the “sepia bride” drama has gotten out of control - photographer reacts 

Watch Part 2 (photographer speaks out) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RyG3llGfezo.html

I like a retro sepia look, but in the photos with a lot of green and foliage, in this case, it made it look like the plants are dying which is kind of the opposite of what you want...

The thing I think is the fact the bride stated that it was overcast that day. If she’s doing the exact same editing for an overcast day and a sunny day, the photo is gonna look muggy in the over casted day. Yes the photographer cannot control the weather, but they can control adjusting for the weather.

If I hired a photographer for their touch-of-warmth style with clear facial features, and ended up with dehydrated-piss-yellow with eyes as black holes, then I TOO would be upset. They are NOT the same. 🤷‍♀️ I'm not a pro, but I also know that a Lightroom filter preset doesn't work for all lighting situations!! The photographer needed to turn the yellow down, not red up, as you said.

Also keep in mind, when someone is seeing samples of a style, they are NOT seeing unedited day of photos so they may not realize how much a style of editing is “changing” the original colors. But also as a photographer, I’m sorry but the samples the bride showed are way too yellow. I think photographer just needed to adjust whatever preset she used for more contrast and a bit of brightening due to the over cast day, and the bride would have been happy.

I am a photographer. To me, it looks like the photographer tried very hard to stick to one color scheme and style, regardless of whether it would work in a specific set of photos. By the way, a fantastic tip is to send the couple one edited photo in different versions so that they can choose what they like best.

When I was getting married I made it super clear on the style of edit I wanted my pictures, gave him examples too. Then after my wedding, he sent me 3 similar styles of one of the wedding pictures and told me to pick the tone I liked the most. It all comes down to communication. So many ways it could have been handled but it seems the photographers ego was in way.

I do feel that the majority of people put an unfair level of expectation of the bride to be able to catch onto things that'd probably slip past any non-photographer. The best take I've seen on this is a photographer on Tiktok who pointed out that you can get acclimated to something visually, kinda like forgetting about the tint on your sunglasses after a minute. He theorized what she likely did was scroll through her feed without taking into account what things would've looked like in real life, so it was hard to tell the degree to which the colors were shifted, and the bride not focusing in on photos from similar venues probably created the expectations vs reality issues. The photographer wasn't necessarily wrong (though I still feel like she didn't handle this great) but I also don't love people talking about the bride like she was stupid for picking this photographer.

Photographer here, shooting for 6 years, it’s always best to go to natural as much as possible. I noticed many clients just prefer it that way. Whenever there’s bad weather I give clients a heads up that colors will be limited and some tone editing will be needed. If there’s a preset needed, it has to blend well.

This is a very popular look...de-saturated greens and warm oranges. I tend to stay away from it and I understand why she doesn't like them. I'm not a wedding photographer and this is a great explanation of why I have stayed away. Clients book photographers for the photos they see in their portfolio, so it is a little confusing why she is complaining when she got what she saw. HOWEVER, I think a happy client is priority #1 and your advice on how to work through the edit preferences is good. When I have a creative question on my edit, I will send the client a preview collage with 2-3 options side by side and let them choose. They always end up happy when I do this and I've had clients tell me that they love that and no other photographers seem to care enough to do that. I'm sure they are out there, but if you do this for your client it will make a positive impression.

"a single preset doesn't work for every photo" PREACH, YES, a 10000x's yes!!!! "you have to look at every photo and adjust individually even when batch processing" Two best lines in the entire thing Every photographer needs to hear that! I am not a wedding photographer, I am a sports and media photographer and I batch process but still look at every single photo.

I did a wedding last week and the groom told me at the start: "Pls son't make it this sepia. It's summer and we want to see this also in 10 years when we look at the photos" Lucky for them, that's exactly my style, but I double checked everything just to make sure I don't change the colors too much. And yeah, they were super happy - and me too :D

The main issue here is ego. The photographer is willing to sink the ship and go down with it instead of removing their ego and making the client happy.

