Okay, am I screwed or what? My Aunt just got married. She had hired a wedding photographer, but I begged and pleaded with her to let me do it. I even charged her less than half of what she was going to pay the original photographer. I got my first DSLR in March. Before that I only used P&S. To say the least I may have been in over my head and may have been a bit misleading with my experience with wedding photography. After reviewing the photos (almost 1200), I don't know if there are 10 keepers. The lighting in the church totally tricked my camera. Also, I wasn't familiar with most of the gear that I borrowed for the shoot, flashes, light stands, lenses, etc... Nearly every shot is underexposed, hundreds look almost black, and all of them are extremely blurry. It looks like there was a plastic bag over my lens. I am pretty good with Photoshop, but I don't think that anyone could even remotely fix these. I haven't had the guts to tell her what happened. I just keep telling they are great and I just need a bit longer to touch up the photos. There was no backup photographer. No kidding, there may 4 pictures that are even worth looking at. What in the hell do I do???
Anonymous2008-08-31T18:45:51Z
Favorite Answer
HI LH,
I am really sorry to have to say this... BUT WHAT WERE YOU THINKING???? This was one of the biggest days of her life and it was vitally important to her as well as other members of her family and his family to have memories of this day. You should have never gotten involved knowing that you had little to no experience with weddings, with lighting, with the gear, even with your own 5 month old camera.
Now you are so scared to death that you are afraid to tell her about this fiasco. Yes, she is going to be upset... wouldn't you be? She had a professional lined up and would have had some nice pictures to show for her expense of her ONE wedding day. :(
It is your responsibility to have a professional who IS experienced with the professional version of Photoshop CS3 to go over the photos and see if he can save any of them and that is not going to be cheap... but that is not your aunt's problem. If you have to get two jobs or borrow money.... it is your responsibility to do what you can to get some of those pictures to come out... if that is even remotely possible.
You did screw up.... with no good reason to have done so. If you are not a professional and KNOW you are not a professional... you should have let the professionals do their jobs. One thing you are lucky about.... this was your aunt. If it had been an individual you were not related to... you would probably be looking at a fat law suit.
You must tell her of your stupidity and then BEG and PLEAD for her forgiveness.... as there is no Understanding about the matter. Perhaps she is the sweetest lady on earth and really did not care if there were any pictures of her wedding day anyway... that is still a possibilty.
I can't really add anything else that has not already been said. Sorry this happened to you.
What I wish is that everyone who is thinking of doing the same thing could see and read this. Now you see why any knowledgeable photographer here ALWAYS BEGS for people to NOT do weddings when they have no experience. On any given day there are people on here saying how they are about to do their first wedding, yet they have no clue how to use their equipment, if they even have decent equipment.
Yes, professional photography is NOT just owning a fancy camera... sorry you have found this out the hard way.
I am assuming there was no manner or style of contract signed between you and your Aunt... so at least she has no grounds to sue you.... you probably will just have some very ill feelings for a long time... but hopefully she will get over it and maybe there are some decent photos from others that were there.
steve
EDIT... to Pooky... yea, a couple hours after I put up my answer that thought occured to me.... WHY on Earth would someone not take some looks at the monitor to see what they were getting during the shoot. I am NOT a "chimper" who has to look at EVERY shot immediately after it is taken, I think that is stupid and wastes battery power and time... but... sheesh.... to take "over 1200" shots and not look once at what you have?
Another thing just occured to me. Obviously, if taking that many shots, (which is totally ridiculous anyway), he was probably letting the camera fire off in continuous mode much of the time, and the flash did not have time to recharge....
Oh me.... digital amateurs. We all need to save this entire thread and post the link anytime the newbies pop up asking "what settings do I need to put in my new DSLR for my first wedding" questions.
You should have left it to the Professional photographer, he/she would not have gone wrong. They would have had years of experience, and knew everything about exposure. I want to know, after taking so many shots, why didn't you look at them through the Digital LCD screen? You should have been able to see your mistakes. I know a lot about manual exposure, you obviously don't ( to be perfectly honest ) i can part way estimate the exposure of a scene, and 8/10 of the times, i get it right, if i don't, i see it, and reshoot. Why didn't you use the automated mode? I don't see how you got so many over exposures.
If you have Adobe lightroom, you might be able to salvage some of your shots, however, the black ones where you can't see a thing are doomed, do you think they'll be mad?
This should be a big help to you. Why did you offer to shoot this if you didn't know about shooting weddings. Or exposure in general? you should have at least studied up before this. I'm sure people have pulled it off. Anyway, i hope it all turns out for you, and that she doesn't kill you :). Hopefully she'll understand. When it comes to the blurriness, all you can do is sharpen them, but they still won't be acceptable. This is why they have the LCD screen, next time, you should consider reviewing your shots, and your experience. It's okay though, don't beat yourself up to much about it.
A: Get the images as good as you possibly can: Use "levels" adjustment layer to get rid of any "flat" areas. It is likely the the histogram on your images show that the data images are largely to one side (the left) meaning too dark.. The levels can quickly help this and you can try "auto" levels if you want. You will most likely then need to reduce the noise in the images. Photoshop can do that too.
B: No one can get too mad at a person that is already so upset with himself (I know from experience) ... so after you have the images as god as possible, tell your Aunt that you feel absolutely horrible and that you have done your best and will never make the same mistake again. The worse you feel, the more compassionate she is likely to be.
2 more things: If you're not using the "manual" setting on the camera than your "camera" can get tricked. Learn from this and practice using manual in a simlar shooting situation. IF YOU LEARN from this, it will be a great story to tell when you receive an award for photography some day!!!!
ALSO: Next time, use RAW mode. It allows a bit more room for error.
Been there done that, well I had 2 simultaneous Bat Mitzvahs to video and photograph. I hired a new girl to take pictures. She screwed up big time, running the camera at 1200 but using a slow flash. About 3 pictures came out. Luckily the other guy with her had video so I was able to salvage some pics from there. But I was lucky not to have been sued as the jewish guy was an attorney and it was his daughters Bat Mitzvah.
So my advice to you would be to admit your mistake. We all make mistakes, hopefully the crowd had taken video and photos so there will be a record.
Plus give her back the money and pay for any reprints that the guests may have.
Or you could tell her that the disc got ruined at home or your camera was stolen. I feel bad for you.