[bigdavephoto]

Have you ever wanted to face palm yourself when looking through another photographers work?

There is another thread on here talking about what is a good photo versus a bad photo and that is not what I am asking. Good and bad are subjective to each person and what one person thinks is good could be bad in the eyes of another. Yet, when you talk about good and bad, there is also the technical side to the matter. The rule of thirds, composition, lighting and so on. The rules are many when it comes to this.

Please, don't construe what I am about to say as if I am a better photographer. If I am a good or great photographer is still out for debate, and will be for a long time to come. I do though, have a grasp of composition and thirds, still working on lighting..

Now here is the situation. I had a cousin (2ed cousin) get marred a couple of months ago. I was unable to go due to things with my father. In the last two months my cousin has posted on Facebook teasers photos that the photographer has given them. About 3 weeks ago, the photographer gave my cousin all 884 photos that were taken at the wedding. So, because I couldn't go, I started looking through the photos. Well, I made it through around 150 photos and I wanted to face palm myself hard enough to forget what I saw and my blood pressure was going up trying to stop myself.

About 5 pictures in, there was a photo that I think was the wedding rings with the boutique. It was had to tell because everything was out of focus. The next 2 or 3 pictures was also out of focus. Moving on, I came across some photos of the bride and the bridesmaids sitting on a couch. Posed photo and it looked nice...or it would have been if the photographer had taken the photo horizontal and not vertical. There was about 8 photos of this scene and all were vertical. Yeah sure, why not have a nice photo with about 30 foot of headroom.

There is another photo that would be a great photo of the bride and groom holding each other and looking in to each others eyes. The photographer cut the back of the brides head and her back off. Well, there goes another good picture.

As I was going through the photos, I did see some that were nice photos but the majority came under the what were you thinking category. And to be honest, like I said, I did not look at all 884 photos so there could very well be some photos that are perfect and great.

What makes all this that much more funnier to me is, I went over to my aunts house, (my cousins Grandmother) And we got to talking about the photos. I am not kidding when I say this. My aunt told me that she didn't think much of the photos that she looked at too.

What about you? Have you ever had a time where you have wanted to face palm yourself?

[Digitalis]

I've been to photographic exhibitions that would have been vastly improved with a few litres of petrol and a lit match.

[macman24054]

Unfortunately yes. Being the "house" photographer for a venue, I take photos at all weddings (albeit not the entire wedding) at the venue. I catch myself having to resist telling other togs you should shoot from this angle, use bounce flash here or something else. After shooting numerous events at this venue, I do have the advantage of experience there. However I have seen the same photographers there before making the same questionable decisions on numerous occasions. I just look at the situation as job security.

[twilhelm]

When you take 500+ photos at an event such as a wedding, you never expect them to all turn out, which is why I always take the time to cull out “miss-shots”.

But yes, I see very questionable work passed off as “expert” all the time and I just shake my head, hope they don’t ask me about it, and move on.

[photoptimist]

Absolutely! (And sometimes it's my own photos.)

There are a lot of bad photos in the world but the ones that upset me the most are the ones that are so close. Just a slight shift of the frame, subject distance, focal length, subject positioning, etc. could have made the image so much better.

To me, the face palm reaction is both natural and good for learning to be a better photographer. The thought process behind "how would I have taken a better version of that one" can help cement better practices.

[bertwert]

I seem to have that feeling whenever I look through the photos that I've taken....

[ramseybuckeye]

There are some good Wedding Photographers and lot of bad ones. Many are people that get a DSLR and automatically think they are a pro, and sometimes their "friends" encourage them, I remeber the day after I got my K-30 and 18-135 lens I went to a wedding that was outdoors on a very bright day. The wedding couple had got a coupon deal for the venue complete with photographer and catering. The photographers were beginners at best, on this bright day they were running around shooting with lens hoods on backwards and from odd places. I took several photos, mostly to try out the new gear, and I did give the photos to the couple, because many were pretty good. A few months later I saw the groom's brother, he thanked me for my photos because the "pro's photos" were awful. I'm not bragging, I'm sure they got better cell phone photos than some of the pro's, it's always easier if you are not under pressure.

I went to a wedding photography seminar once to try to learn some things. The guy putting it on had a "formula" This was about the same time my daughter was planning a wedding, she had looked through many websites and knew what she didn't want - and this guy's stuff was exactly that. He was even telling the subject in group photos to tilt theiur heads toward the center, like a cell phone selfie! It was laughable. Face Plant that I wasted a Saturday on that.

And there are just a lot of people getting work that are not at the level yet, some never will be. But part of that reason is their friends encourage them by telling them they are so good, because they don;t know any better, or they just think that is what they want to hear. I have had many compliments on photos that were not very good, and these people really thought they were, and that's always worth an face palm. And you'll hear the I don't want to spend $5000 on photos, Jimmy has a "professional " camera, he'll do it for a 12 pack.

