Disgusting wedding photos

[inthelight44]

Just received my wedding photos and I’m so upset. The composition of the pictures is lovely - the backgrounds are beautiful and the colours are nice, but all the photographs have been taken from low down, giving me an awful double chin. There are two photos I like - both taken from a normal angle, but for the rest, the photographer crouched down and I have about 5 chins and my hair looked so flat.

I know it’s silly and there’s nothing I can do now, but why didn’t the photographer think of this? So upset.

The photographer may have more pictures. Shes just showed you the ‘best’ ones.
So ask if she has more and if you can see them all

Most of my official ones are awful, and I was very annoyed too. Luckily we have good photos taken by family and friends. Definitely worth asking to see more photos though.

How disappointing for you. Can understand you’re upset. One possible consideration is are you being objective? Does your husband agree you look bad in them? I ask only because one can build up their expectations and project a lot into their wedding photos and set an impossible bar. Equally, do you have any issues with body dysmorphia ? Or perhaps a wake up call around weight ? Sometimes I don’t realise I’ve let myself get a bit plump until I see photos of myself and realise I have a double chin? I ask not to be unkind, but just to check you are able to appraise objectively?

This

Two words: Adobe photoshop.

Most professional photographers tweak people's appearance- including making them look better. Slimmer, blemishes take out, eyes brighter &c.

The same thing happened to me. But then I had loads of friends photos choose from and ended up with lots of nice photos

Agreed that the person officially taking photos at my wedding wasn't great and it was when I got candids from friends that I found some I absolutely loved.

I complained about our wedding photos, they were awful. I had a tree growing out oh my head, ugly fences in rear. They were then modified, so a bit better!

Mind boggling isn’t it!

Go back and ask them to edit them, double chins can easily be removed with photo editing

the photographer will have given you the pictures she (or he) considered to be the best. But there will be others!

Tell the photographer that you want those she took from a different angle.

If it were me then I'd assume that if they were taking them from that angle then it was because they were getting good shots that way....and as the photographer they know best.

Oh I remember feeling this way about some of my wedding pictures, OP. I sympathize, it is terrible to feel like the pictures from one of the most important days of your life aren’t flattering. They aren’t as bad as I thought they were when I first saw them, but even today when Iook I think they make me look fatter than I am. I should have twigged when, at the beginning of the day, the photographer had said they wanted the pics to be ‘all about curves’ (I’m not really a curvy figure, more straight and narrow). Boy did they ever manage to find some curves in those photos. :(

I have come to the conclusion that there are two kinds of photographers: ones who are primarily concerned with the technical composition and light of their shots, and ones who are primarily concerned with making their subjects look great. I know one photographer in particular who is all about the former, but their subjects never look their best and they don’t even seem to notice!

Did your look at their previous work or discuss the style you wanted before the wedding? Any decent professional photographer would've discussed what you wanted.

Ask your guests to share their photos of the day - there might be some lovely informal pictures. I got married pre- the age of everyone having phones with good cameras, but I gave out some disposable cameras to guests and collected them at the end of the day and there were some great pictures!

I did for my wedding. The photos he showed me were great. But I think they were of a family friend who he cared about and made an effort to get the photos perfect and edit them all. Mine didn’t look like they’d been edited at all. Also the bride in his portfolio was pretty and slim, so she looked naturally good - it didn’t occur to me that I needed to see photos where he’d made a fat unattractive person look good. It’s easy to take good photos of a beautiful person, it’s much harder to make an average person look good!

Oh but this poster would have been so “on it” she can’t contain her frustration that everyone isn’t as all over everything as her. 🙄 Too bad for the op’s distress; the really salient bit is this poster’s magnificent ability to predict and address. Are we not all impressed?!
You are right: it’s a particular Mn species.

I’m sure they’re not as bad as you think.

At my wedding last year, the photos were taken by a family friend on an I-phone, and they were absolutely lovely , and ‘real’. My first wedding, 30 years ago, were taken by a professional; the new ones were much better!
Just look at it as a record of the day, as it was. Photos of oneself always make you look at the bits that no one else even noticed.

Oh OP I do understand, I felt exactly the same about my wedding photos and there is only one the photographer took that I like.

I framed that one and put it on display in our house and truthfully it hasn't bothered me since as I have a nice photo of us on our wedding day to display.

But definitely ask if the photographer has other, unedited photos he could share with you from the day.

I hated all of mine at the time - but years later I look and think how lovely I looked! I think you're just being critical of yourself.

Sorry for the disappoint op. 😔
I think many of these posts make good points: you ARE probably being hard on yourself, you should ask if he has others you can look at, and finally, if not, the under chin shot is such a basic error that if he hasn’t taken others, I think it’s reasonable to get your hair done etc and have some more formal ones of you and DH taken ( no charge!) . You can play about with lighting etc and get something lovely. That’s what I’d be asking for. You only need one or two decent ones that you can work in with the group shots and perhaps some nice candid ones taken by guests and that will give you a satisfactory record of the day.

If it’s any comfort, lots of brides don’t like their wedding photos. My friend said she had the most blissful day then when the photos came back it half destroyed her happy memories as she’d imagined she was wafting round looking far more beautiful, that the venue, flowers etc were far more splendid and she felt the photos just “killed” those memories by looking very drab and ordinary. Sometimes photos don’t capture things.

There are a lot of people out there masquerading as photographers who are just amateurs. Did you not check the photographers portfolio before you signed them up OP? If you did and there were no photographs in the portfolio like that then I would be questioning them why yours are like that.

She might have done… her husband might have been the one to enter into the contract with the photographer. You can’t sue someone for taking bad pictures if you’re not the one who engaged and paid for their services in the first place.

Our photos weren't great either, more from the point of view people were chopped off, others obscured by taller people in front - not photographers fault, but you'd have thought he'd have realised, etc. My Auntie had a decent camera and he stopped her from taking photos, frustratingly what she managed to take were far better. Now it doesn't matter, we've got one favourite in our lounge and gave a copy to our parents. Someone took a photo of us and our parents together, and we all have a copy of that as well.

I'm sure your new husband thinks you look lovely. However, as others have said, it might be worth asking if there are any others. Whatever, don't let it detract from your lovely day.

I was going to say this.

Not to take away from your upset now, but a sliver of light is that in 10-20 years, you'll look at the photos and think how lovely you looked.

Nothing like the wear and tear of age to reconcile you with your younger face.

But yes, speak to them about your upset and see if there are any other photos they have.