[Eigengrau]

I've been shooting weddings professionally with my wife for about 2 years now. Almost every single couple has come back raving about how much they love their pictures.

However, we've just run into the first people that aren't happy with our work. We got a scathing email from a bride who is generally unhappy that we shot everything with a photojournalistic emphasis (we do largely candids and modern, untraditional posing). What's more, in her email she makes totally baseless claims about the photography - she says that we didn't get shots of the father-daughter dance, or that there are no cake cutting pictures - these things are patently untrue, as there are 10+ pictures of each.

The central sticking point is that she wants a very formal shot and none of the creative, unconventionally framed stuff, so I offered that we could go back and re-shoot some of those on location, and have yet to hear anything back.

At any rate, have any of you folks encountered this type of issue? I'm trying to remain professional and courteous, but in some ways I feel like this person will never be happy.

Also, how do you avoid signing customers like this? This was one of the first individuals that contacted us randomly over the internet - most of our clientele comes through word-of-mouth and seems to be a safer bet. We always explain during the consultation that we are inclined towards a photojournalistic style, and that we really love to shoot candids and try to capture the feel of the day, more than we do lots of posed formals. Any ideas about how to emphasize that more and weed out people that aren't going to be happy with what you do?

Here are some sample shots of these images, which apparently cause the bride to cry (in a bad way) every time she looks at them:



Anyways, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[aleonx3]

Not being critical on your work - the trouble is that the bride usually sees that moment of her life when she absolutely looks beautiful. And you need to capture that. Have you shown the bride-and-groom your work to set their expectation before they agreed to sign up for your service?

Yeah, she certainly looks like she requires high maintenance!!

That was a joke, by the way.


Ah, this is coming from a non professional photographer, but in my line of work people get very very very very very very very very angry when things don't go as planned, so this may or may not be helpful to you.

For me I would just take it as they come. You explained to them how it was going to be, and they were satisfied with that, and therefore they signed a contract, and in essence, an informed consent. You did your job in the best way possible, and provided everything you said you would, both verbally and contractually. If you think that this particular job was done like all other jobs that you have done, then I think you need to move on, and let them deal with their anguish. It could well be that her anguish goes way beyond looking at what she thinks bad pictures. Who knows, they may take legal actions, but I think that kind of things go with the territory, so to speak. If you truly think that your work is satisfactory to you, then you need to stand on them, like a professional photographer (I am not saying that you are not, OK?).

As for your pictures, they are too small for me to comment. Besides, I am no expert anyhow.

My guess is that shooting photo for a living is a tough way of life (probably even for someone like Benjikian!!). Unless you are flooded with requests to shoot numerous weddings, I am not sure if you should be cherry picking them. I am sure that there are much to be learned, if not more to be learned from things that went wrong than otherwise. Learning how to deal with difficult clients will undoubtedly be beneficial to your practice in the end.

Also, and if you are professional, you will not let this affect your performance on the next project. I think that is what this is all about.

So I recommended to look at it that way.

Sorry for preaching here

[Eigengrau]

Absolutely. We have several albums that we take with us to every consultation, and I think all the pictures in them are very similar to this style - thus our confusion when the bride wasn't happy with it.

Good point though about the bride - I tend towards capturing emotion more than just making things look pretty, but that might not be what some people are looking for.

[Eigengrau]

Sorry for that small size - still working out the quirks of the forum album system. Here are some larger shots:







Also, I agree with what you're saying - I feel confident that we produced solid images for this wedding. I looked over the photos last night and there are a ton there that I'm proud of. If I agreed that we dropped the ball on this wedding, things would be very different.

Thank you for enlarging them.

Again, I am no experts, but they look very nice to me.

Do you give them prints? Printing is an entirely another matter that really cannot be resolved on the internet discussion, so to speak. BUt I doubt she is bitching about print quality.

Could it be a self-esteem issue? Not yours of course. Before I get into trouble here . . . .

[D4rknezz]

Hm....

a long time ago I paid a lot of money to have a photographer took a picture of me and my gf in a fashion / glamour style shot. He was half focused, helping other customers, etc, while taking our picture.

After being late several weeks to deliver, he came back to me with pictures that is posed the way a typical the Bay or the Sears shots would have been...except 15 times more expensive .

I was unhappy, and i quietly went to his studio, whipped out my portable MP3 player, and showed him a picture i took with a cellphone camera and manipulated in photoshop. . I said, i was disappointed at his failure to show off his skill.

He looked at his work, looked at mine, and admitted that he could have done better, and made good out of it: he booked a sunday, got us a stylist, redid everything for free, and got us shots that i wish i had printed at 3x3feet.

Today, i could probably do the same shots, but boy, i was happy back then. Great guy.

Anyway, I think those are pretty good candid picture, but from my story just now, who knows what the bride had in mind? Maybe you should have her provide you with some samples of her friends wedding pictures (note: real people, not internet wedding models)

But i agree, move on, dont let it damp your spirit for your next shot.