I'd be so sad to have my wedding in a lush green location and my pictures looked like it had been a drought!

As a wedding photographer myself, I completely agree with you Jessica. Yes, this woman should have dove further in to her photographer's style before agreeing to the contract. I always offer more visuals to my clients. I want them to know how everything is going to look after but with them in it. And the photographer had a time to stand their ground too. Especially on some things that wedding clients can/will do. But realizing that your client loves the moments and the poses you've captured but doesn't like the warm tones? That's a quick and simple fix. I had a client recently ask for several photos to be made black and white (my favourite) and you bet your butt I flipped them, did a full B&W edit to them and sent them off. So they realized that in the lighting they didn't like your warm tones. So what? They love your photos anyway. Use the warm tone ones for your portfolio to show how you'd edit an overcast day. Figure out what kind of toning your client wants and send it. It's easy to re-sync just the colour grade in light room. Sync it across all the affected photos, check them over to ensure exposures and whatnot stayed the same. Boom. Bob's your uncle. I'll take my $500 (or whatever you'd charge, I'm just throwing out a number) fee to re-edit your photos and everyone is happy.

I honestly think that if she was my client I’d be perfectly fine addressing her issues. She conducted herself completely rational and gave the photographer plenty of opportunities to address the issues. I’ve certainly come across bridezillas but she was definitely not one here.

I think it wouldn't kill the photographer's artistic vision to do an edit that the client likes. The photographer can still use the edit they like most in their portfolio. For the client is an emotional occasion and the photographer should work to make it a happy memory. Jessica's take is more than reasonable.

not a photographer but a ghost writer, and i dont understand the "That's my style" excuse. if the revision request was wildly unreasonable, probably. but i didn't think the bride's requests were. u r offering a service, i think artists forget that. clients are not paying u to make ur own art, they are paying u to make art for them. so working with the client and making sure they r happy with the final output is 100% priority. 30 days to raise their issue is the only thing i would have pushed back on, but if they were willing to pay a fee and agree that I'd have to find a schedule for it since i have other clients already scheduled, i would have 100% worked with them on it. i dont understand why u would put ur own wants and preferences over your clients'. if u want to make art, don't be for hire

her photos are badly edited. the color grading did not work for this particular wedding. it was her job to edit them better not for the client to art direct her. if she can't work with her own art style under different conditions than she shouldn't be a wedding photographer. i'm saying this from an artists perspective, the client is not in the wrong, this was her day and the photographer did not deliver quality. clearly, the bride ended up having a better grasp on color theory from being a makeup artist than the photographer does.

At first I thought maybe the photos weren't consistent with her portfolio, but after finding the photographer's instagram I actually thought her work looked pretty consistent. I think what's mainly happening is in the shots where there are some natural cool tones in the background it's helping to balance out all the sepia tones pushed into the image. I think the photographer should have been willing to negotiate with the bride another option that wasn't just pay 4k for all the raws, but at the same time I didn't like the mentality of the bride where the photographer exists solely to please the bride. That kinda of thinking will have photographers doing a million re-edited for free. All this being said, this is all based on the information provided from the bride and we don't really have a response from the photographer.

I agree with you. She did choose the photographer knowing her style, but it didn't need to go this far. The photographer has a responsibility for making the photos into something the bride is happy with, and should include additional editing information in the contract too. The photography also has the responsibility of good communication and reviewing each individual picture, regardless of preset usage.

I had a bride once reject me because i do natural editing and every wedding looks different depending on the day. She wanted a more cohesive look (aka presets). This is exactly why i don't do presets :)))

I don't do photography but I do posters and graphics and stuff. And what you said at the end is exactly what I have learned to do when dealing with clients. I'll send them rough drafts or even my inspo pics and let them decide before I do a whole graphic and have to start from scratch again. I've learned that the hard way. Plus in my contract now, they are allowed two (free) edits to the final product. They have to pay a percentage if it goes on to 3 or more. I learned that the hard way too. This is an unfortunate situation, and the photographer as a professional should have handled it better. She basically destroyed a whole possible referral chain.

