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.

Yeah, this. I went to one of those all day weddings last year from about 11 in the morning to 9 at night. The photographer was there tootling around everybody taking pictures ALL DAY, so she had lots of 'candids.' (As well as the 'posed' ones.) I was one of the main bridal party as well, and the photographer took quite a number of pics with me in (or OF me,) pointing at me from the front - and from the side, bending over, and slouching occasionally. URGH!😖

I'm actually short - 5 ft 2, and about 4 and a half stone overweight (and I do have a double chin!) and I'm incredibly self conscious about being photographed. I HATE being photographed when I don't know it's being taken and find it intrusive and rude. I prefer to be 'posing' for the pic, so I can kind of control how I look a bit! I know I'm not going to look 8 stone on it, but I do actually look so much worse from the side than I do from the front.

It was really hard to relax with this photographer just tootling around snapping away, and you didn't know when you were going to be photographed. I prefer the days when you would all just all pose for pictures for 40 minutes or so before the wedding, and maybe half an hour after ... Then the bride and groom would go off for an hour for their pics.

10 or 11 hours of a photographer snapping away, and not knowing if and when you were going to be photographed made it really hard to enjoy the wedding. I got to a point where I was constantly keeping an eye out for where the photographer was. 😬

To be honest, the photographer did get some good photos - but on about 20 pics of me, I looked like Jabba The Hutt. (I looked OK on about 30 pics, but the bad ones were HIDEOUS!!!!!) Also, inexplicably, she took just ONE of the main bridal party. ONE. And just ONE of the bride and groom with both sets of parents. And none of the bride and her parents, or the groom with his parents, or the bridge and groom with her parents and the bride and groom with his parents. Took around 15 photos of the bride and groom with their 15 joint friends though. I don't know if the bride and groom requested this, but I didn't think the photographer did her job that well.

@inthelight44 I hear ya! As a previous poster suggested - get some more pictures done. Put your wedding gear on and have about 40 photos taken just you with your husband. See if you can get both sets of parents in too and have some with them (and as many of the main bridal party you can get together.)

Or as or someone else suggested, maybe see if you can photoshop a few photos a bit. I am willing to bet though, that in 20 years time, you think 'wow I didn't look that bad at all really!' So whatever you do don't get rid of these photographs that you don't like so. And if you DO photoshop some, keep the originals anyway, locked away somewhere. Sorry you're upset. I hope you can get some good photos that you're happy with, and I hope you have lots and lots of happy years with your husband...

I feel for you. I feel this about my wedding pics too. I hate most of them. I never look at them. There’s one or two decent ones. I just put them away n don’t think about it. I tell myself it’s about a marriage not a marriage not a wedding day or photo album ! X

Not easy, but perhaps you shoud have said, I don't want photos to picture me as I am. In the meantime, talk to him and see what can be done.

@RedYellowPinkGreenPurpleOrangeBlue See, I love the candid style. Just goes to show everyone's different, I didn't want to spend half my wedding day posing. I don't think what you're talking about is similar to the poster you quoted, in her examples the photographers were getting involved and making people pose etc. With your example, they were just taking photos of natural moments. I don't mean to be rude, but you may have been in the wedding party but you're not the bride, so it doesn't really matter if you thought you looked good. And you admit yourself they got some good photos. We have a lovely one of me having a laugh with an elderly relative. I had no idea the photographer was there (again, depends on the skill of the photographer at blending in).

I think there's also a generational gap as well, my parents were surprised the photographer didn't take more formal, posed family group shots, but why would we want them? His exact words were 'we'll take a few, keep the grannies happy, but then we'll let you get back to enjoying yourselves'. For lots of couples getting married later in life (by that I just mean, over 21 like my parents were) friends are just as important, if not more so, than your family.

I totally get where you're coming from. Our wedding photos were pretty poor and I found it quite gutting. The compositions were terrible, loads of shots were wonky, editing was rubbish. Our wedding was on a budget so we weren't even going to hire a photographer, but changed our minds thinking we'd regret it if we didn't. I really wish we'd done out research more and checked out several photographers, but we just went with a recommendation from a friend. My DSis wedding photo's also came out terribly (family friend) as he went a bit mad with the photoshop and we ended up looking really weird. She had to ask him to re-edit some of them.
Fortunately we had some really nice photos that guests had taken. Nice enough that I wish we hadn't bothered with the professional photographer at all.

That's awful. If they really are terrible beyond a small handful, you could book another photographer to do some photos of just you and DH. I used to live in Italy and it was really normal for the bride and groom to do a photography shoot after the wedding, so they didn't have to be away from the celebrations for too long.

