How to get rid of unwanted wedding guests
One of my most common wedding retouching requests
How to get rid of unwanted wedding guests, is a very common photo editing enquiry I receive. I am not talking about calling the police or security to eject an unwanted guest. It is an enquiry to remove unwanted guests from wedding photos.
Over the years I have edited out bridesmaids, the best man, maid of honour and annoying in laws to mention a few. There are so many examples in my blog of getting rid of these unwanted guests photo editing. I created a video in Keynote of a few example photos I downloaded from Unsplash. I am bound by client confidentiality to not use their photo edits. Here is the video I posted:
To my surprise, it has thousands of views. There are tons of people searching online for this photo editing service. It is a pity that one of the most special days of your life is ruined by a guest at your wedding. It seems that weddings can bring the worst out of people, especially ones that were family or close friends....
While editing these wedding photos, painstakingly erasing these guests from existence, I often think about what happened in these peoples lives to reach this point. Why was the guest invited in the first place? One of the most common reasons for unwanted wedding guests, is the obligation of inviting the family of the bride or the groom. The ones you have to to invite, even if you can’t stand them! From the email correspondence I get whilst editing the photos, what usually seems to happen is that these guests are very vocally critical of the choice of partner the bride or groom has made to get married to.
After the ceremony, the wedding photos are sent by the photographer. This is where the fun begins. It is quite easy to understand the desire to remove an annoying grandad, whose flatulence spoilt the exchange of vows. Or the mother of the groom who visibly did not approve of this union. And to boot thought the bride looked like a cheap hooker.
The most interesting unwanted wedding guests that need editing out are the really close friends, the best man, maid of honour, bridesmaid or even the brother of the groom. What shenanigans must have taken place to reach this point. While editing out the maid of honour from a set of wedding photos, I could not help but notice her "Mona Lisa" type of smug expression in all of the photos.
And judging by the correspondence I received from the bride, It would seem that she was way way more than only friends with the groom. The husband is more than likely still bringing home gifts of flowers and sentimental chocolates to atone for his philandering behaviour.
The same has happened on numerous photo edit enquiries, removing the best man. Maybe he was dallying for one final fling with you know who, or marking his territory one last time.
How to get rid of unwanted wedding guests:
Unfortunately there is no easy way to edit out these people. Usually I use the pen tool to cut out the offending guest. I move other people around in the photo and clone a new background into the empty space. Below is a video I uploaded showing the photo editing process:
For me the most satisfying aspect of wedding photo editing is the feedback I get back from my clients once I have sent the final photos. If you have unwanted wedding guests you want to remove from your wedding photos, get in touch.
I will make sure you have a day to treasure!
About the Creator
chris ganser
I am a Professional photographer and a photo editor. If you want to find out more check out my websites:
https://websitedesignandmedia.com/ & https://www.photorestorationretouching.com/
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Comments (1)
I've edited out plenty of unwanted wedding guests. It's a common request. Family obligations often lead to inviting people you'd rather not have in the photos.