This photographer spent so much energy fighting her client, when all she should've done was re-edit. Now this has blown up on Tik-Tok and on RU-vid. I've seen other RU-vidrs making videos about this. The photographer may be unnamed, but trust me brides know who she is. All this negativity will hurt the photographer business in the long run and that is most unfortunate. If asks for and gets $8k for her work, she definitely could've afforded to outsource the editing.

I appreciate hearing about this from a photographer's point of view. I think I was leaning toward "siding with" the photographer until I heard more about the process and how easy it would be to walk a bride through retouch options.

I'm a wedding and portrait photographer, and it is vitally important for me to meet the couple's expectations at the very least. I provide a private gallery to view the image previews and discuss any changes or adjustments if required. Once the images have been edited, they are uploaded for the couple to sign off on the edits. Rightly or wrongly, I work hard to manage expectations, and this goes a long way towards organic referrals. My personal point of view is that in photography, you will quickly earn a reputation as a result of your work, so you have to be what you want your reputation to be 🌻

As a professional photographer, that photographer is wrong. That photographer has to eat her own words because the videographer and the photographer's color grade and look from the rehearsal does not match from the day of the wedding. So the Client has clear proof and comparison. Also as a photographer myself, I know and understand about the "Pride" that we photographers have when it comes to our work. BUT. We all need to remember and humble ourselves that in this world/industry, when it comes to art, everything is SUBJECTIVE, not objective. When you start as an artist, what is "Good" depends on taste. It's not mathematical or scientific. BUT, when you turn your art into a business and you start to charge people, you turn something subjective into OBJECTIVE. The best comparison is like opening a 5 star restaurant. If you know you serve good food, and a customer doesn't like the food after eating it, they aren't asking you to re-adjust your entire menu, you as the chef adjust the food and remake it for that particular customer. You have to remember to separate yourself as an artist and think more like a businessman/woman. You can not treat it like an art gallery, where you have a price on a piece of work, then a client buys it, and if they were to say "hey i bought this artwork, but I don't like the color you used, can you remake it?" Of course that would be ridiculous. That being said, when you are a photographer, and a client doesn't like your edit after you shoot, you shouldn't respond like this photographer had said "you knew my work and style before you hired me!" Yes although that may be true, that only applies to the clients you shot before, people are different, look different, you can't apply you style to all events or situations if you plan to continue in the business of professional client based photography. PS: Jessica, I've been following your youtube forever, you do great work, stay adorable and professional. Follow me back on INSTAGRAM! PEACE!!!!

Whoa, okay! Only got through the Part 1 before I have to relate. I had a photographer do the same sort of edit to my photos before. The thing was, I had worked with this photographer before and LOVED the previous pics from them. After emailing them about my concerns, we settled in the middle. Unfortunately, their style had changed from the last time I booked them and I didn't care for how it looked (same concern, desaturated greens and whites far too warm for me, especially considering the outfit was all cool tones and I am a super pale person). I understand that this was now their style, but I had booked them based on past experiences. They are a phenomenal photographer and they are able to capture moments so well. We chatted, she softened the styling a bit, but didn't want to change it too much. I am not a very pushy person and hate appearing as such, so I honestly gave up. They were better and that was enough. What I learned from this experience is that with future Photographers, I will provide a moodboard for them to reference prior to the shoot. If they don't think the style matches their preferences, we can determine that we're not a fit BEFORE the shoot. Woo! Feels good to get that off my chest. Again, they are super talented and very nice to work with. However, I think we all sometimes need to step back and recognize when our paths have diverged. Sometimes it happens, we move on. The thing about art is that it's subjective and it's on us to find people who share our visions!

I looked at the photographer’s IG and it’s VERY WARM and yellow through and through. Photographer should’ve just made this person happy though with light editing with a collaborative approach

I feel like the bride looked more at the photographer's follow count than she did the photography. There's literally SO MANY photographers that could have done the style she edited the raw to look like.

