Not happy with engagement pictures...

Yeaaaaaaaaaa photographers kind of do that. Maybe he will let you sit through them as he goes through them and yall can discuss?

Do you have a contract that spells out how many photos you would get for the fee?

I think it is fairly standard for photogs to not give you bad pics (it reflects poorly on them, after all).

Have you booked him as your wedding photog?

I'm shocked he only showed you 23 of them... I know our photographer narrowed it down but it wasn't by that much.

Maybe mention a pose you didn't see or something - he might have only edited 23 of them and that's what he showed you? Some photographers don't like showing pics un-edited but that's no reason not to show you more. You should be the one choosing the ones that you like. As far as him publishing them if you signed the waiver he can post what he wants but in terms of him showing YOU there shouldn't be a limit...

Wow that's awful. My photographer will be giving us all the photos on a USB. She will pick ones she likes to show on her website if she chooses, but all the photos will be ours.

We had the same problem and now I have to have the hard conversation telling my friend we are going with a different photographer...good luck!

He's fairly new to the business which was fine with us because he does incredible work, but because of this it was pretty low key (no contract or anything). And no, he isn't our wedding photographer because we're getting married in our hometown (10 hours away). It's just so tough because he is a friend, but at the end of the day we paid him for a service and the way he's making it out to be feels like WE paid HIM to just build his portfolio... feels backwards to me

But now I'll be sure to make sure this problem doesn't occur with our wedding day photographer.

I don't think our photographer showed us every single frame and she didn't show us any that were unedited, but from a 2-3 hr e-pic shoot we got 85 or so images.

Personally - I didn't love all of our e-pics, we were really nervous and it showed. And the ones the photog loved were not my faves. I think as a pro she's more critical of her lighting/movement/composition, and as the subject I'm more critical of my arm fat and the angle of my nose. But we DID get a few great ones. And it taught us a lot about what we wanted and what to do for the wedding.

If you're already contracted to this guy for the wedding, I'd look at it as a good opportunity to clarify your expectations and what you like/don't like. Do you expect a certain number of wedding photos? We got a disk with 800 or so. Are there certain shots/angles you absolutely do NOT like of yourselves? Tell him now!

Or do you want a re-do of your e-pics or do you just think you need a new photographer altogether?

Oh oops - I just read your update.

Will you have any chances to see your wedding photographer between now and your wedding? It might be nice to do an e-pic or just a portrait shoot with him/her before the wedding day just to get acquainted.

If this guy is building his portfolio and you don't have a contract with him, I'd push him to just edit the remaining images and give them to you so that you can give him more feedback as a client that he can use for future. Tell him you understand what he's saying but you're just not 100% thrilled with the selection he gave you and you want to see more. It can only be educational for him.

He definitely needs to know that only 23 images from an e-pic shoot is substandard. At least it is IMO. And he needs to learn to be more specific with contracts in the future.

How much did you pay him?

Normally he charges around $200 for engagement pictures but he only charged us $80 which was a great deal for us but I really don't think it was worth it for the 3 pictures we actually liked.

Danielle, sounds like you got a great deal for $80. I'm sorry, but that really is a great deal...even if you only like 3 images. If the images are technically good (exposure, color, lighting, and posing), the photographer has done his job. He shot, he edited, and he spent time with you whether on the phone or in person. That is hours of work...not just the one hour he spent with you. His time, his equipment, his creativity...those are worth something. I understand that you don't like the angles or posing and for that, I'm truly am sorry. However, I have to ask...are you being hyper critical of yourself & how you look? If the photos are the ones on your profile, they look really great! Were you wanting more posed shots instead of photojournalistic? Is that the issue, maybe? Go back and look again. Just food for thought.

This doesn't sound right...we got 200+ photos for our engagement session.

Our photographer took about 300 of us, took out the awkward and bad ones, which left us about 150 to look at. She then let us pick the ones we wanted edited, about 50. We also got to keep the un-edited ones. I thought that was standard. I'd ask him to show all, and let you pick like my photographer did. We paid $200 for e-pics as part of our wedding package.

Is it possible to ask him to see some of the other images to choose for yourself? Unfortunately this is often the name of the game now days in photography, with digital, anyone can call themselves a pro. I'd hope that with photoshop and a decent camera, I'd be Able to produce 20-30 great shots out of 200+. In fact, I could show you some great shots I've taken at friend's weddings w/a point and shoot+editing. If he's new, I'd run and find a new photographer. Ask to see entire wedding portfolios vs their 5-10 best shots they've ever done.

I was kind of thinking part of what Danielle said too, I just wasn't sure how to phrase it. Did he use your shoot to experiment with new styles? Do your pics look really different from his other work? Just curious.

I do totally understand being disappointed if you wanted more images to make a book or something, and you only ended up with 23 total. That's where I think he needs to be more clear with clients in the future, so that is the point I would raise with him if anything.

I guess I would think about why I wanted the photos. We just did e-pics as sort of a practice run b/c they were included with our wedding photog's package. She does that to get acquainted with her clients so she can shoot them better on the wedding day. And like I said I didn't love most of our e-pics either, but that was a function of us getting comfortable with her and the camera, not her work in general. It was light years' difference from our e-pics to our wedding pics!

AWE so sorry to hear. I am extreme amateur but I know my own and FH best angles and I know the basics of photography so I gave my Sony NEX and put it in my mammas hands and told her what to shoot and how to shoot it and all our photos turned out FAB nobody could tell that we did them ourselves : ) maybe try that? The reason I did this is because my wedding PHOTOG is my uncle form NY we are flying him up for the wedding but we live in WA and didnt want to fly him up 2x and I also didn't want to pay for a special engagement shoot with a different photog. anyways just me encouraging you to try it on your own ; ) heres a few of our favs from our shoot! again NOT professional

Yea, our photographer gave us all of the photos she took (I'm sure she took out some which weren't great) and we got like 200 photos. If your contract didnt state how many you would get, you have a right to the photos he took of the two of you. If he said you get the best 25 then you have to suck it up and either deal with him or find a new photographer. $80 is a good price for e-pics- ours was $250 for a dvd of all images and the shoot was included in our package for the wedding day.

Photographers are very protective of their work, aka reputation. They don't want any bad or unedited photos circulating to preserve their reputation.

If they are 23 unique photos, each being a unique pose, it's on the low end, but not unreasonable, especially for $80.

If he's a friend, you could ask to see the photos on his computer (that way you don't have a copy, and he doesn't have to worry about it circulating), and go over which photos you'd like to keep. Maybe he'll let you do that.

I agree that $80 is a great deal and I am very appreciative that he offered that to us. I just feel like he chose the shots that made him (or his work) look best, not us. I just realized that the ones that we feel turned out great, are ones where we are not looking at the camera. The ones when we ARE looking at the camera are just awkward.. like one of us is blinking or clearly mid-sentence with our mouths open or something. I guess we'll just ask him to see the photos on his computer so he can still control whether or not they get circulated like sundaycupcake suggested. Thank you all for your input!!

I'm not to thrilled by mine. I'll get the disk tomorrow but eh. Going to try for another one closer to the wedding.

I think he should've allowed you to select the pictures you liked. When I modeled for fun, it's how it worked. The photog would edit the pictures I liked the best and give me the rest on a disk or emailed.

I had the exact same thing happen to me. I have still been to nervous to go back to the photographer and tell them that I didn't like the pictures but needless to say they didn't get my booking when I choose my photographer for the wedding.