Boy did I FUBAR that wedding - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

09/18/2005 05:35:10 PM · #1

I shot a wedding the other week. It was a sunset wedding... and before the wedding, we shot all of the formals. I didn't do too bad with those, because they were outside, the day was slightly overcast. There were a few shots that came out slightly over done or over shadowed... due to breaks in the cloud and direct sunlight. Where my problem really was, is during the ceremony and after.

The ceremony started at 7:00 and the light was already getting low. I shot all the shots at 160 with an app. of 4.0 - 6.0 (depending on focal length of my lens). Some got pretty dark, but since I shoot in RAW, I was able to fix them in PS7. They are a bit grainy, but they are not shots that would usually be blown up, so I am not too worried.

After the wedding, we did the rest of the formals (bride and groom and whole wedding party). Well, since it was dark... I guess I couldn't see to well what I was focusing on, and alot of the shots (esp the whole bridal party) are slightly out of focus. Or they are not very sharp at all! I took a few of the bride/groom shots and ran them through Dream Suite to give them the soft "dreamy" effect. That seemes to fix it some.

Plus, I was having alot of problems with my flash... (it completely died right before the cake was to be cut, and it wasn't firing with every shot, or it was very weak.) So alot of the shots inside didn't come out, or are so dark, I am afraid of over processing them.

My question is, have any of you really messed up a wedding bad? What did you do about it? I am so afraid that the bride will get very angry with me. This is only my second wedding, and she knew that going into this. But I am still very scared. Plus, I do alot of business with her best friend for the local spa (I did the fashion shoot for them, advertising, and the animal rescue league shoot) and I don't want to lose her business as well.

Any advice for someone shaking in their boots?

** I have pictures for anyone who wants to see them!

Judi

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

09/18/2005 05:46:05 PM · #2

Try other effects such as sepia and BW....try anything you can....even if you have one or two appealing shots...this will make them overlook the rest.

Sorry you had such a bad run...they won't always be like that.

Judi

leaf

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

09/18/2005 05:46:29 PM · #3

sure post some pics.

not sure what to tell you bout what to do though :S
salvage those you can tho, and see if you have enough to present to them....

ahaze

09/18/2005 05:50:08 PM · #4

I don't have experience with weddings, but I would think if they're really unhappy you should offer them a discount or some free prints of the ones they do like- something to smooth it over. I wouldn't think you'd lose your other customers, if you've done work for them before and they're happy with it obviously they know what you're capable of. Sounds like the circumstances this time were just wrong for you.

wewillexplore

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

09/18/2005 05:55:32 PM · #5

Post them up - I'll have a looksie too. Post at least a couple outdoor blurry formals and one of the cake flash pics.

Do what you gotta do, see what they say about them. If it's truly bad, say something before you show them, not after they see them.

soup

Canon EOS-30D

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

09/18/2005 06:39:05 PM · #6

i shot a whole wedding with film, and the camera - unknown to me at the time - had a broken meter. it's the highest key wedding i have ever shot ;}

the photos actually weren't too bad, and there was another photog - my mother - so it ended up being a pretty good mix of photos. i shot it all at 1/30th handheld, and could have shot at 1/125th...

Message edited by author 2005-09-18 18:41:38.

Man_Called_Horse

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

09/18/2005 07:29:15 PM · #7

One of my first jobs way back in the day was to video tape a wedding.

To make a long story short... I got the reception without a hitch, but I forgot to check my camera during the cerimony and did not have a video tape inside.

I to this day feel really bad about that.

I need a drink now.

Niten

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

09/18/2005 07:35:35 PM · #8

Originally posted by swinging_johnson_v1:

I to this day feel really bad about that.

I need a drink now.

You dont have to feel bad forever, just until they break up. ;)

Travis99

Canon EOS-5D

09/18/2005 07:39:30 PM · #9

Just hope you had a good contract, or else they might sue you. They could make you recreate the entire wedding which could cost a fortune. But as long as you put in the contract that you were no liable for that you should be ok.