4:46 I want to also say that a preset helps tie all of the photos together. I don’t necessarily want a picture where the blues are very enhance versus a picture that’s very neutral and minimal and then another photo that is very vibrant and almost over saturated. A preset helps tie them all together so that they all feel like one event, beautiful day, and not just a horror show of editing different styles

Love this perspective! I was siding with the wedding photographer, but now you got me thinking. I’m not a photographer, I’m a writer, and it is a HUGE challenge to not impose my style on my clients. Some people can be pretty abrasive in their feedback, but it’s still feedback, and something to work with. I’m not losing out in any way by delivering what the client wants, so I incorporate it and then go rant on a private blog or something. Though I think this bride struck the photographer where it really, really hurts- she shamed her style, even called it lazy!- and I feel really bad for the photographer, I think she should’ve just made the edits and be done with it. Not exactly on the bride’s side either, I don’t think we’re seeing the conversation play out like she’s describing...

I would have personally re-edited the photos for sure if she wasn’t happy. However, the client went a little too crazy with this going viral and now scaring people to not trust their photographer and making photographers scared to work with people now. I don’t think I’ve seen the photographer post anything about this, so I’m curious to know her side of the story

The "It's my editing style" narrative could have worked only if she would have delivered the quality advertised on her page.

I totally agree with you. Client satisfaction is the most important part of our job, and of course if someone is totally unreasonable you have to set your boundaries. But when someone is telling you they are not happy, crying on the phone, you want to at least seem willing to find a solution you are both happy with. I personally think $4000 dollars for the raws is outrageous. I'm a wedding photographer in the Netherlands though and here wedding photography is lower priced than the US in general. But again if you know someone isn't happy with their photo's, I would put my ego aside and do everything that is reasonably possible to make it work for them!

I am not a professional photographer, but I agree the photographer in this situation was not friendly with her client. Like you said, the photographer could have just reedited with natural colors, and all would have been happy.

I get what the bride is saying about the fact that she doesn't look like herself at the pictures. The brightnes and color of her hair and skin are much much closer to each other than in real life. There is much less contrast around her face. And it does make her look very different. My hair always come out different color when I am editing photos to the point that I sometimes need to edit it's color separately. If my wedding photos would come and i have orange-red colored hair instead of deep pink (which tends to happen with 99% of presets i see in apps for example) I would want a different edit as well. But since i know it is an issue I would tell in advance of course, while the bride had no idea her photos can come out like that.

The bride clearly wants realistic tones, not stylized. For $8K, why in the world couldn't the photographer come through for her? IMO, the photographer deserves to take a hit on reputation for this very poor customer service. All that said, we have not heard the photographers point of view but in this case the client comes across very reasonable.

The RAW and edits to me show a serious disconnect between reality and the bride. When the leaves look very muted and autumnal in the raws versus green in the edits something is definitely off. I wonder what the white balance settings were. Also, while raw files are flat, it's easy to over edit them make the final jpg look hideous (speaking from experience). When there is a client involved they will have the final say whether I like it or not. Though we are only getting one side of the story in this case.

One of the main reasons I stay away from Wedding photography but as the client not being satisfied by the photographer and the photog not willing to go above and beyond for a client that paid 8k for photos is selfish on photogs end.

I looked at the photographers page and the photos def match her style but it def seemed like she just added the preset and called it good which like u said a lot of photographers do. I agree with everything you said.

THANK YOU!! Finally a reasonable photographer's take on this.

As a starting photographer myself, what I also think is going wrong is that on instagram you usually don't see the before and after. I also like those galleries with very similar styles and colors. but whenever I follow a tutorial or use a bought preset, I see how much color gets lost from the original pictures. it is normal that there is a difference between how you remember the day and this type of editing. which is personally not what I like or would choose for. for this specific case, we also only hear the brides side, so I am curious what happened behind the scenes. seems like the photograpger tried to resolve it. I did like your tip of providing the pictures with very minimal editing! good video, thanks :)

I expected a bridezilla story, but after seeing the photos she does have a point. They look good initially, but after a while they start to look like faded film photos from thirty years ago. Honestly, I never thought tinting would be a factor in wedding photography. Yes, some adjustments are necessary but these changes are an artistic style. Perhaps natural photography should be the standard and the stylistic ones are an add-on. The photos by the ocean are problematic because the ocean location was deliberate, yet the ocean is almost wiped out.

