I'm scared I didn't do a good job photographing a wedding!?

Question

Alright. Let me explain. I'm a 17 year old female, and I shot my very first wedding yesterday for a totally non English speaking family. And I don't speak Spanish. They wanted video as well, and if the photos don't quite cut it, the video will hopefully make up for it. I hope their expectations are realistic, being I've only had 2-3 years of good experience. I asked them to name a price and they said 600$ which I was perfectly fine with. Do you think I should worry about this? Im scared they'll be mad or something. It's not like, terrible. Scale of one to ten, maybe a 5-7. Not sure because i havent started editing! There's SO much I have to edit. My computer can't open RAW files unless I convert them, which means I have a lot of in camera editing to do as well. Not to mention the video.

Does anyone else have wedding stories pertaining to this?

Answer 1

You're young and have years to master this art.



Even if your clients are less than thrilled with the end results, chalk it down to a learning experience and don't list them on your resume.



Wedding photography is a VERY difficult and demanding line of work. I've refused to do it more than a few times simply because I don't want the headache. Shooting portraits of wolves is sometimes easier and less stress!!



As bad as you may think it is, just remember that this potential crash and burn situation is one little part of a learning journey. Good news is if they curse you out, you won't understand what they're saying. Just keep trying and you'll learn your way through it.



Good Luck and Have Fun!!!

Answer 2

You did photography and video? Wow. I don't understand one thing: How on earth does one do "in camera" editing? Edit in the traditional sense of the word means to weed out the ones with problems and keep only the best. In recent years, edit has come to mean post processing manipulation. By either definition you should never do it in your camera. I find I have about an hour or less of post per hour of wedding coverage. And I am slow because I do not batch process.



Yes, you should be worried. I have no idea what "good experience" might be. Of course, you may be one of those super self critical people and are never satisfied with how your work turns out when your work is actually OK. If your first wedding shoot is really a 5-7 out of 10, then you did a good job, better than most beginners assuming the scale is not straight from Instagram. Or you may be a teen still at or near the beginner level shooting a thousand snaps on auto and hoping something turns out. Judging from this question I very much suspect you are closer to the latter camp. Some people understand if they choose an in-experienced wedding photographer they are likely to be less than satisfied with the outcome and may end up with crappy snaps. Very often beginners shoot their first weddings for friends or family at no charge, but that does not seem to be the case here, and the situation may be further complicated by the language barrier. Did they comprehend your lack of experience? I am sure your contract specified that it was your first time shooting a wedding, and you offered no guarantee as to quality of your work or client satisfaction and you had the client sign off on that. That may protect you from a lawsuit if the client is extremely unhappy. Oh, wait. You're 17 and not old enough to be held to the terms of a contract even if you had one. So if they decide to sue, they will probably go after your parents who may have deeper pockets.



Of course, being taken to court is a worse case scenario. Even in the US, it is somewhat unlikely to happen even if the party has cause. It is possible you did a good job and the clients will be happy and recommend you to everyone they know. Even if the shots are less than they had hoped, they may realize their own folly at taking a chance and resign themselves to the outcome without being angry. If the work is not good and they are both motivated and very upset they will not only bad mouth you, they may demand their money back in full or in part. If you feel the photos are sub-standard, and if that happens, I would cheerfully refund whatever amount they want and make them sign that their business with you is concluded. Learn a big lesson here whatever the outcome will be.



Since you are not confident in your ability to shoot weddings, you should turn down any future wedding jobs until you are more certain that you can deliver. The best way to gain that skill is to intern with an experienced working wedding photographer for a while. If you have already mastered the basics of exposure and composition, you will learn how to manage the flow of the day, what shots to get, and how to work with and pose people who are not normally used to being models.



For now, concentrate on getting the product ready. Be sure to eliminate the bad ones. Even if you shot 2000 frames, if only 250 are good then they should get 250. I hope this turns out well for everyone and the couple is happy with your work. Good luck.

Answer 3

This is something you should have worried about BEFORE accepting the gig. Now, the horse is out of the barn. Stop worrying about it and get to work on your shots. Didn't your camera come with software that would open raw files?



I can't imagine any scenario where one could shoot still and video at a wedding and do a good job at both. That was an ill-advised arrangement from the get go. Don't expect the video to make up for anything. People look at the video twice, maybe three times: when they get it, at their 25th anniversary and if they and the technology make it, at their 50th. They hang pictures on their wall.



And if your worst fears come to light, look for a nice foreign country without an extradition treaty with your homeland. Move there.

Answer 4

Of course you should be worried.



There was a photographer in New York that was sued for the cost of recreating a wedding (nearly $100,000) because the client was not happy with the images.





You probably didn't have much of a contract, so there is nothing preventing them from suing you if they are not happy with it. Luckily, you are only 17, so if sued, the courts would likely limit your liability to the $600 they paid you.