You've also got the guys like me that will put photos that are weak on Flickr, so they are always there to find things for Pentax Forums mini challenges section. Face Plant LOL.

[twilhelm]

Absolutely! (And sometimes it's my own photos.)

There are a lot of bad photos in the world but the ones that upset me the most are the ones that are so close. Just a slight shift of the frame, subject distance, focal length, subject positioning, etc. could have made the image so much better.

To me, the face palm reaction is both natural and good for learning to be a better photographer. The thought process behind "how would I have taken a better version of that one" can help cement better practices.

Some very good points here. When I find a photo of mine that I like, I take the time to ask myself how I could have made it better, there’s always something that could be done.

Then there are the ones I simply should not have taken...

[bigdavephoto]

I've been to photographic exhibitions that would have been vastly improved with a few liters of petrol and a lit match.

And here I thought I was being harsh.

[bigdavephoto]

When you take 500+ photos at an event such as a wedding, you never expect them to all turn out, which is why I always take the time to cull out “miss-shots”.

But yes, I see very questionable work passed off as “expert” all the time and I just shake my head, hope they don’t ask me about it, and move on.

That was one of the things I also questioned. Why did the photographer give the bad photos to my cousin? Did she just not know not to do that?

[bigdavephoto]

Absolutely! (And sometimes it's my own photos.)

There are a lot of bad photos in the world but the ones that upset me the most are the ones that are so close. Just a slight shift of the frame, subject distance, focal length, subject positioning, etc. could have made the image so much better.

Totally agree on both points. Especially the first one.

[Qman]

Why would someone present 884 photos of a wedding? That seems like a face-palm in itself. It's been a long time since I got married so perhaps that's standard now, but don't think anyone would be able to look at all of those photos and maintain an appreciation for the subject matter.

[bigdavephoto]

There are some good Wedding Photographers and lot of bad ones. Many are people that get a DSLR and automatically think they are a pro, and sometimes their "friends" encourage them, I remeber the day after I got my K-30 and 18-135 lens I went to a wedding that was outdoors on a very bright day. The wedding couple had got a coupon deal for the venue complete with photographer and catering. The photographers were beginners at best, on this bright day they were running around shooting with lens hoods on backwards and from odd places. I took several photos, mostly to try out the new gear, and I did give the photos to the couple, because many were pretty good. A few months later I saw the groom's brother, he thanked me for my photos because the "pro's photos" were awful. I'm not bragging, I'm sure they got better cell phone photos than some of the pro's, it's always easier if you are not under pressure.

I went to a wedding photography seminar once to try to learn some things. The guy putting it on had a "formula" This was about the same time my daughter was planning a wedding, she had looked through many websites and knew what she didn't want - and this guy's stuff was exactly that. He was even telling the subject in group photos to tilt theiur heads toward the center, like a cell phone selfie! It was laughable. Face Plant that I wasted a Saturday on that.

And there are just a lot of people getting work that are not at the level yet, some never will be. But part of that reason is their friends encourage them by telling them they are so good, because they don;t know any better, or they just think that is what they want to hear. I have had many compliments on photos that were not very good, and these people really thought they were, and that's always worth an face palm. And you'll hear the I don't want to spend $5000 on photos, Jimmy has a "professional " camera, he'll do it for a 12 pack.

You've also got the guys like me that will put photos that are weak on Flickr, so they are always there to find things for Pentax Forums mini challenges section. Face Plant LOL.

I did the same thing at my youngest sons wedding. I was shooting over the shoulder of the official photographer, I have known him for a few years and he does good work. After I gave my photos to my son and daughter in law, I stopped by there house a week or two later and her mother was there. My daughter in law's mother told me that she liked my photos better then the official photographers.

I also agree with what you have said. Uncle Jimmy has a camera and will do it for xxx. Or person B has been told that the pictures they take are good. So they go out and get a Nikon 5600 and a kit lens (or whatever) and start advertising that they are a pro but don't know a thing about getting the camera out of auto.

Just bugs the heck out of me.

[bigdavephoto]

Why would someone present 884 photos of a wedding? That seems like a face-palm in itself. It's been a long time since I got married so perhaps that's standard now, but don't think anyone would be able to look at all of those photos and maintain an appreciation for the subject matter.

800, 1000, 1500 seems to be the amount of photos I have heard some photographers take at weddings. As I said up above. Why would the photographer give the couple all of the photos including the BAD ones?

Without going through all the photos in that album, I can say that, if I had been the photographer, my cousin and her husband would not have gotten any more then 400 to 500 photos, if that much. I would have never shown the OoF photos or any that did not look good at all.

I am guessing the photographer is young and does not know not to send the bad photos to the customer.

[krre23]

oh... that little "photographer"

Maybe "Ignorance is bliss"