# Please Help Fix My Corrupt Wedding JPEGs



## waterloggedsock (Dec 5, 2009)

I'll keep the story short. We hired a wedding photographer that was very arrogant and said he was basically the grandmaster of all photographers in Western PA. He's an old snake that may have been good 20 years ago, but he has let himself go and scams people on their wedding pictures. This guy lied about what he was giving us and then when we called him out on it he threatened to take away our wedding pictures. He yelled at us, bringing my wife to tears, and told us to take the crappy pictures he was giving us and smile on our way out the door. We have since brought a lawsuit against him and won because of his dishonest scamming ways.

With that background in mind... The photographer had about 125 images he took that got saved on a flashdrive as corrupted files. He refused to give us the SanDisc SD card the images were on, but instead copied, pasted, and burned the files onto a cd for us. We have the cd. The files are corrupt and cannot be opened. They appear to be saved as JPEG files but he told us that he shoots in RAW on some Cannon camera he used. I have tried about 20 forms of freeware on the web trying to get these JPEGs to open. I have also sought answers all over the place. I'm stumped.

I am really hoping to give these Wedding images to my wife for Christmas. Because they are precious to us I am willing to pay for your time and efforts if you can truly get it open. At this point I have been too afraid to pay for software or big tech guys who may in the end just say "yeah, you're screwed." If you can open them I would be willing to give you at least something for your efforts. I have uploaded a couple of the files to 4shared. They can be accessed at this address: http://www.4shared.com/dir/24915904/13114423/sharing.html If it would be more helpful to have a copy of the full cd, I can make one and mail it your way. Also, if you just want to reply with suggestions I'm fair game for that too.

Also posted here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...se-help-fix-my-corrupt-wedding-jpegs-773557/?

I appreciate you taking the time to look at my post. I am especially grateful for those who may try to fix them and come up short. I have given you all the info I know up to this point and thank you for your time. Thanks again.

Brendan


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## DonaldG (Aug 23, 2007)

Hi Brendan

I have tried to look at one of the photos in Photoshop and it also reports corrupt or unknown format.

I will try another little trick and see if I can recover any part of the image. 

If I am successful, I will PM you with my postal address. I would not need any payment - I just know how you must feel...

A wedding photographer only has one chance of getting it right!


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## DonaldG (Aug 23, 2007)

Hi Brendon

Sorry but I had no success at all.

I tried copying a file and giving it several different extension tags, including the Canon raw tag: .cr2. It did open in Photoshop but all I got was a random pattern of small pixels. I tried adding a 'jpg' headers to the file.
I opened the file in a special text editor to see what was going one - no luck.
I attacked the files with a recovery programme...

Absolutely nothing.

The only other things I can suggest is going back to the photographer, if possible. Sat that the files are corrupted and ask if he would give you another tested set. I appreciate that he may not welcome you....

Alternatively, you can repeat your request for help in a forum where many expert/professional photographers congregate. I suggest that you try fredmiranda.com

I do hope that you can get some pictures recovered one way or another

Regards
Donald :wave:


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

I am no expert at this but looking at the files you gave and comparing to known good files gives me the impression that you will have a sore time getting anything out of them 

here are two jpg files that are known good which I compared to each other "in data mode" 

Please note that the black lettering is a sign of identical data and red is a sign of difference. One of the photo's was taken with a Sony & the other with a Nikon. The file "headers" are intact and show details for a suitable program to determine how to handle the files as it reads them. Note the first 4 characters are identical followed shortly afterwards by the word *Exif* which is the method used in digital cameras o insert important data into the file for logistical purposes. note a few lines below there is also the date and time the photo was taken.











In this next photo I have checked some pictures, not taken by camera but saved in bmp (Bit Map Protocol) format. Note again how the first lines or "Header" appears to be identical starting with BM which I would assume to be the identifier for Bit Map. The changes further down the page are due to different picture content.











In other types of photo's I noted that the initial info has a bearing on the type of picture format and source plus details.

Comparing your jpg's with my good photo's reveals that this information is missing. You say that the pictures were taken with a camera yet no details are present as one would expect. 

here's a comparison of ONE of your pics and one of mine











Perhaps if we could get some info from one GOOD photo of his (taken on the same camera) and try sticking it at the front of the file we might be able to recover something, assuming that the information was of course deliberately removed as opposed to an accidental corruption.

I don't hold much luck for you though since whatever data he gave you may have been accidentally corrupted as he claims or deliberately tampered with in order to gain revenge for the "action" you took against him. You would need to prove beyond reasonably doubt that the data he gave you was deliberately altered before you could gain any compensation in the courts for his actions.


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## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

So sorry you ran into a crook... :4-hit:

You might try opening the files using THIS PROGRAM . It will let you see all of the metadata that is contained in the file. It may not help resolve your images but you may see something that you can go back to him and ask for non-corrupt images (like that he manipulated the files after you asked for them). No professional photographer - this guy sounds far from that - has only one copy of his pics.


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