'Terrible' professional photography- Gutted

whitewash

whitewash

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yesterday i graduated for the second time from university and this time we decided to get a professional photograph of me graduating to match the one of my sister graduating last year.....

So anyway my mother went to the stand that sold the pictures of us on stage recieving our awards....

given that this photograph is suposedly taken by a professional who knows what they are doing its painfully bad, the exposure is all wrong, its poorly framed, i think the white balance is off as well! (infact id suggest its got all the hallmarks of a photograph thats been pulled within an inch of its life in photoshop by someone who doesnt know what they are doing) its just a terrible picture, a 4 year old could have done better with a point and shoot or even an echasketch!


Its ok though, i guess ill have plenty more chances in life to get my photo taken shaking hands with Brian May from Queen :bang::bang::bang:

Im tempted to write a complaint letter about the quality of the photography from their so called 'professional' official photographer...
 
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Has the photographer given you permission to scan it and post here?
 
:agree::rules: Wouldn't want to be breaching someone elses copywrite. No matter how bad the photo. Don't like it, don't buy it.
 
Dave Stone said:
:agree::rules: Wouldn't want to be breaching someone elses copywrite. No matter how bad the photo. Don't like it, don't buy it.
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unfortunately that isnt the point...its a once in a lifetime event, you want a record, not someones halfarsed attempt to get it right...I'd be annoyed..
 
Professional just means that someone is paid to do a job, doesn't imply the quality of the job.

You get good plumbers and bad plumbers. Both are "professional".

You get good car mechanics and bad car mechanics. Both again, are "professional" in that they are paid to do the job.
 
If you bought the print then you expect a reasonable standard of work. If you think it's not up to the quality you expect then you can seek redress from the company/person who sold you the print. Find out who they are if you don't already know and take your complaint to them, don't let them get away with it.
 
puddleduck said:
Professional just means that someone is paid to do a job, doesn't imply the quality of the job.

You get good plumbers and bad plumbers. Both are "professional".

You get good car mechanics and bad car mechanics. Both again, are "professional" in that they are paid to do the job.
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I could not agree more, its just a word.
 
Steep said:
If you bought the print then you expect a reasonable standard of work. If you think it's not up to the quality you expect then you can seek redress from the company/person who sold you the print. Find out who they are if you don't already know and take your complaint to them, don't let them get away with it.
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:agree:

Also are you sure they were "professional"? My lecturers regularly get e-mails from other departments or even other universities asking for some of their students to cover graduation ceremonies to cut back costs. Then you have a few students covering an event for the first time and it turns into a bit of a disaster.

I would complain, even to get your money back.
 
Where was this done? I was on a job at York uni yesterday and whilst I waited for my client I watched the official togger shooting yukky blue mottled background shots. I took my client to a beautiful local park instead. :)
 
Ive just looked at the gallery in question and tbh I'd be quite disappointed of what looks like a long distance photo of you sticking your hand in a bundle of hair with a gown on. Although I'm betting they weren't allowed much run of the place.

I didn't actually find your photo (I was looking for the bald one in a gallery full of mortarboards).

The bird on page 2 has nice cans though.
 
Marcel said:
Ive just looked at the gallery in question and tbh I'd be quite disappointed of what looks like a long distance photo of you sticking your hand in a bundle of hair with a gown on. Although I'm betting they weren't allowed much run of the place.

I didn't actually find your photo (I was looking for the bald one in a gallery full of mortarboards).

The bird on page 2 has nice cans though.
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im not bald you cheeky (bald) monkey!

15th july LJMU gallery (10.30 service) Im on the second page. im the first picture on the 3rd page.

my thoughts are that they were too far away, meaning that the flash didnt illuminate anything but the highlights of peoples skin, leading to that horrible red look of skill but with blown highlights, not very good as far as im concerned but given that they have sole rights to take pictures (guests are too far back to take pictures) then you;d have thought they would have attempted to get better pictures (perhaps even a diffused flash positioned nearer the stage on a stand would have fixed it) after all, they only had 10 ceremonies to photograph and hone their skills!
 
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I can't find the site/page you're on about. I'd like to see it because I have my graduating ceremony in November.
 
Can someone give me the link to the bird with nice cans please

Ta
 
Vic said:
:agree:

Also are you sure they were "professional"? My lecturers regularly get e-mails from other departments or even other universities asking for some of their students to cover graduation ceremonies to cut back costs. Then you have a few students covering an event for the first time and it turns into a bit of a disaster.

