I was recently married, for the occasion I hired a professional photographer at some expense. After my honeymoon I was informed by the photographer there had been a "camera malfunction" and she could only salvage 200 photos. She says 200, but they are 200 of pretty much the same thing so its really more like 20.

She has sent me a CD with the CR2 files on, i have opened them in a RAW editor. They are all 0 x 0 pixels yet they all have a decent file size. Due to the file size being there, could the data be there still?

The moron photographer has not only formatted but also reused the compact flash cards basically wiping out the original data so all we have is this CD.

Just looking for advice about retrieving the photo from these files, think there is any chance?

Also she only used 1 camera at my wedding and at no point stopped to backup to a laptop or anything, people have said this is not normal, is that so?

Appreciate your advice. JTG

Managed to open them as photoshop RAW in PSCS3 all just fuzz and gray :(

Ouch... Backups depend on the photographer - it's a wise precaution, but not everyone does it.

you can try using a program like image recall to see if it can pull data -http://www.imagerecall.com/

It's been helpful to me in the past.

Sorry to hear about your experience. This is why I won't ever shoot weddings.

:( Bummer, sorry to hear it.

No advice on retrieving the images, but I assume that you're going to ask for a full refund -- their 'camera malfunction' is not your problem, and they failed to fulfill their end of the contract i.e. provide you with pictures of your wedding. I would think it's the least you can expect.

Also, have you thought about contacting all the wedding guests, to try to round up as many pictures as possible from them? You might be surprised at the quality of some of the 'snaps' -- in fact we have a bunch of 'unofficial' pics taken by guests who then sent them on to us and (whether by luck or talent) quite a few are better than the 'pro' shots.

Best of luck.

I think the images are beyond recovery since she fomatted AND re-used the Compact Flash card at another wedding.

I have requested a full refund and all the images that worked out. Her counter offer was to put together a package containing canvas, large prints and an itallian album. I dont see the point though if there is no images of the ceremony, first dance etc etc

Get ur money back.

Agreed... fancy prints of lousy shots are worthless. Another good reason to make sure each table at the reception has a couple of disposable cameras on it - 80% of the shots will be useless but the rest will be worth it.

Originally posted by: Stickman Also, have you thought about contacting all the wedding guests, to try to round up as many pictures as possible from them? You might be surprised at the quality of some of the 'snaps' -- in fact we have a bunch of 'unofficial' pics taken by guests who then sent them on to us and (whether by luck or talent) quite a few are better than the 'pro' shots.

Best of luck.

Really sorry for you both :(

We went to a friends wedding held at Sandals in Antigua. they paid for the full wedding photo and video package. It was absolutely shite - no decent stills and te video footage was worse than my 13 month old boy could have shot.

The stills that I took were better than the pros - despite the fact that the pro stood in the optimum position for each shot and tried to stop us happy-snappers from getting in on the action. I put together a nice little album for them which they were far happier with than the crap that they had paid for from Sandals.

So yeah - contact all the guests and ask them if they have some nice shots - then build yourself a nice little album using that booksmart site that MC linked to a while back.

Originally posted by: arigato Agreed... fancy prints of lousy shots are worthless. Another good reason to make sure each table at the reception has a couple of disposable cameras on it - 80% of the shots will be useless but the rest will be worth it.

At a wedding Kirra and I shot a couple weeks ago, we gave Joe my Canon G5 to shoot with based on the same principle. We got a lot of crap, and a few really sweet shots.

Thanks for the thoughts and info folks. Our videographer has sent us a few stills from the video to show us what quality they would be after telling him of the situation. I think we can pull some nice stills from there as well as ask the guests about their snaps.

The vid was shot in HD (1080i) which i think makes the stills about 3 megapixel. They will need a little PS work but not too much. At least this way we get good angles on the main events: ceremony, first dance etc..

I have already been given a few nice snaps from a guest, just of the reception so far but they will hopefully keep on coming and we can get a good album together

Photographer is now offering to clean up video stills and make album from them, think she is trying to avoid the refund.

Full refund - accept nothing else.

Originally posted by: JimmyTheGent Photographer is now offering to clean up video stills and make album from them, think she is trying to avoid the refund.

sounds like both parties need to know where the line is drawn so that the expectations from both of you are clear.