[HypnoCin67]

Sorry for that small size - still working out the quirks of the forum album system. Here are some larger shots:







Also, I agree with what you're saying - I feel confident that we produced solid images for this wedding. I looked over the photos last night and there are a ton there that I'm proud of. If I agreed that we dropped the ball on this wedding, things would be very different.

For the most part, I'd say these are nice images--the only thing I might have done differently would be to have re-touched her face a bit at least on the first one--it really shows crows feet and a big mole on her chin, which if it were my wedding and I had just paid 'big bucks" to have someone photograph it, I might be feeling a wee bit uglified in that one. . . It wouldn't be too hard to do. . . Also--in the kiss photo, which is really nice, the possibility of a few re-touches. Imagenomic has a great plugin that I use sometimes called Portrait Pro, and then of course, there is always what I call the brillo pad in photoshop (can't think of what it is called) but it looks like a little square on the tools menu with little squiggles like brillo squiggles coming out of it and you can use it to circle around something offensive (ie: the mole) and drag it to a clean patch of skin and voila, it is magically erased! In this gallery on my smugmug site: Mozart in Paris Shoot - CFW Photography -- Cynthia Farr-Weinfeld my client asked me to remove moles, and she was very happy with the results. Good luck to you--that would be really upsetting, as a photographer--I hope never to have the same experience and hope you don't again either! Cindy

[opfor]

It kind of sounds from your original post that there was a disconnect from the beginning. She thought she was asking for one thing and you were telling her what you "preferred" to provide, but the two things weren't the same thing. I think your best bet was the route you took by offering to re-shoot. At the end of the day, "the customer is always right", both parties need to be clear beforehand on what the end target it.

[aleonx3]

No need to be harsh on yourself, there is always one or two customers who would think otherwise. If it happens try to make it up where possible so you get more future business via referrals.

[einstrigger]

Bridezilla perhaps? Sometimes when you're faced with one as a customer, she won't be satisfied regardless of what you do. But i agree with what some of the others have said, perhaps she just didn't understand the style of photography.

Not to scare you or anything, but hopefully she isn't on the internet somewhere blasting you for your efforts.

[Wheatfield]

You need to do quite a bit more retouching on her. Anyone who thinks they are there to record the day is kidding themselves.
You are there to record the day as they (especially the bride) would like it to be.
Regarding the pictures that she says aren't there, but actually are, don't be afraid to point out to her that those shots are included in the album or CD or whatever media you use (after first making sure you didn't accidentally stuff up and forget to include them).
As for the shots you've shown, they are fine for what they are (amateurishly taken snapshots), but not including some formal shots in a wedding package is not a very smart way to do business, whether or not you have any in your port or whether or not you actually like that sort of picture.
Personally, I find the modern reportage style of wedding photography to be juvenile attempts at being clever by holding the camera crooked.
Don't take this too much the wrong way, and take it for what it's worth, coming from someone who shot reportage style weddings for almost 4 decades, but you need to learn how to compose pictures.
I'd be pretty pissed with what you have shown here as well, though I also wouldn't have hired you if this is representative of your work.

[SpecialK]

I see important people cropped off the edge of the frame (1 & 3), and tilts for no real reason (4 & 5).

I would not be overly thrilled if this is representative.

[Eigengrau]

Interesting to hear the feedback from you guys.

I'm personally not a fan of the "subject framed and square in the center of every shot". It tends to make things feel motionless and dry IMO. Also, it is the case in a couple of these photos that they are cropped tight and/or tilted because of issues in the bg - getting an exit sign or a distracting architectural element out of the shot.

At any rate, I appreciate the feedback.

I'm considering that I might be much more blunt at our future consultations - I know of photographers that flat out refuse to pose anything, or shoot something contrived in any way. I also know photographers that do minimal or no touching up. Many of these photographers have so many clients that they have to turn people away. Being very specific about what we do and only taking clients that want that might cost us business in the short term, but I think sticking to jobs where we can devote our full creativity will lead to better pictures and satisfaction for our clients and us.

Looking back over some of the shots and the post-wedding communication, the strange thing is that the clients were initially very positive. Both the bride and groom said that they loved the shots, and so have their friends. So the mixed message is making things especially confusing.

Also, for those that don't find these shots acceptable (and everybody is certainly entitled to their opinion), please post some (of yours or someone else's) that you think are examples of what would be ideal. I'd be interested to see what counts as pro quality in your opinion.

[D4rknezz]

I havent seen many wedding photography, but whenever i see the offer of 100-500 pictures on CD, i started wondering. Do people really re-touch wedding photography? How do you balance what is model looking good and what the bride/groom may want to show, the reality and gravity of their love? Or do we as photographers just do judgement calls on which picture to retouch?
How does it work out?
I am really curious, because a friend of mine has been dying to get into the business, but i dont even know where to tell her where to start. LoL.