Post some pictures and we will help you fix as many as we can. If you email each of us 1 photo I bet it would make a great wedding album, and she would be happy. Or you could post some small pictures and we could give you the steps how to fix them.

Travis

Judi

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

09/18/2005 07:42:57 PM · #10

Originally posted by Travis99:

Post some pictures and we will help you fix as many as we can. If you email each of us 1 photo I bet it would make a great wedding album, and she would be happy. Or you could post some small pictures and we could give you the steps how to fix them.

Travis

Sounds like a great idea. I would be willing to help out. Just let me know.

Judi

hdogg4u

Canon EOS-20D

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX Aspherical DF for Canon

09/18/2005 07:46:16 PM · #11

easy fix for the dark shots use Picasa 2 and use the fill light dailogue to add light. It can be wonders and is a very easy fix. As for the out of focus shots that just difficult I would try some different approach of black and white.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

09/18/2005 08:54:09 PM · #12

OK, I loaded a few into my Fotki Album. (album is Rivera - passowrd is tara) I shrunk them down in size, but most of those are alot sharper in full size. They are just ones I wanted to show how dark they turned out.

The last one, named Bridal Party.... that one is full size. Since I only have a free membership, I only have limited space.

The one thing I don't understand, is how when I did them in PS7, they looked good, but as soon as I looked at them on my computer with another program.... they look horrible! I still have the other wedding shots in there just so you can see... that I really don't suck THAT bad!

Looking at these, compared to my last wedding.... these are a complete joke! It made me lose a hell of alot oh faith in myself. :(

Travis99

Canon EOS-5D

09/18/2005 09:10:36 PM · #13

They arent the worst I have ever saw I can tell you that. You should post the worst ones.

twm122

Olympus E-3

Olympus 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 ED Zuiko Digital

09/18/2005 09:16:11 PM · #14

I agree, those aren't horrible. Post the ones that you really want to work on, i.e. the cake shot.

09/18/2005 09:20:41 PM · #15

Originally posted by twm122:

I agree, those aren't horrible. Post the ones that you really want to work on, i.e. the cake shot.

These are the worst so far! LoL

We got 2 new batteries right before the cake cutting, so I had enough power to get the cake shot off and not too bad. These are the worst I had to deal with thus far

Makka

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

09/18/2005 09:24:50 PM · #16

Last week I had that horrible sinking feeling. I put in a new motherboard and processor on my PC and re-installed Win XP! Mine's an early version without and service packs. I downloaded all my RAW files from a wedding, went through and processed them all. I thought the PC was running slightly slow on that drive so I ran a defrag that night. I got up in the morning and it said it couldn't complete the defrag process and to run a CHKDSK when I restart the PC next. Thinking nothing of this I ran the CHKDSK and went out. When I came home, Windows was all restarted and I sat down to work on the proofs and F*&K ME if the hard drive wasn't empty! CHKDSK had wiped everything off my drive! The panic I was facing was huge! Thankfully, I managed to salvage all the JPEGS I'd worked on but the RAW files were gone, as well as heaps of programs and stuff. The reason it happened is because the 200gig Seagate drive I was running has trouble being seen by Windows at that size unless SP1 or SP2 have been installed! Because I hadn't done it yet from the fresh install when I ran the defrag it couldn't 'see' the whole drive and crashed! I had to sort through a whole recovered folder with 27000 files in it all called UNKNOWN0000001 to find out what everything was. Luckily, File Scavenger is a fantastic program for finding jpeg files. Thankgod the wedding pics were recovered!

09/18/2005 09:30:48 PM · #17

Boy Makka, someone was looking over you! :)

Makka

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

09/18/2005 11:53:11 PM · #18

Originally posted by nsoroma79:

Boy Makka, someone was looking over you! :)

Yeah, I think so! The bride from the wedding is a family friend and she can be really really grumpy and savage so I was just about ready to slash my wrists!! hehehe....all is ok though! *phew*

I wish I still had the RAW files to play with but the jpegs are better than nothing! I'm just so glad I went through and processed them all before I did the defrag!