It also sounds like you were completely under quipped to do the job. Professional photographers typically charge between $2,000 and $4,000 and videographers charge even more.

Answer 5

This seems like trolling to me and I am not sure if this happened to you or if you are asking for stories. But just in case



I think you should be very concerned. When things like this happen, it can damage your reputation permanently and sometimes the law gets involved.



Wedding photography is a very serious and very dangerous field in photography. A person could get sued for missing a kiss.



Here is an article from Time magazine about that.



There are a ton of other similar stories out there.



http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/13/wedding-photographer-sued-for-missing-the-kiss/



Its common for a wedding photographer to spend at least 10 weddings shooting with a seasoned experienced "Professional" before shooting on his or her own. ( that's after going to school, shooting for a few years afterward and possibly running his or her own for a few years. ) Doing this on your own usually means that you can mix various types of light, contrast ratios, balance ambient light with flash etc. It requires a very highly refined set of skills that takes more than a few years to obtain...



Honestly, there should not be "SO" much to edit. You should only be pressing the button when you are 100 % convinced that photo will be kept and shown to a client because it is the best photo that communicates the best story. There should not be thousands of those.



In my opinion you should not be shooting weddings until you are editing your images on the appropriate hardware. A 3" screen is not a substitute for a 30" calibrated monitor.



If this actually happened, I'm sorry about your luck. I hope that you shoot for a few more years, latch on to an established professional and obtain the computer hardware for the best results.



I hope you take this opportunity to learn a hard lesson.



You need more than a camera to be a photographer and you should not be doing business before you understand how to make photographs.



Best of luck.

Answer 6

"I asked them to name a price and they said 600$ which I was perfectly fine with."

You asked THEM to give you a price? How can you ensure that that price will cover your costs and pay you at least a minimal wage? they don;t know your costs, they don;t know the ammount of work this represents ... you need to sit down and structure your pricing so you don;t go bankrupt.



"Do you think I should worry about this? Im scared they'll be mad or something."



You SHOULD be worried! A wedding is a once in a lifetime event (hopefully) and you are tasked with capturing that event. If you mess up they have no record of this event. People get sued ALL THE TIME over bad wedding photos.



Do i have stories pertaining to this? Sure ... go on to the links below.



http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2668137/Couple-sue-over-wedding-snaps.html

http://petapixel.com/2012/07/24/wedding-photographer-threatened-with-300000-lawsuit/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lz-07D5KoE

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/13/wedding-photographer-sued-for-missing-the-kiss/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/nyregion/suit-against-photographer-seeks-re-creation-of-wedding-after-divorce.html?_r=0



And I could go on and on ...



This is one of the reasons why you need professional liability insurance and why people shouldn't shoot weddings when they have no experience, no gear and no talent! You had best pray that they don't take you to court ... I doubt you;d be able to pay to re-create the wedding and for a REAL photographer to re-shoot the shots ... you have 30000$ lying around?



"There's SO much I have to edit. My computer can't open RAW files unless I convert them, which means I have a lot of in camera editing to do as well."



This confuses the hell out of me.



- Did your camera not come with a RAW editing/conversion tool?

- Do you not have light room with Camera RAW?

- What camera allows you to do edits in camera?

- If you have 2-3 years experience why in the hell do you need to do so much editing?



Other than white balance correction and maybe a minor tweak to exposure my pictures are client ready straight out of camera. Are you editing to ENHANCE an already good photo or are you EDITING to FIX a bad photo? If it;s the latter then you are no where near ready to shoot a wedding.



EDIT: @Politely Dazed

Are you INSANE?



"As bad as you may think it is, just remember that this potential crash and burn situation is one little part of a learning journey. Good news is if they curse you out, you won't understand what they're saying. Just keep trying and you'll learn your way through it."



You are telling her to learn off of PAYING customers? Do you not understand the legal ramifications of the client vendor relationship? Things like acceptable service standards, failure to meet contractual obligations? Liability?



This girl might possibly be facing a lawsuit that will ruin her financially and you are telling her she should just ignore that and keep at it? If he clients are unhappy they can and SHOULD sue her! I'd like to see her ignore a court summons!

Answer 7

Agree 100% with "The Last Anon" but I just have to say why are you letting the client tell YOU how much to charge? YOU tell THEM what it cost. If you cannot even do that, you have NO business trying to do this. Sorry, you are a kid trying to do an adult job. You don't have the experience, the skill, and no proper back up equipment or contracts or insurance or business license. In other words, you are a major problem just waiting to happen. You will probably come through this ok, but don't push your luck. Get the background you need established first, then start. Just because there are lots of other people with no clue what they are doing shooting things such as weddings does not make it wise. There are plenty of stupid people in the world, ... don't you be one of them! :-)



steve

Answer 8

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