Originally posted by: JimmyTheGent

Photographer is now offering to clean up video stills and make album from them, think she is trying to avoid the refund.

avoid the refund my arse. I would give her 200 bucks for her time and the 20 pics you were able to use.

Thats shitty man :(

A refund isn't enough. She should have to pay for a re-shoot, wedding, reception and all.

That's the pits, Jimmythegent. Sorry to hear about this.

Originally posted by: FlamingoJeff A refund isn't enough. She should have to pay for a re-shoot, wedding, reception and all.

That is the reason nobody in their right mind shoots weddings right here.

I just can't see how weekend wedding warrior shooters can stand to take on that kind of perceived liability. I guess a pro should cover all his bases and make sure he has salable shots, but one fucked up day could cost my whole year's income. If you are a photographer looking to dabble in weddings, make sure your contract is strong or just don't do it.

Is there any kind of insurance for something like this for the photographer?

Originally posted by: Ed Suspicious

Is there any kind of insurance for something like this for the photographer?

Multiple bodies, multiple cards, progressive uploads over the course of the event.

Otherwise, not that I'm aware of.

We dont want a reshoot, all the special moments have passed. If in 40 years we looked back at the pics from a reshoot all we would see is that day we stood about again because the photographer messed up. All the little important bits from the day are gone.

Depending how much photoshop work needs done on the video stills it may be worth considering. I can do all the basics but wouldnt have time for monotonous long jobs. If she just plans to sharpen a litttle and stick them in an album then forget that.

The last wedding I went to, there were two photogs and four cameras.

At my sister's wedding, there were two photogs (three, if you count Joe). Photos were on 4 or 5 different cards on three cameras. They're now on DVD and two hard drives.

Redundancy and back-ups, people.

Originally posted by: mclarkson The last wedding I went to, there were two photogs and four cameras.

At my sister's wedding, there were two photogs (three, if you count Joe). Photos were on 4 or 5 different cards on three cameras. They're now on DVD and two hard drives.

Redundancy and back-ups, people.

that's the diff between the pro's and a has-been w/end warrior. In this day and age there's no excuse for not having the backup/extra gear.

For me and our wedding tho, out of all the pix I have one of my bride that is way above all the rest. It is enlarged, framed and up on the picture rail in the dining room. I wouldn't care if none of the other wedding pix existed because for me that's the one that counts. Over the years that one photo has been worth the cost of the wedding shoot.

If you get one like that then you've hit the jackpot mate - I hope that you get it because it will make the whole sorry mess quite insignificant.

I've been asked to shoot several weddings and have declined every single time(even turned down a free trip to the Dominican). It is soooooo not worth the headache, stress and ridiculous expectations. I think shooting weddings would be the one thing that would make me quit photography.

Hope you are able to salvage some great shots JTG and wtf at the 'pro' photographer formatting her memory card. I leave shots that I shoot leisurely on my card until after I've processed them and if I'm doing something professionally I'll buy a new card strictly for that shoot, memory is dirt cheap. Hell, I just picked up a high speed 4 gig CF card for $35.

edit: and definitely get a full refund

A wee update on this,

The photographer has again offered to take about 40 stills from our videographers footage and "clean them up". Then as compensation create an album of about 75 images showing the story of our wedding day. The 75 images being made up from photographs and HDV Stills.

Personally I would say just give us the RAW files of the images that turned out and our cash back but the Mrs really an album more than the money as do I.

How much would it normally cost to have someone clean up about 40 stills to the best clarity? Worth me going with this offer or getting money back and paying soemone else to do it maybe.

In photoshop anything's possible.... I guess the question you should be asking is if your photographer is up to the task, and/or if you want the photographer to do it, or if you want to go with a retouching pro instead. Any professional photographer worth their salt should be able to pull awesomeness out in post, but then again any professional photographer worth a flying fuck wouldn't have had only one memory card on hand, then fuck it up to boot. No harm in getting some quotes from retouchers in your area to check.

it's hard to give pricing offhand as a) I don't know your local rates and b) retouchers vary in price wildly, from about a dollar a photo to thousands of dollars a photo ...or more.

Get your money back and give the work to McBeirdyTouchMeUpProClarkson.

Keep it 12S.

Originally posted by: Technomancer Get your money back and give the work to McBeirdyTouchMeUpProClarkson.

Keep it 12S.

What a simply smashing idea!