This is why I don't use presets.But I agree with Jessica , now this photographer is going to be perceived as some one that's very hard to work with.

I always check in with the client after I post previews. The last thing I want to do is edit alllll of the photos only to find out later that they didn’t like them. I know there are definitely some clients that will just never be happy, but that isn’t what happened here imo. It’s also bad for business to be unwilling to work with your client. That bride is never going to use that photographer again, and she certainly isn’t going to refer her to anyone else.

I feel like the warm "dirty boots" style edit is a flavor of the week type of editing style. When doing a wedding I've always tried to edit in the most natural color as possible with a bit of curves but not going to heavy handed on the styling. I think there is a time and place for fad editing styles.

yes presets are used and yes they look different in different lighting conditions, but damn they are super warm! like its overcast. its honestly better to stick to a classic style of editing. our taste changes over time..

Also as someone who makes art for a living when I do the custom orders for people my number 1 priority is for the client to be 100% happy whith the product I am creating, doesn't matter if I see it differently. I need client's confirmation on every step of the way. It is collaborative process, client's vision + my skills. I can't imagine sending a finished product to the client with the different color scheme that they wanted. I can't imagine sending a product that my client is unhappy with

My wedding photographer used a light preset on every one of my photos. My tan Egyptian skin was so pale and my Irish husband looked like a ghost! I, of course, didn't say anything. Luckily I have Photoshop and edited about 70 photos to bring color back to our photos. I think they looked nice after I edited them - but pretty disappointed that I had to go back and edit them myself.

being a photographer myself, I understood the bride for a while and also understood what Jessica was saying about just editing the certain photos again and just adjusting the saturation or preset. But after hearing the photographer’s side of it, I no longer side with the bride like at all. There’s always two sides to every story. 8k is somewhat low for what the photographer provided. especially since it includes travel, probably a second shooter, 2k photos delivered (I take around 6 -8 hours for around 75 photos, I can’t imagine 2k 😂) , 2 days of shooting time. Like wow the photographer seems to have offered everything she could. The bride also stopped responding and decided to take it to social media. I feel terrible for the photographer

i've been a wedding photographer and i'm on the bride side. if you have a client that's not happy with the results because you "style" doesn't work with the actual weather conditions, you should change your edditing to make the pics look good for them. if you use a preset with yellow at 68% it doesnt mean you can't move the slide or your style is gone. we must keep in mind this are not art pieces to hang in a gallery wall, these are someone's life memories and they paid you for it, so photographer sould have offered some edition options and have some flexibitily

Jessica! It was so cool when you popped on my feed again because I remember you from your first site in middle or high school! You're such an amazing example of dedication! So cool to see how you've honed your craft as an artist. I love that you spoke about this because I kept seeing the photographer's side pop up on my feed. Thank you so much for your perspective!

I'm with Jessica, sometimes pleasing a client is actually pretty dang important and I always do my best to have my brides walk away excited and happy!

The photographer is lazy. She basically just turned up the white balance and added more yellow to the whole picture. You can tell this by looking at all of the greenery behind the bride and groom that it looks like it's in the middle of fall. The photographer could have used presets to just capture the bride and groom and boost the colors on them leaving the background untouched. I'd love to see what the Photographer's webpage looks like to see what the Bride was wanting. Either way, the bride has every right to be upset, and the photographer will lose in court because she bascially has not lived up to her contract with the bride. Good luck on slander because those pics are nasty.

I love your input and advice. It is very centered and logical. I would love to know the photographer's POV tho.

