I have warned people multiple times to do their research before hiring a wedding photographer. However, it seems that sometimes even that isn’t enough. A UK couple reportedly hired a photographer based on her portfolio only to discover that she had used stock photos in it. Their wedding photos apparently turned out so awful, that they had to restage the wedding for another shoot.
Lin and Brendan Lavery from Devon, UK, chose their wedding photographer based on the photos on her website and social media page. They say that the photographer charged £100 per hour, but what she delivered was “diabolical.”
“Most of the pictures were out of focus,” Brendan recalls. “They are diabolical. We couldn’t believe that they were that bad.” The couple consulted other photographers to see if anything could be saved in Photoshop. But the photos were reportedly beyond repair, so they decided that staging the wedding photos was their best option. Lin and Brendan then reportedly spent the additional £330 after the wedding to take their photos again. Of course, they had to recreate the wedding and pay for another photographer.
And what about the original photographer? “She took down her Facebook page and blocked us on her profile,” Brendan claims. “We later found out she was an amateur. I wouldn’t have given £200 to an amateur,” he adds.
Reportedly, the photographer in question had posted stock photos to her social media pages. Naturally, something like this misleads the potential clients, and this is what happened to Lin and Brendan. According to the couple, she has removed her Facebook page after the incident, and she blocked both of them on social media.
Now, posting other people’s stock photos to your portfolio is a big no-no. Unfortunately, photographers who do this can mislead their clients and leave them disappointed after delivering images (if they even deliver them). But I think there was a potential warning sign in this case: the price.
Charging £100 per hour seems to be a bit low for wedding photography. According to Your Perfect Wedding Photographer, the average price of wedding photography is around £1,500. A for the hourly price, a UK average is between £300 and £750 according to bdivine
Of course, when choosing your wedding photographer, I still think it’s important to go through their portfolio first. However, don’t disregard the price and don’t choose someone just because their rate is the lowest. Most of the time, you get what you pay for. So, make sure to research the average prices for your area, and if the photographer’s rate seems too low, then do more thorough research. Either try and find recommendations for that particular photographer… Or try to find somebody else.
[via FStoppers]
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