Unhappy with professional wedding photographs

A question about : Unhappy with professional wedding photographs

Hello everyone,

When we got married last year we carefully chose our photographer on the basis that we liked what previous work they had done and also that we didn't want somebody too bossy who would make our guests and us feel uncomfortable.

We found a perfect photographer who we were very pleased with, we met and discussed what we were looking for in our photographs, which was a natural look and not too many `posed`photographs. I had asked for photographs with my nan and our wedding car was a big deal due to it being our own car which we spent thousands preparing for our big day. We also asked for the photographs to be in RAR format which she agreed to do.

We did not sign any contract with our photographer, we sent a small deposit and she asked for full payment when we received our photographs.

So, the day arrived and as you do when your a bride and groom you don't really think about the photographers work as you feel you are in professional hands. However we did notice that she didn't advise or direct us or our guests on where to stand, or look on the group photographs etc

When we received our photographs via disc`s we started to look through them and instantly realised they were not RAR format, but small JPEG files, so the smallest of zoom would look awful. Then we saw that the photographer had taken more snaps than professional photos. The majority of the photographs we have on our own the sun is shining directly in our eyes so we are squinting, we have no photographs with just us and the car, there are only 2 photographs of me with my nan which i had asked that i had quite a few due to my nan being one of my only family members who came. We have no pictures of the wedding ring in the box before we exchanged vows, none of my beautiful cathedral veil. No good pictures of the car either, just snaps with things cut off! Also the reception venue is very close to where she lives and it is very picturesque, but she failed to get 99% of these artistic shots, which she should have easily known of if she had researched their website without even needing to visit!
Also her select favourite photos were no different to the unmodified photos, apart from turning it black and white!

So we contacted her saying we were not happy and the reasons why, she sent us out some other pictures that she didn't previously send and gave us a new disc of the select photos in a higher resolution. However this is not for all the photographs!

We were still not happy with the other photographs as they are photos that she had originally thought were not worth putting on our disc anyway! So we contacted her again saying why we were not happy. We did not receive a reply.

Over 6 months later, she has suddenly sent us an invoice with the remaining balance. My husband has contacted her again saying we are not willing to pay the full amount as we are not happy with the photographs. We have no reply yet.

We don't know where we stand due to the fact we signed no contract, are not happy with most of the photographs and haven't really had even an apology!

Any help or advise as we are thinking we may need to get a solicitor?

Best answers:

• Without a contract she is going to struggle to prove how much you agreed to pay her - was this agreed in writing at all via email or anything? Her only recourse to get the money from you would be to take you to the small claims court, but the lack of contract won't work in her favour.
  Do you want to keep the photographs or are they all useless? If you like some of them, it may be worth trying to negotiate a reduced rate with her, but this may prove difficult if she won't respond to you!
• Try speaking to your local Trading Standards office for advice.
• Hi
  Sorry I'm a bit late to reply to this thread. I have only just seen it. I'm a professional wedding photographer and am utterly appalled at what your photographer seems to have done.
  Let me start off by asking some questions.
• How much did you agree to pay in total?
• How much have you paid so far (including deposit)
• When researching your photographer, what were you shown for their previous work? Eg. a few photos from their portfolio? A wedding album of a full wedding they shot?
• How does the photos you have received compare to the ones you saw before you booked?
• How many photographs have you been given in total? Out of those how many are you happy with?
• Did you express in writing the photos that you wanted? Or did you assume they would be done?

If you can give me more information then I can better help you if I can. If you'd rather discuss it privately then feel free to message me.
Thanks

• Perhaps the disc of small photographs was the demo.
  Maybe the full res would have been given upon full payment. However no contact means you can't hold her to random. It also means you don't need to pay anything further.
  Also, asking for RAR format is very strange as RAR is a compressed file format. Did you mean the RAW images (which are NEF on Nikon cameras)? Most photographers won't give these at all.