Jessica seems to fully side with the bride. I don't quite agree with this. I think mistakes were made by both parties. I have not seen the photographer's page, but assuming that this is her style of editing (not saying I like it!) this is what the client should have expected. I don't think as a photographer you should have to bend over backward to make your client happy. Yes, this should be your aim, but it is important to have boundaries. You cannot re-edit a client's wedding multiple times if they aren't happy. However, I do think that since the client has already paid for re-edits, the photographer should have done a better job in that front. Edit one or two images, send it to the client to find out if they are happy, then continue editing the rest of the set. Sounds to me (from limited info in this video) like the client initially struggled to put her finger and articulate what exactly was bothering her. If she only told the photographer to "enhance her make up" the photographer did not necessarily understand that it was the tones that the client found problematic. This is an unfortunate situation and I feel for both the bride and the photographer.

My wedding photographers did not get a picture of everyone at my wedding and two people have passed since and that was the last time I saw them. :(

I actually love your perspective on this, Jessica. The majority of the photographers in the comments on those TikTok's didn't think that the photographer should adjust her style to make the client happy but as a wedding photographer, I absolutely would. I would find an edit that she's 100% happy with by checking with her and sending different versions as you suggested, only then charge her a reasonable fee for my time re-editing the whole gallery if she needs it done fast. I think sending those few RAWs in the first place was a mistake - I would rather send unedited/minimally edited JPEGs, never RAWs so that the client never even considers asking for ALL of them.

Love your comments. Photog should've taken the 1k and NDA offer. The shots are really nice. I agree that the blanket edit was a bit one note. Shame.

That’s why I edit to true colors so there’s no issues towards the end.

Sounds like the pretty bride got a pretty RAW deal. I give out my RAW photos to clients along with the edited images. To me is like handing over the negatives, back when people got their film developed at Fotomat. No big deal, doesn't cost me anything extra and it makes the client happy.... everybody happy. Why create problems where there doesn't have to be problems.

This has been the most reasonable and balanced response I’ve seen to this whole thing. It’s really great advice

This is the problem with such heavy trends. Wedding sets contain sometimes thousands of images and the large majority of them need to be timeless. A trendy edit can not work on an entire set of images. That’s just cold hard facts.

You're absolutely right on each account, Jessica, thank you for showing us this story. To put another preset is as easy as that, it won't take a huge amount of time (I'm a photographer as well, and I do it all the time) and it won't require RAWs being sent to the client. There's no need to play a principled b*tch and make your client cry (it's not only unfair and cruel, but what if they will bring you many of their friends as clients in the future?). The situation was unnecessarily escalated. Also not every editing style goes well with the weather conditions. This preset looks like #01 of Dirty boots & Messy Hair presets collection, which is beautiful (one of my favs), but for these pictures, it's too vibrant and yellowish. Anyway, yes, the client saw the portfolio, but it's alright if they ask another editing or JPGs without any editing in case if they are utterly unhappy. A little confession: I used to send my wedding couples all unedited pictures to avoid situations like this, and all of them were extremely happy about it because no other photographers did this thing, and they could edit themselves and play with the colours as they liked)) Was it bad for me as a photographer? Not really if you ask them to put in the description that it wasn't your editing.

Omg ,, I’m glad she’s not my client ,, I don’t think she looked at the photographers style at all …. I would fix them and be done with her ..

It is customer's right to get all the RAW photos without paying anything EXTRA. Photographer is not right here. My respect increased for indian photographer after seeing this.

I had a look and starting price for weddings is $6000? Wtf...that photographer is so full of herself. I would never pay that proice for such mediocre pictures. I get the 'golden' gimmick, but it looks like a cop out for really bad editing.

I am a pro mua and I have a very good understanding for how a photographers styles affect makeup. I feel like she also should have known this as well. Her bridal makeup was clearly cool toned, and her photographer is extremely warm so this will obviously affect her makeup tones. She should have chosen a true to life photographer or even one a bit moodier which would show more of the water. I agree the photographer should have handled this better and just re done the edits to avoid this whole mess but the bride also should have known what she was getting into.

