Photographers, Anyone, Please HELP??

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?

http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshoplightroo...

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.

before you charge, you should have developed your skills, I use 2 lenses 135mm f4.5 and a 50mm f2.5 these are fast straight lenses not zooming lenses, most zooms are a blt slow on the f-stops. you need one flash with a flash bracket like a strobo frame to stop red eye. and possably a rapid charger for the camera. light stands are great for studio use, but are cumbersomee when you have to be continuously moving.

try taking free pictures at parties and family functions, indoor andweddingsingss and reception halls have poor light, you have to compensate by choosing a fast lense, if you don't understand a fast lense, its with a low f-stop number. if you don't know about f-stops from using a p/s camera, you will have to do some reading, as the fstop is the amount of light in relastion ship to the objective lense. the lower the fstop the more light it will let in. if you have 2 50mm lenses one has a fstop of 2.0 and one at 3.5. the faster f2.0 is a faster lense, and will cost more. though it will work better in lower lighting situations.

I sorry to say, though you rushed into your first job, without the expierence, correct hardware or technical skills needed to suceed. fully refund their money.

before taking on another job, go to a weddings, let them have a professional photographer, but take photos yourself. once you, and others are happy with your work, put togeather a photo album of your best. let the clients make the decision of you will be there only photographer.

I wish you the best.

Lighting in churches can be tricky. Most of the wedding photos I've seen weren't done during the service ( because of light) they were done after when all the lights are on again and bright. Or they are done outside the church after the ceremony. You can't really take your camera and lights and all that in to shoot the wedding..they may as well be on stage.(my opinion) I think you need to tell your Aunt the truth though, because the longer you wait, it will be even harder to do, and let's face it, she's gonna find out eventually. Good luck to you.

Is this the same aunt whose house you were playing soccer in and broke an urn and filled it back up with ashes from the BBQ grill? http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ApbtK...

Because if it is, you owe her more than an apology, you owe her a cremated body....

If you are serious (which seems very unlikely to me) then you need to tell her. It seems as though you are not the most sincere person (seeing that in your other question you were asking how to keep your cousin quiet about the mistaken ashes incident), but in this case honesty is the best way. Any other advice I would give has already been said above, just wanted to point out you may want to not have too much more contact with said aunt.

Good luck!

... The 'I thought the equipment did it all syndrome'...

It doesn't and yes, Kodak, Fuji and all the others LIED when they implied otherwise. Digital imaging is not a no brainer!

5 key pieces of advice:

1. Get a Photoshop wizard on the case - consider b/w as an option for very damaged images... you owe your aunt to try to redeem her wedding memories. Do it quickly and prepare to pay the going rate.

2. Tell your aunt the truth as soon as you can - but I'd try to deliver the best results you can. A major apology is in order, and a refund - but she too was complicit by letting you loose on the photographic event of her life.

3. It's a hard lesson to learn, but when you find yourself in a pit stop 'digging', own up as it redeems you on a moral level if not a photographic or technical one. So don't compound your screw up by lying or it'll make things worse (yup, that's possible, trust is important!).

4. Reshoot whatever you can - and employ a good pro for the job.

5. Learn about photography properly if you are serious, start here, read, then practice, practice, practice!!

http://www.image-nut.com/

BTW, even pros make mistakes sometimes - but even if you make a cock-up, always endeavour to put it right!

The person I really feel bad for is your aunt. This is a once in a lifetime (hopefully) experience for her. Give your aunt your money back. There is no two ways around this. It is the only professional thing to do. Your aunt paid you for pictures of her wedding day - more than 10 might I add. Since you could no deliver with your lack of experience, it is only professional to give back the money.

If you want to play professional photographer... At least act professional.