Couple Who Paid Wedding Photographer $800 are Left With 'Dark, Grainy Images', Family's iPhone Photos Better

Couple Who Paid Wedding Photographer $800 are Left With 'Dark, Grainy Images', Family's iPhone Photos Better

A couple has suffered everyone’s worst wedding nightmare. After receiving the professional images back from their photographer, they discovered all of the images were dark, grainy, and unexposed — so much so, their family’s iPhone photos came out better.

What’s worse, the photographer they used came recommended from a mutual friend of theirs. After reviewing the photographer’s Instagram page, the couple agreed on a rate of $800.

Bride Hayley Kelble told Insider:

I had asked her about a contract, because everyone else I had contacted wanted to do a contract right away before anything was settled. She said: 'No, we don't really need to do that.' That was kind of the first red flag.

Kelble said the photographer didn’t use flash in the "dimly lit" church. She said there was also no adequate direction given when posing guests and that the photographer left two-and-a-half hours earlier than agreed.

We moved things around so that she could get pictures of us cutting the cake and stuff before she left. She stayed for like 20 minutes of the reception and left.

Images that Kelble’s mother had taken on her iPhone upstaged the professional images, appearing sharper and warmer.

Insider reached out to Kelble's wedding photographer, who declined to comment. The couple ended up hiring another photographer to re-shoot images in their wedding outfits.

Images used with permission of Hayley Kelble.

Jack Alexander's picture

A 28-year-old self-taught photographer, Jack Alexander specialises in intimate portraits with musicians, actors, and models.

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In articles like this I don’t understand why no one would mention the name of that photographer so that it wouldn’t happen again.

Woah did you write this in your divorce mediation hearing waiting room?

This dude is the biggest misogynist on this site. Half his posts are blasting women. He has serious issues.

I work very hard at becoming the photographer I am today so when I come to a photographer site that rehashes the same old “couple paid low ball figure to amateur who delivered rubbish wedding photos that are worse than iPhone snaps of friends” story, I get disappointed.

I don’t care about failed shoots unless there’s something to be learned. Wedding photography is a wide field that contains really professional people but also a lot of cowboys - so it’s not surprising that somewhere someone will hire a bad photographer or someone who is starting off or who had an incredible bad day.

Can Fstoppers please come up with relevant articles that help us in our work, rather than with silly anecdotes that are based on confirmation bias and add no value whatsoever.

My first reaction was also "you get what you pay for". At the same time if I was between jobs and a friend of a friend came to me asking if I could shoot a wedding for a couple who didn't have a lot of money and could only afford $800 I would probably do it and just find a way to shoot less, batch edit to keep my workload down and still deliver photos that look at least as good as iphone photos. Iphones do take amazing photos though. I'm actually constantly surprised at how good iphones do in poor lighting and for candids they are truly outstanding.

But there's a larger issue here. The fact that they felt the need to RESHOOT THEIR WEDDING! to me is so much more indicative of a larger issue of posturing and vanity and concern for appearances. Sometimes if feels like couples are more concerned with having those perfect wedding photos than the actual experience of being at their own wedding. why not just have a laugh about how you cheaped out on a wedding photographer, ended up with terrible shots and the iphone pics are actually no that bad. good story, move on.

I know a lot of people make their living, feed their kids, etc.. on wedding photography and that's fine. if you can charge 10k to shoot a wedding go for it. you're probably a pro, great to work with and give your clients exactly what they want.
But for me, people get it all wrong with wedding photography. I'd rather give a handful of disposable cameras to a young photographer who takes good energetic, candid pictures of their friends a handful of disposables and instant film, pay them 500 bucks plus food and drink from the wedding, tell them to have fun and shoot whatever they want, pay another 200-300 for developing and scanning and be done with it. You might not get every shot in the wedding playbook but you'll get photos that feel real and that will put a smile on your face every time you look at them and to me that's what wedding photos are all about.

