Hi, I am facing the biggest disaster you can imagine. I have been shooting wedding for years and have never lost a single photo. 1000 images from the wedding I just shot are corrupt and cant be opened. Please help.

Nikon D700, San Disk 16gb card. RAW Files.

Heres the Story.



I have been a Wedding Photographer for three years now. I have a great business and structure set up. I work with a wonderful second photographer that amazes me every time. Last week she couldn't make a wedding, so I used a girl who showed me her beautiful portfolio, and graduated from an art school with photography as her focus. No Brainer right.



We went to the wedding and immediately i noticed she used a flash for everything. I hate flash photography. But she assured me it was the way she did it and it would look great. I figured I should trust her since she has the degree and Im self taught. During the group portraits she told me to light a scene a certain way, so i trusted her. That was my first mistake. I should have done it my way and not let her influence my work. Anyways. We shot agains a super bright background so she used a remote flash that wasn't strong enough. Needless to say the pictures came out poor. After the wedding i looked at her pictures on the camera and realized they all look horrible, like something you would get from a point and shoot camera. Its no wonder with her flash pointed directly at the people for every shot.



I dropped her off at her place and she insisted i give her MY memory card so she can fix the pictures. I said no but she insisted, she said she has the programs and skills to fix the pictures she had a part of making bad. So i gave her my card. She opened the files on her PC and pulled out the ones that were poorly shot. The folder had 999 images. She then ejected the card and gave me my card back.



I got home and put the card in my MAC and now all of the 854 files (i think she removed the missing shots) that were in the folder she opened are corrupt. I dont know what happend. My files are name JM1_7412.NEF from the camera. All the files that are bad are now named _JM23553.NEF As you can see not only did it move the underscore, but it completely changed the number sequence and added a digit. There was a second folder on the card, when a folder gets to 999, the camera creates a new folder. Every picture in that folder is ok. She never opened this folder on her computer.



I took the card to a camera shop that insisted this would be an easy fix and they would be able to get me JPGs at the least. They just called and said what theyre doing isnt working. What can I do. This has felt like it isnt the standard Corrupt file. I realize all the mistakes I made, I shouldn't have let a fancy portfolio and degree cloud my judgement. I should have kept complete control and not tried anything new for a wedding.



Also when i try to open an image in Photoshop CS5 it say "Could not complete your request because Photoshop does not recognize this type of file."



When i try to open it in Lightroom 4 it says "The files appear to be unsupported or damaged".



I've tried to simply rename them, but it doesnt work.



HELP!!!

Jon

A number of people have had good results from http://tallyns.com See this thread

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=222119

Originally Posted by jonmenezes Hi, I am facing the biggest disaster you can imagine. I have been shooting wedding for years and have never lost a single photo. 1000 images from the wedding I just shot are corrupt and cant be opened. Please help. Nikon D700, San Disk 16gb card. RAW Files. Heres the Story. I have been a Wedding Photographer for three years now. I have a great business and structure set up. I work with a wonderful second photographer that amazes me every time. Last week she couldn't make a wedding, so I used a girl who showed me her beautiful portfolio, and graduated from an art school with photography as her focus. No Brainer right. We went to the wedding and immediately i noticed she used a flash for everything. I hate flash photography. But she assured me it was the way she did it and it would look great. I figured I should trust her since she has the degree and Im self taught. During the group portraits she told me to light a scene a certain way, so i trusted her. That was my first mistake. I should have done it my way and not let her influence my work. Anyways. We shot agains a super bright background so she used a remote flash that wasn't strong enough. Needless to say the pictures came out poor. After the wedding i looked at her pictures on the camera and realized they all look horrible, like something you would get from a point and shoot camera. Its no wonder with her flash pointed directly at the people for every shot. I dropped her off at her place and she insisted i give her MY memory card so she can fix the pictures. I said no but she insisted, she said she has the programs and skills to fix the pictures she had a part of making bad. So i gave her my card. She opened the files on her PC and pulled out the ones that were poorly shot. The folder had 999 images. She then ejected the card and gave me my card back. I got home and put the card in my MAC and now all of the 854 files (i think she removed the missing shots) that were in the folder she opened are corrupt. I dont know what happend. My files are name JM1_7412.NEF from the camera. All the files that are bad are now named _JM23553.NEF As you can see not only did it move the underscore, but it completely changed the number sequence and added a digit. There was a second folder on the card, when a folder gets to 999, the camera creates a new folder. Every picture in that folder is ok. She never opened this folder on her computer. I took the card to a camera shop that insisted this would be an easy fix and they would be able to get me JPGs at the least. They just called and said what theyre doing isnt working. What can I do. This has felt like it isnt the standard Corrupt file. I realize all the mistakes I made, I shouldn't have let a fancy portfolio and degree cloud my judgement. I should have kept complete control and not tried anything new for a wedding. Also when i try to open an image in Photoshop CS5 it say "Could not complete your request because Photoshop does not recognize this type of file." When i try to open it in Lightroom 4 it says "The files appear to be unsupported or damaged". I've tried to simply rename them, but it doesnt work. HELP!!! Jon

welcome, Sound like she changed your files,
i would guess you need to know the software she used, and the workflow,
I would import the pics that have survived and give her back the card and tell her to fix it.
Thats assuming she can view the files, and she probably can, her software probably rewrote the entire folder, and they are no longer real .NEF files.

good luck

if you call this place..open 24/7.... they can tell you if they can help you or not , they recovered images from a memory card that was damaged by a cheap reader for me.

http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/

Try to send to tallyns for a fix.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with trying something new at a wedding. What you did wrong though, was, hiring someone who was entirely unknown- degree or not. As well as letting her take charge during the formals. Especially if you were the main and she the 2nd.

What about YOUR images from your cards? Use your images to recover if the card that she used cannot be redeemed.

I agree, it looks like her software renamed the images...as someone else has said...for what reason, I can't say. I agree, give the card back to her once you extract the good images...and she will most likely be able to copy the images to a couple of DVD's or so...and you'll be okay.

This is the first thing that I'd try...

If it's like I've posted, you could have all of your images in less than 30 minutes...

Let us know. You certainly have my sympathy...good luck.

A little late to the game....but I have always been able to recover images off any bad or corrupt card using either....Lexars Image Rescue (dang my copy is old...like 6 yrs old) or Stellar Phoenix's Photo recovery.......Image Rescue came with my very 1st Lexar 2gb CF card ...it has worked for me on CF and SD cards......Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery ...works on tons of media, Memory Cards, CD/DVD disks, hard drives... they have a long list...i purchased Stellar over 5 yrs ago cause I had over 100 CD disks that went corrupt in less than a week so I recovered and saved on hard drives....I will recommend Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery over Lexars Image Rescue simply for its ability to work with lots of media......the pro edition runs about $60...but that is cheap peace of mind.

Stellar has a free download .... .... I am pretty sure that is their trial version...worth a try......so your card does not have to go any where.