Thankfully the dogs were spared.

January 12, 2018 4:48 PM

Ok. This is NOT a joke. We paid a photographer, who claimed to be a professional, $250 for a family photo shoot. Please see these FOR REAL photos she delivered to us….She said the shadows were really bad on the beautiful, clear, sunny day and that her professor never taught her to retouch photos. [Twitter link]
posted by Atom Eyes (10 comments total)

Okay this is the photographic version of Beast Christ...

But people should know that a "clear, sunny day" is not the kind of day you want for best lighting. You want a consistently, lightly overcast day.

That said, she should have/could have had bounce cards and the like.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:57 PM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

To me the funniest part is that the aggreived consumer thinks $250 is a lot to spend for professional family portraits.

Yeah, you can find a friend who's a talented amateur, or a dedicated product/fashion/architecture photographer looking for some quick cash on the weekend, for double that. If you're really lucky.

Photography is both craft and art and much harder than advertised to get good results with a frame-able print. Fuck you, pay them.
posted by Slap*Happy at 4:58 PM on January 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

Oh, the Meyers family. There’s Michael, and there’s...
posted by uncleozzy at 5:00 PM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm confused
posted by HotToddy at 5:01 PM on January 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

On the one hand, if there's no refund here this seems like a no-brainer to win in small-claims court. On the other hand, if you go to small claims court do you not get to keep the pictures? Because I think I'd want to keep the pictures. They're just awful in that so-awful-they're-awesome sort of way.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:01 PM on January 12, 2018

Yeah this would normally cost more than $250, but if this photographer agreed to take $250 and their agreement was not for pictures drawn in with MS Paint, then the photographer has a duty to provide actual pictures of quality at least on par with "I snapped this picture of our vacation on my phone." Sure one could imagine that at that price they would have problems, but this is well beyond "the white balance is off" or "there's a tree growing out of your head."
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:06 PM on January 12, 2018

“Masking tool” taken literally.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:06 PM on January 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

I like how apparently they had the originals, and then these "retouched" versions, looked at both, and thought "yep, send them the retouched ones!"
posted by axiom at 5:08 PM on January 12, 2018

Glad you included the yesprobablyfake tag. It's really hard to believe that someone could be that incompetent but that consistent.
posted by octothorpe at 5:12 PM on January 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

The plot thickens - watermark: "Lesa Hill" - Googled the name and...Lesa Hill, Pacific Plastic Surgeon
posted by davebush at 5:17 PM on January 12, 2018