YO! I work at a place that I see ALL KINDS OF SHIT PHOTOS come in and make prints and albums and these people say there photographers, pro photographers!! Bad cropping , grainy shots blown up to size that it shouldnt be, bad color and saying its a look ( no its not its jaundice ) and people PAY THEM!! I can not figure it out for the life of me wha tthey are doing and how they became pro! To be honest most of it is just simple carelessness on the photographers behalf. Now that everything is digital no one worries about it, later they all think it can be fixed in photoshop. on a little screen a photo might look killer and you get all excited but dont forget to look at what you shot it at because at F2 and 32000ISO I dont care what anyone says its not gonna look tight as an 11x14 and if you crop in on it a little its not gonna look any better. Just pay attention to what you are doing because once its shot you cant fix it that much so pay attention to what you are shooting at , AND YES I KNOW, on a wedding day things can be hectic and a little out of hand but thats no fucking excuse to fuck the whole day up . AND STOP THE SHOOT AND BURN!
What the fuck is wrong with you new jacks ???? Put a fucking album on the package bill put a fucking Frame becasue you know why , thats more fuckin money in your pocket at end of the day IF YOU SHOOT YOUR SHIT CORRECTLY!!! You give your client a USB and say thank you or make a link and send it to them on Smug Mug and thats it, they are never gonna go get enlargments they are never gonna make an album. YOU are suppose to show them the way , suppose to be the tour guide for them and show them what a newly married couple NEEDS hanging over the fire place or on the livingroom book shelf over the TV next to Grandmas and Grandpas photo. Come on people what are you doing?? PAY ATTENTION. You are loosing money doing the shoot and burn. I used to make so much extra loot on side being sales on commission with custom frames at one job I had , What the fuck you scared of ?? I totally agree the wedding biz is nuts that why I am behind the scenes now but everything I am saying is common sense stuff. I am sure a bunch of the old school people on here will agreee with me and I am sure a lot will say I am being too much of an ass but you know what , no matter what you think it all comes down to LAZINESS to not put the effort or time in to learn the craft and to watch what they are doing on the photographers behalf.

"If you think hiring a professional is expensive, wait until you hire an amateur."

i OnLY sHOot iN NaTurAL LigHt. That should be the first giveaway, other than the $300 camera and kit lens.

they got what they paid for ;-)

the fact they paid an $800 fee doesn't really bother me (i have friends who paid close to $3K and it took 3+ years to get un-edited photos of their wedding from their photographer sadly). the no-contract though is a huge red flag.

one of the things that is being overlooked here is how the photographer represented themselves on IG as part of the client's 'background check'. were those actually their photos they used or are they using other's work as their own portfolio? trying to get a sense of whether this photographer is talented but gave zero effort, or if they are straight up misrepresenting themselves?

I'm honestly surprised when the "photographer" showed up with an actual potato, it wasn't a dead giveaway.

We were married in my hometown. It's rural. Unemployment is sky high. The meth industry is the only thing growing. It's not a vacation destination. People do not and cannot pay thousands of dollars for photos because their yearly income is around $10-15k.

We paid for our own wedding and I was fresh out of college so our budget for wedding + honeymoon was roughly $3k. We paid ~600 for photography (2 photographers for the entire time). To put this in perspective, the photos were about the same as renting out the "country club" for the service and reception. "Low" pricing does not necessarily indicate a lack of experience or quality. Sometimes it just means you're not in a wealthy area. Our photographer had done most of the weddings (and school events and civic events and sports events) in that area for the last 50 years. We knew what we were getting with him and our photos were beautiful.

The sample pictures had "Alamy" watermarks all over them... Bwahahaha.

A different take:

Wedding photographer has a copyright case when their photographs were posted on well know photographic site without permission.

I know people will say "Fair Use" but I am sure the photographer would argue that this usage was not fair. Also, was the photographer contacted for their side of the story?

However in saying all of the above, yes the pictures of the group photos were not good at all, but why blame just the "cheap" price? They could have spent double the amount and still get bad photographs. The couple should have done a bit more research about the photographer. Heck, even just put the name in Google and see what comes up!

This article pisses me off. First, I should NOT read comments on the internet. I made an exception to this rule since the article was so poorly written, I needed to see WTH the point the author was trying to make. A "27-yo self-taught" was simply trying to stir the pot, IMO, which, based on the comments, he was quite successful. He may be a phenomenal photographer but doesn't list weddings as one of his genres, and a writer, IDK.

If you want wedding style photos hour a wedding photographer

That shot by the lake almost looks like satire! lol

iI will ultimately wind up at MOMA in NYC. :-)

There is a problem here ... complaining that the photographer wasn't paid very much, having had the submitted photographs 'trumped' by an iPhone set ... and so on.

SIMPLY, the photographer did 4 things wrong. Let's call it as it is.

[1] Incorrect white balance
[2] Not very appealing shot framing
[3] Little (if any) post-shoot shot culling, cropping, ''photoshopping'' and color enhancement
[4] (assumed) poor communication to client of #3 as a add-cost option.