You are the best! Your clients are lucky..you are so genuine and caring ❤❤❤

Wedding photog for 20+ years I would have re edited 20 photos and if she liked that I would then re edit the whole collection. We live in a world where just ONE bad review can ruin a business. Why even take it to that extreme. Make the client happy and she will tell everyone. 🎉😊

I don't think we've gotten the photographer's perspective which makes me hesitant to pick one side in this case. We'll never truthfully know what was agreed upon. The bride did however mention she made the mistake of only seeing a few photos and hiring the photographer before really thinking it through. I'm also curious, would 30 days later from delivery be outside of the contracted work? I mention since for me typically I'm done editing and delivering by 3 weeks and need to follow my schedule for other clients

Whatever your editing style is, you can't make white wedding dress yellow while editing. I think her preset were adjusted for the photos taken with the flash(for the white bright light) and that preset isn't working with the natural light of that day. I think it would be better to just re-edit them instead of suing the bride. Or the photographer could even give her some raw photos for a price thats more reasonable. 4k for raws when she already paid 8k for the photographer seems a lot to me. She could just make the bride select some photos and charge her less. Suing her and taking her to the court seems a little too much and will result in more time waste for the photographer then just re-editing the photos.

When people ask me what type of photography do I shoot, my answer is always; "Anything but weddings!"

Client's wants and needs trumps your "style" period. That poor eoman paid over $8,000 dollars for garbage editing period.

Thank you for having a normal reaction about this. I truly thought I was going insane hearing everybody side with the photographer because "that is her style" while also admitting the photos looked bad. I really don't understand the point of going SO far into sepia tone where you can't even see the eye color, leaves, or ocean.

“..if you spoke your truth.” 😂😂 Ma’am, the truth doesn’t belong to anyone. The truth is the truth. It’s not yours, nor mine, nor his, nor hers.

I think since the make up is so different in the re-edits without really changing the temp, I wonder if she imported things to photoshop where they have a new filter that adds make up from a photo. I love my presets, but yea, you go through and adjust. This photographer saying "you knew my style" seems like such a poor excuse. You can watch amazing youtube photographers praise their presets but the moment you buy'em, you realize "Oh, they're made specifically for this one situation and you have to edit more".

without brides and couples and wedding clients we wont be photographers

I'm usually pretty happy to side with the professionals in these cases, because I know that customers can have a lot of unrealistic demands, but does this seem kind of extortionate to anyone else? like I'd love to know if the client was being as reasonable as she's portraying herself to be, but as Jessica said it would have been really easy to re edit, but hey I guess $4k would pay the bills lol :( also, I can't help but wonder how the comments would have differed if it was the groom rather than the bride voicing their concern over the photos. like let's be real, people really like to dunk on women in these situations. we have a whole caricature made up of the "unhappy female customer" ie. the Karen.

I went through hell trying to get raw only photos from a photographer. I tried to build this into the contract from the start because I professionally edit photos and wanted to process my own photos. (I also have done professional photoshoots as a photographer or second, and have had several pictures in juried gallery shows and museums.) I was happy to pay the photographer's normal price and it was still super difficult to get anyone to work with me because they wanted to control the post-processing. Don't get me wrong, I understand as an artist you don't want something going out with your name on it edited in a way that doesn't reflect your style, but it also shouldn't be this hard to make an exception. I would have given her the raws and had her sign a non-disclosure agreement.

“I’m about crying on the phone”, you: shakes head “why” 😂😂😂😂😂😂

I once shot an editorial using a fuji camera and and the client hated the fuji tones and said her iPhone pictures she took was better. Keeping the client happy, I had to re-tone the gallery to match her iphone colorspace and she seemed satisfied with that. I hadn't used any of the Fuji film emulations, just the basic setting, and this was the result of that. I don't fault the client at all, but the lesson I learned is that sometimes our creative eye is different from the client's and hard to reconcile. Thanks J for this great video!

I take so much pride in the photos I take and knowing that my client, especially the bride, was not happy with my work is quite frankly my biggest nightmare. Watching this story is very eye opening for me. I think I’ll be better prepared if this scenario ever comes up for me. Thank you for sharing.

