried it on a non professional job first.....

Peter

This is any good photographer or videographers worst nightmare. It happened to me once - the card that had captured the speeches failed on playback. I was traumatised and dreaded telling the couple. But unfortunately, I guess it is just something that will happen every now and then, with technology. Your upset/anger is totally understandable, but hopefully you have 300+ great photos to compensate the loss, and do try and be thankful that it was the second camera that went, not the main camera! Good to get it all off your chest!!

Also, if your photographer is doing an album, perhaps ask if she can include some photos captured by your guests, of the bits that were lost. And if you had a video, perhaps you could ask the videographer for some stills from the video too.

Thanks for the many replies.

I have emailed the photographer and heard from her about the missing shots and she told us she gave us all the images she had. I have a feeling that when she said we had 80-90% of the images, that wasn't quite true. Maybe we have 80-90% of the motives, but I think we probably lost 200-300 pictures as there is no way she only took 350-400 images total when she gave us 330.

She will be giving us a free album and she also suggested adding some guest pictures in, so that is what we will do. I had asked her whether she could edit the individual group shots we had (we have my family, hubby's family and friends but in separate pictures) to create one group picture of everyone, but she said that it isn't possible due to size of photographs and background.

I had asked her whether she would be able to edit guest pictures to better match her pictures, which is a question she didn't answer in her last email.

I also asked her whether she could give us the damaged storage card. I am not sure whether we could do anything with it, because she said she already asked several companies to recover them, but I would just feel better knowing that maybe we could try again, maybe even in a few years, maybe if there were some advancements in data recovery. I don't know if that is even possible or likely, it is just so upsetting to think we'll never get them.

I spent the past few days trying not to think about this, and also took a few days to reply to our photographer. I am ok when I don't think about it and just look at the pictures we have but writing with the photographer and even on here, it's so upsetting, and I'm sitting here with tears streaming down my face.

We love our photographer's work, but in hindsight I wish we'd gone with someone else, who used a dual card slot camera. Having our wedding photographed was so important to me and nothing can make up for the fact that we lost these images, some of which were so important shots.

I'm not sure about this to be honest, I do know some photographers that shoot over 5000 images at a wedding and deliver 400 to the client but most of the time this figure is normally anything between 800 and 1200 and deliver 400 images then I know quite a lot of photographers that shoot up to 600 images at a wedding and deliver 400-450 images to the client, there is just know way of knowing how many she took in the first place.

I just hope you get it sorted.

Peter I get all my memory cards from Wex so there's no way they are fake cards.

Yeah, I know there is no way of knowing the exact number but given how many of the images we did receive were very similar, I don't think she would have given us all of them if the issue with the card hadn't happened. However I do think we would have gotten around the same number total. I also know that she was constantly switching between both cameras, and I reckon she took most pictures on both cameras (obviously they would have been different due to different lenses though). There are some pictures she only took on the camera she lost all the pictures of, and those are the ones we notice missing obviously, but I reckon there must be a lot more that were maybe similar to the ones we got but from a slightly different angle or cropped differently and then of course the different lens would have made a difference too.

Yes you are right, I think I use my first camera about 80% of the time depending on whats happening.

I really feel for you DaisyBell, it's almost got me in tears reading your last post. I don't actually have any advice I just wanted to say something as I feel like I want to give you a big hug.

Hopefully the album you get will be amazing and will go someway to making up for this xxxxxx

I feel so sorry for you Daisy. I just wanted to pick up on another couple of points.

Collect the guest photos you require editing for your album and send her a link to them on dropbox. I think she should edit them and she will, but you may need to make it clear you "expect" that... if you see what I mean!

Secondly, it should be possible for the individual groups you have to be to be photoshopped into one. If you asked me to do that I would probably say the same as her, because my photoshop skills would not be good enough to do it. However, there are plenty of people who can achieve the finished product you want and this is the kind of situation where it simply needs to be done. So if that means she out-sources the work to a photoshop specialist then so be it.

Bear in mind that we photographers have professional indemnity insurance to cover this kind of mishap. Don't feel bad about asking or even re-asking for what can be done.

If you would like me to look at your group photos and say whether I think they can be turned into a "main group" just get in touch. I think Chris Giles is a Hitched supplier and he's great at photoshop.

If you want drop me an email with the photos and I will have a look for you, I have done a few Hitchers photos where they wanted someone taken out/put in to groups, its up to you.

Bruce

Let Bruce have a go at it?

Its easy to take people off or add people but to make one big group from 3 or 4 smaller group shots may just end up looking not right and really long.

Just get the separate shots all on one page or a double page spread in your album for the same effect, You will even see people better that way than if it was in one big group

Thanks Bruce, I will get in touch in a few days, will be away for work for the next few days.

Also realised tonight, we are missing our cake cutting pictures. We did the actual cake cutting later in the evening after she had left but took some mock cake cutting pictures before she left so we'd have some for the album, but of course now we don't. The guest pictures we do have (and this is actually a moment many guests took pictures of), aren't that great because the light was dimmed so not sure they'll be good enough to print in an album. Might just have to even if they're grainy.

Snap.....

I use 3 main cameras in addition to the Infrared camera. I also have other backups, although like you, use the main camera "most" of the time.

Peter

It's shocking to see how many photographers only go to a wedding with one camera ☹️ no care for their clients at all. My main camera is a 1dx, second camera is a 1d mk4 and third camera is a gh4 but that's mainly for 4k video ? I wont tell you how many backup 1d mk4 cameras I have in the car ??

Hi Daisy Bell,

Im sorry to hear about the issues you've had. I know Paula recommended me to do some editing ( thanks Paula! ) but unfortunately I'm stacked with outstanding editing and I haven't even had time to update my online galleries or blog since August.

Bruce can help though

As for the missing files. Tbh I'd be seeking a full refund or taking advantage of the photographers business insurance via litigation. I'm afraid a discount on an album is a bit poo and slightly ironic considering many of the images missing would of gone into it.

Frankly and as already said above anyone calling themselves a professional and not using a camera with dual card slots isn't taking the belt and braces approach to securing your files. Something you would think would happen considering the one time only nature of weddings.

regards,

Chris

Daisy Bell I am just about to email you the finished group photo, hope it's ok.

One thing, I think you already said it, was looking at your photos you wouldn't really think anything was missing, you have a lovely set of photos and you can easily make an album out of what you have, I know the confetti shots are missing and would be lovely to have them but these things do happen and I think you are very lucky to have what you do have.

Bruce

If Bruce says they are lovely then, take it from him as he knows what he is talking about.

Im not sure exactly what you were after with the group shot - can you post it up on here

I think I will leave that to Daisy Bell to post if she wants to ?

You will be surprised what you can do to a photo these days.

You will be surprised what you can do to a photo these days.

Created a group photo of 10 people from a photo with only 5 people in it, had to recreate a bigger background by cloning and painting then taking people from other group photos to create one photo with all the wedding party in, quite amazing what you can do if you know how ?