OP, I know these are your wedding photos and you want them to be perfect!
This stuff with double chin - I'm not overweight and manage to present one on almost every photo!
Idk why that is, but I'm sure your photos are great!
Congratulations to your wedding! 💐

Agree with preferring the candid style. I would have been gutted with a load of posed ones tbh. Also agree it’s down to what the bride and groom want, whether that’s candid or staged.

I really hope they were tears of happiness. If they were not, I hope things are much better for you now.

I would do all the things people have suggested, including emailing the photographer to ask for all photos, setting up a website for candid shots. I'd also book you and your husband in for a professional shoot sometime soon, either in your wedding clothes, or just some casual ones, so you have some photos you love.

I have seen some very bad wedding photos, my best friend's were terrible, up the nose shots, not one nice one among them, and she's a pretty person so no idea where it went wrong. Just colour/textures all very unflattering.

Not all photographers are very good! And these days with the quality of camera phones you will still be able to have some great shots from other people, I bet they took loads!

OP did you enjoy your day? Did you feel great on your day? Because THAT is what is important, to how you look in a posed picture. Those are the memories you will have. And remember, marriage is about more than a wedding.

@HcbSS

no when you are paying out hundreds for photos you want them to be good. Whether you have a good day or good marriage is irrelevant- with wedding photography you’re paying for a service and it needs to be decent

Low down photos are awful, I agree. I hate when anyone shoots me from this angle, so I’d definitely have noticed (I also do photography myself, so aware of things like this).

Good idea to ask if they have others, and I was going to ask the same as previous posters about whether you viewed their portfolio prior to hiring to make sure they suited you.

I had similar...I made the mistake of hiring a firm rather than a specific photographer. We'd seen photographs that they'd taken at other weddings and they looked fine.

I'm quite tall. The photographer who turned up wasn't. The photos where I'm seated are okay; the rest really aren't.

My husband complained about one where I was sitting down and there's a cross apparently growing out of my head. He told them it was simply bad photography and asked them to Photoshop it. (This was back in the '90s.) They said they couldn't. In the end, we lived with it.

The one thing that I was happy with was a video taken on the day by a relative - we hadn't asked him to: not a professional. However, he's tall and the video looked so much better.

This happened to me many years ago. It was midday and the sun was high. In all the photos the shadows of our noses make us look like we have no front teeth ! Photographer had been a gift and this was pre digital so we just had to grin and bear it 😂😂

If they're that bad, you need to get some or all of your money back. Then talk to your guests and get the best photos off them - there are bound to be some crackers. I was recently on a wedding Whatsapp group for a friend's wedding and there were loads of great photos added to it by guests after the day itself. And the suggestion made by one other poster about booking another shoot in your wedding gear is a really fun idea. A few Proseccos and some cake and it'll be a giggle.

I had EXACTLY the same and was so upset too. I wish I’d asked for them to be photoshopped so the angle induced double chin was removed they’d taken them all like that.: (

so yes, ask for ones taken not at that angle or if they all have been, or most, tell them they need to fix the issue then resubmit, because it’s BASIC not to shoot people at that angle and you’re upset.

I was at a (very expensive!) wedding in 1999 where they had to do this as the photographer had forgotten to put film in his camera !

Our professional wedding photos were dreadful too and we’ve never had a single photo printed or an album done. The same photographers did SIL’s wedding and the photos were beautiful.

We asked people for photos that they had, and the best photo of DH and I - which is the one and only one we have on display - was taken in the Photo Booth of all places.

As pp have said - ask the photographer to see all the photos, ask for anything that you consider to be imperfections to be removed etc, and if you still aren’t happy then consider a post-wedding shoot with a new photographer.

I always think I’ve seen the cattiest, most empathy-free post on Mn then one like this pops up.

I never think I have one either. I don’t think I do front-on, but have you ever had your phone camera switch to selfie when you’re holding it facing upwards? It’s most disturbing! I even tried it on dc to check and yep … it’s an unflattering angle even for little people unravaged by time. A photographer should know better. What was he highlighting? Crotches or something?

@fungipie

what do you mean?

This , I photographed for horse shows , there was always loads more than I actually showed the client, ask to see the others .

Everyone looks bad when viewed from the "up the chin" angle. I'm a little surprised the photographer made such a basic error actually.

How many are actually "up chin"? I would just email and ask if they can send you more photos that aren't from that angle as it's unflattering.

Try to keep it in perspective- you don't need them all to look good. You only really need a handful of decent ones. Some bad pictures are inevitable.