I was working in weddings like 3 months ago... and honestly we always worked with the brides, we are expensive and obviously it takes more time to reedit but making the client happy was our main goal....

I’ve been waiting for you input on this I’m ready!!

Key words “I’m so Happy”… at time of Accepting the Photos. 30 Days later… you want to self edit. That was the beginning of the project. The Client should have had her opinion at the first delivery. She sat on it for 30 whole days.

As a photographer, I also never send RAW images to clients. My personal reason is that I would like someone else editing my RAWs, whether bad or good, and putting my credits on it. After seeing this video, I’m curious to what the overall reason is photographers don’t send RAW’s. What are some of your reasons?

Something similar happened to me too. I haven't fought as she did so I actually don't have single photo from my wedding. I got married in 2022 and I wanted to be beautiful bride. I lost 30kg (from 90kg to 60kg) and he managed to make me look like I haven't lost a single pound... Every single photo is shot in a angle. I mean every single one - group photos? and you stand on the left? well too bad you don't need legs. Gothic architecture all around us? nope! angle it is! I don't have single photo where my dress would be shown in full length. I cry every time my family asks when can I send them photos - I just don't have any. And it's not like I can shoot more..

I watched a case similar to this and the client lost in court as they were happy with the results and then changed their mind. Second opinions changed the client's mind later on. That doesn't entitle her to a refund or an exchange as the Photographer completed the work and fulfilled the contract. Also, if the website and feed is the same as the what the Photographer delivered, the client won't win the case. I'm only halfway in so I will edit if the story changes.

My Mom was a wedding photographer for over 30 years and has done family portraits for most of her life (still does). I think she'd agree with you 100%. My Mom definitely has a photography style (the way she takes photos) and that wouldn't change, but editing is something that can tweaked to fit the needs of the client. The fact that the photographer edited the photo in such a way that the bride had yellow teeth is really unacceptable. When I got married 9 years ago, I honestly wasn't happy with the retouching my photographer did. She softened and airbrushed my face so much that my chin was hard to see, making my face look weird. I got divorced a few years later, so it wasn't a big deal, but I didn't want to hang my photos because of it. I got the raw images, since she was a family friend, and I preferred those, with zero retouching. The rest of the editing was great, it was specifically the way my face was retouched.

This is so interesting to me. Our wedding photographer gave us all our photos edited naturally, in black and white, AND unedited.

Can someone explain why a photographer would not give raws? I’m not a photographer or anything like that, I just don’t understand why a client can’t have their own unedited pictures if they want them?

I think that this is a complex situation, so glad to hear about this from you as we don’t hear from the Photographer involved. I think both sides have gone wrong here… Even with Instagram matching photos I don’t think the Photographer has gone exactly the way she should’ve. You can do a style but still make it look better than that. But the bride shouldn’t have done all she has on TikTok either.

This was such a useful video! I have very little experience working at weddings and I think it’s so important to learn where to draw the line in these types of cases. Btw, I love to learn from your videos 🥹 I usually never comment but I’m always here haha

Finally I’m seeing someone with the same opinion as me for the edits and re editing process. I’d be doing everything I could to make my client happy about this because it shows my business conduct. Shes right, it’s her day and she needs to be happy with the photos. Even giving her the unedited jpgs would suffice 😅 as a photographer I’d probably be pretty unhappy with those edits

The client probably should have done a bit more research on the photographer, however, as photographers, we also sometimes need to put our ego aside and make compromises because we are providing a service. Presets are not one size fits all. Clear communication was not facilitated. Things did not need to escalate to this point and that's on the photographer.

I really wanted to know your opinion on thiss🎉🎉❤

Totally agree with you Jessica. I see both sides, but in the end… I’m here to make my clients happy with their photos.

You made good points. We are in the customer service business. Yet we don’t know the photographers story. We assume what the bribe is saying is truthful. Is she a photographer that took the RAW files and edited them? That sounded fishy. I think people confused a persons editing style with their photography style.