Give me some advise on how to address this

[Wildman]

I hired a photographer for Stacie and I's wedding. He is a professional 8 year photographer here in Austin. I interviewed him and his wife and looked at some of there work. I asked him and her how much post processing work they had done to the "example" work they showed us and they responded that other than some "minor" saturation and normal tweaks that a camera can't shoot, they were pretty much out of the camera. I think you can see what my question is.

Our agreement was that I buy his media cards and he/she shoot the wedding at an hourly rate. After the shoot he give me the cards, I pay him and we are done.

Here is my issue.

All his shots are ISO 1000 (inside and out)
All his shots are flashed to the point of shadows (black) on the walls and building behind everyone.
All his shots are WAY over exposed.
All his shots are f/5.6
ALL his shots are JPG FINE; he shot nothing in RAW

Basically, the pictures are salvageable through post processing but the amount of processing is twice that of what I was expecting from his work.

The "she" side of the business took pictures and they are fine. With her work being fine, I know I am not being hyper critical with there work. And by the way, she was the second chair and he was first so he was shooting the majority of the shots.

What do I do? How do I approach this situation with him? I really feel that what he gave me was lazy photos that were shot on a priority setting and are not professional quality photos in exposure nor in composition. They look like point and shoot snap shots.

[Wildman]

Here is a shot I just grabbed out of the many for example. I left the file public so you can look at the meta data and tell me what you think.

Am I being too critical? If so, please, please tell me so.

[Texastaxi]

I don't know nothin' about fancy pictures, but I can tell you ... you married WAY up!

[Wildman]

Yes, I did marry way up. Better than marrying way down

[Texastaxi]

Yes, I did marry way up. Better than marrying way down

Is that your poor excuse of a short joke?

[Ksig512]

I think it looks good. But I'm more a high contrast kinda of person... "I'm a graphic designer" if you want me to play around with them , let me know what you want done and I can try to help you out... "

[grassmaster]

There is no excuse for a pro to leave the ISO in one place, especially at 1000. It does look like an overcast day which I would assume helped keep the outside shots from being totally overexposed.

Personally, the photo you posted could have been taken by just about anyone with a camera. I feel it is overexposed and would like to be able to see some detail in the dress, the true color of the sleeve in the left edge of the photo, and have the gentleman in the front row have hair, not a white mass.

I would pick 20-30 of your favorite/best photos and ask him to do the post processing at no charge. He did not put the leg work in on the front end and did not give you the quaility product you paid for.

Disclaimer: I have shot hundreds of thousands of photos, but I'm no pro. Post processing is not my strong suit. Could I have taken that photo better, probably...

[tommy1005]

I would agree that the picture is washed out. I played with it for a minute in Lightroom to see if it could be salvaged. The detail in the dress is there, and the colors are there, they just need to be brought out a little. I'm sure somebody can do a better job than I did, but if you want me to adjust them for you I'd be happy to do it. I have 8 hours in a plane back from Alaska tomorrow night, so I'll have plenty of time to work on them. Heres what I've done so far with the one you posted.

[DBHIII]

Man that’s a tough situation to be in. It’s your wedding so I don’t think your being overcritical, at all. Did you sign any kind of contract? At the very least I would tell the photographer that you are not happy with his work and he has an opportunity to make things right (discount or post processing).

Generally speaking the cost of something is associated with the quality of what you are purchasing. You paid for a professional photographer expecting for your wedding to be captured in a professional manner. Taking every picture in the same setting is something a rookie would do, not a professional as he calls himself.

JMO, but when you hire a pro you’re hiring someone who is not just pushing a button. He should be using his creativity, tweaking his equipment and using an artistic eye to be able to capture all the special moments in something like a wedding.

[KDinTX]

side by side,

[KDinTX]

my g/f brother in law does free lance photography as well, he lives in austin, he may be able to help you out if needed

[Shane]

Danny, you're right. It is just a snapshot. Overexposed, not level, composition could have been better, will need some PP work, etc.... Apparently not what you thought you would be paying for, and I understand your disappointment.

As for how to handle it, I don't know. I think that the photographers need to have some feedback, at the very least. Maybe after you fix the pics, you send them a few before/after examples of HIS pictures/your fixes along with her pics and info on how long it took you to fix his. Include a comment that you were disappointed that so much time in post processing was required after they claimed that their example pictures required very little PP work. Maybe SHE took all their portfolio show pieces??

I don't know if a demand for a partial refund would be in order or not. Leave that to your judgment. But he needs to know his work was amateurish, and his wife's work wasn't. I'm sure you can find a way to say that a little more tactfully than that, but you get the idea. Give them a chance to come up with a way to make it right. If they don't make any kind of offer, I'd just move on and do the best I could with the pics you have. There's no going back to do them over anyway. I'd look for opportunities to publish reviews of their work so other people could know about it though.

[Wildman]

Shane, me figuring out how to be more tactful with my comments.......... that is harder than this dude taking a picture I can promise you that!

I am going to call him and ask if Stacie and I can come over to visit with some of our concerns and disappointments of the photos that HE took and be certain to say that her shots we are ok with. I just have to figure out how not to tell him he is an amateur and he needs to let his wife lead and he needs to assist because his work is far from a paid professional level.

My issue is also that these are all JPGs and the more I work them, the more they are losing quality. I just want to make sure I am not being a prima donna and being over critical with the photos.

[Wildman]

I have to correct the ALL f/5.6 to most of his shots are f/5.6.

[Shane]

Shane, me figuring out how to be more tactful with my comments.......... that is harder than this dude taking a picture I can promise you that!

I am going to call him and ask if Stacie and I can come over to visit with some of our concerns and disappointments of the photos that HE took and be certain to say that her shots we are ok with. I just have to figure out how not to tell him he is an amateur and he needs to let his wife lead and he needs to assist because his work is far from a paid professional level.

My issue is also that these are all JPGs and the more I work them, the more they are losing quality. I just want to make sure I am not being a prima donna and being over critical with the photos.

LOL! I hear ya. May not do you any good, but he needs some feedback for sure.

Make sure you save copies of his originals before you start any processing. Maybe some pseudo HDR processing would help too??

Here's my attempt on this one. Of course, there's not much detail in the small pic size. Maybe with the full-sized version you can get better detail in the dress without underexposing everything else. Leveled and cropped....and I ran some noise reduction on it. If you get rid of all the noise, you loose all the detail in the dress too. Dang ISO 1000.