I would complain, even to get your money back.
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naaaah, the exact opposite (for the /sold/ photos for ceremonies and the balls at least - photos for departments etc may be different)... there's a few companies in the UK that specialise in graduation stuff, they often have tie-ins with the gown hire or graduation ball event companies, will pay a few grand upfront to the university, which no smaller operation could afford to do, and end of the day, the university only cares about how much they get given, rather than the quality of the photos, their own photo dept will take photos for prospectuses etc anyway, leaving the students with expensive photos of not great quality...
 
I graduated from LJMU last year, photos were pretty shocking then, too; not that it's any consolation.
 
whitewash said:
im not bald you cheeky (bald) monkey!

15th july LJMU gallery (10.30 service) Im on the second page. im the first picture on the 3rd page.

my thoughts are that they were too far away, meaning that the flash didnt illuminate anything but the highlights of peoples skin, leading to that horrible red look of skill but with blown highlights, not very good as far as im concerned but given that they have sole rights to take pictures (guests are too far back to take pictures) then you;d have thought they would have attempted to get better pictures (perhaps even a diffused flash positioned nearer the stage on a stand would have fixed it) after all, they only had 10 ceremonies to photograph and hone their skills!
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Lol Oops! Sorry I could have swore you were!

You're probably right though, it doesnt take a genius to put a flash or two nearby. Mind you that would mean investing in kit with wireless triggers, and I'm guessing they don't use kit at that level tbh. It seems its a typical shoot straight and sell outfit. Pile em high, sell em cheap sort of thing. (Bit like race photos)
 
I spent a bit of time at a company that did graduations. They really don't give a crap about quality its just a production line. All images were shot in jpeg and i don't think the photographers ever saw the pictures off camera they just expected the pp team to sort it out. the pp team were 2 guys that worked their nuts off getting crap images up to a standard that was just barley printable.

The theory was 90% of people will just pay up and not say a thing and of the people that did complain they could tweak it a bit more in photoshop.

I simply could not work for a company like that. If i was a photographer for them i would probably end up shooting that way. If i never reviewed my images i was on such little pay and all i did was shoot people being handed a bit of paper day in day out I don't think i would give a crap after a few weeks. They could use nikon CLS and quickly and simply get a bit more light into the picture without it being intrusive but then i suspect that would be too complicated for the tog to work out. Anywhere with high ceilings dark non reflective walls and surfaces is going to look trash if your only using one flash blown straight at your subject from a distance.

They would probably be better off shooting a d3s natural light than bothering with flash
 
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whitewash said:
by god thats terrible, really wise id looked a bit closer at who was actually doing the photography, instead i was looking for hard to pronounce names in the program hoping the speaker would fluff up.

but yes redeye with a flashgun is going some!
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Lol! Some things never change, we did the same last year. :D What course were you on? Some sort of engineering?
 
matty said:
unfortunately that isnt the point...its a once in a lifetime event, you want a record, not someones halfarsed attempt to get it right...I'd be annoyed..
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Then why take a chance with a Tog supplied by someone else if you do not know how good their work is. If it's a "once in a lifetime moment" then it would be prudent to hire your own Tog. That is NO excuse for breaching copywrite!
 
dedicated to Graduation DVD and Photography solutions. With over fifteen years experience, we are committed to providing universities and their graduates with high quality, professional DVD and graduation products with excellent customer care and efficiency.
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Wonder if the office of fair trading would agree with that if they saw those pics ?


.
 
Dave Stone said:
Then why take a chance with a Tog supplied by someone else if you do not know how good their work is. If it's a "once in a lifetime moment" then it would be prudent to hire your own Tog.
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because its a closed door, i.e ticket only afair, all guests must stay in there seats which means that you couldnt have your own photographer in there, you are tied to the 'official photographer' and as far as im concerned the uni should (im writing a letter to the university about this) vet their official photographer rather than simply plump for the one who coughs up the most cash as these *****hawks aint got a clue how to take a decent picture
 
If it's a closed door then, as you say, they should be getting a descent Tog in. I don't think a strongly worded letter would be out of order.
 
I had a similar experience. Subject not centred in the frame (I mean...really? How could you even stand to present that to a customer?), completely out of focus, underexposed...

Considering the price of the package, I expected more. Actually, considering there was a price at all, those mistakes shouldn't have been there. I had a bad feeling about it from the off, with the whole shoot lasting literally about 40 seconds from set-up to finish.

If having a good photograph is worth it to you (which, for a once-in-a-lifetime event, I suspect it might be) get a refund, hire the gown and take your business to a competent photographer. This type of photography isn't hard; there's no reason why a photographer shouldn't be able to produce excellent images, even in the "production line" context of graduation.
 
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