I have shot weddings for under $1,000 sort of "on the cheap" with assistant, staged lights, a little opportunistic video and so on. I ALWAYS run 100% of the still shots thru Photoshop for review, file renaming, color correction, cropping, and 'scoring'. I toss out bad shots, toss out 'dumb duplicates', and finally compile all the top-scored shots into an old-fashioned ''contact sheet''. ALWAYS.

From the contact sheets (usually no more than 6 of them), with all photographs' filename numbers affixed, the client can order professional prints in any size they like. They don't get to even look at these prints until the shoot-side of the gig is paid, and the check is cleared. Just the way it is ''in the business''.

Then, I confirm that they really still are interested in the prints. ALMOST ALWAYS they get cold feet (their newly-wed budget is out of control). They want just 3 or 4 of them, in a couple of sizes. No problem. I print them up on archival paper, frame one of them ''as a gift'', and ship them to them pronto. Included is a magnetic refrigerator magnet with my contact information, and a reminder that they can order more of the photos at any time up to 5 years...

I would say BUSINESS-101, actually, was the problem.

Don't blame the camera!

Hilarious. They wanted a Ruth's Chris Filet Mignon, at McDonald's "Value Menu" prices. And then, they were all up in arms when the crappy, stale little Cheezeburger was delivered!

I think a lot of the comments and the tone is so focused on the $800 that people are overlooking the real issue, the “photographer” not a true professional, rather a hack. I do not feel
sorry saying this because as a professional talented photographer who prides myself on my work it’s not the money undercutting that drives me crazy all day, it’s the non-professional hack photographers that deliver work like this that I can’t get behind. When a client emails me about a new project and says they have xxx budget because that’s what they last paid and then I review the work and it’s horrendous, that’s what gets to me. The hacks out there feeding off an industry created by true professionals for many decades, it’s disgusting.

New photographers just learning: don’t charge anything for your first wedding(s) or photo jobs if you cannot guarantee professional level work. Use the experience to gain a stress free approach to learning how to work in the environment and tell your clients “I will not be able to deliver you anything on any value at all because I am a total beginner, anything you get that’s usable is a bonus”.

Charging even 1$ for work this bad should be illegal. It anchors the public consumer into thinking that this is what professionals charge but this person was a hack for pretending to be a pro but Ofcourse not delivering like one.

If the photos you received weren't the same quality as what you saw on their Instagram page I would be suing for my money back in small claims court.if they were the same quality then you have no complaint.
Just the fact that there was no contract signed should have been a non starter.

I think photographers can be pretty myopic. This story is always the same and for every clickbait story there might be 20 people who have done a great job at that price point/skill level. At this point we could probably throw 30 iphone 11s in a basket, tell people to take pictures and return them at the end of the night. Hire a portrait photographer for a one hour session after the ceremony or before the ceremony and call it a day. The idea of spending $2k to $10k just to have someone document your day is a bit out of bounds as it is. I know that isn't what people in this forum want to hear but no one is walking around with their photobooks on them reminiscing their wedding day to the justifcation of what you're spending for a day's service.

Well 10 K seems a bit OTT and I suspect you are exaggerating or at very least comparing apples to oranges. Maybe if you are famous and hiring a special photographer and you may be paying for star quality, trust, NDA’s etc. Are prints involved? A large print at the printer can cost $300 on fineart paper. Framing? The frame can cost you $1000 depending which framer you go, which glass and wood you choose and what size and that’s what they charge the photographer.

But let’s say for the sake of argument we’re not including framed prints. 2-5K seems reasonable depending on scale and time involved and package.

You need to consider that weddings happen on weekends and is pretty seasonal. For every booking there are many days you aren’t booked even if you do other stuff on the side. For every shoot comes days of retouching. A one day shoot means a day of retouching and can mean up to 2 days work. If you charge by the hour - say $50, not a lot by any stretch of imagination for night/weekend work - and the photog. was booked a whole day, 8 hrs on location, this may result in $1200 just on the time spent. Then there’s investment in and depreciation of equipment (2x cameras, 2-3 lenses, drones, computer with expensive graphic cards, storage, flash, etc - easily $15,000 worth), secondary photographer, marketing, taxes, etc. It’s an expensive business to run for a one man band.

I’m not in the market - I spend nothing on my wedding. But then I’m not in the market for « gas guzzling $30,000 SUV’s used by soccer mums who use it exclusively to bring their kids to school and back » either. But certainly don’t expect any results if you pay less than 2K for a day and certainly don’t expect parents shooting on iPhones to get you the shots you want either