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Azat
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I am working on a concept that required a male model, and I promised a friend, Azat a few photos on cd for his portfolio. I was trying my best to get a fashion look, but I am really stuck now. I just don’t know what’s missing… I can see that they lack something, but I don’t know what. Could you point out what is wrong with these photos?
All taken with Nikon D200, 50/1.4 and 105/2 dc.
To me Zoltan these are landscape shots with a feature. The model isn’t dominant enough for this to be called a fashion, or model shoot. And the last one just has a look of arrogance. I’m sure he’s a nice guy but he’s lost in these…almost an unnecessary feature in the first 3 certainly. But then, I don’t do these type of shots so what would I know anyway! :)
As an after thought can you clone out the white lines? They lead me away from your intended target. Maybe that will help matters?
Alan
Thanks for the critique, Alan. The lack of dominance of the model is very true, I should have used a longer lens or walked up closer. I will try some heavy editing or conversion to b/w to see if I can push these from landscapes towards fashion… I am a total beginner with this type of photography, so I appreciate your input, keep the ideas coming, please!
To me the missing ingredient is light! Light, and how one uses it, is the most important element in any image. I once saw a quote by someone that said “photograph the light”. It changed my approach to photography forever.
If you’re still not sure where to go with that, then think about the QUALITY of the light and the QUANTITY of the light and use those two parameters to think about what you could have done to add your missing ingredient to these images.
Thorsten wrote:
To me the missing ingredient is light! Light, and how one uses it, is the most important element in any image. I once saw a quote by someone that said “photograph the light”. It changed my approach to photography forever.
If you’re still not sure where to go with that, then think about the QUALITY of the light and the QUANTITY of the light and use those two parameters to think about what you could have done to add your missing ingredient to these images.
The problem is that I wanted photos for later PS work for a composite image and I needed something easy to work with, even lighting and as much detail as possible… and I failed to create mood in the photos that were taken for him. What do you recommend then, had I better waiting for good light or set up strobes?
I was also struggling to expose his face correctly, his white shirt wanted to blow out and I think I underexposed constantly. What should I meter on in this scenario? On the face?
randomway wrote:
The problem is that I wanted photos for later PS work for a composite image and I needed something easy to work with, even lighting and as much detail as possible… and I failed to create mood in the photos that were taken for him. What do you recommend then, had I better waiting for good light or set up strobes?
I was being deliberately vague in my first reply because (a) I had no idea of what it was you were after with your images and (b) even if I did, our interpretations would likely have differed.
Waiting for “good light” or setting up strobes are both options worth considering. Here again, it’s not easy to give specific advice because “good light” is somewhat subjective and open to interpretation.
Even lighting with as much detail as possible doesn’t easily make for an image with mood, as you’ve already discovered. Mood and drama are created more by lighting than anything else (by lighting, I also mean shadows of course!).
randomway wrote:
I was also struggling to expose his face correctly, his white shirt wanted to blow out and I think I underexposed constantly. What should I meter on in this scenario? On the face?
Meter for whatever is the most important part of the scene. If you haven’t already got one, get hold of an incident meter and learn to use that not only to determine your exposure but also to evaluate the quality and direction of the light. Even on an overcast day like you had in these images, light will have direction.
If you shoot raw and work in 16-bit mode afterwards, you ought to be able to do sufficient highlight and shadow recovery in order to get to where you want to with this.
Had I been stuck out in the middle of nowhere, with no flash or reflectors and had to take these shots, my first instinct would have been to shoot into the light.
I took the first image and edited it a bit. I tried to bring out some shadows and shift the background colours from the natural so that it looks less like a landscape, but of course I see that it’s too late to fix the lighting.
Your model is far too menacing for me and IMO takes away from your intended look.
He looks like Tony Soprano in the last one.Pat
Not had a lot of experience at this but i always assumed fashion models where hired to hang clothes on and look good in those clothes.
I would close in much more on him and have a relatively boring background (or very blurred) so he becomes dominant maybe a darker shirt so the contrast is reduced and maybe get him to smile or be neural he was probably responding to your jokes? :) just a thought
I think it’s the lighting. Use strobes maybe. Once the model is well lit, it makes it look more ‘fashion’. just an observation, I’m no expert.
DeeTo create some portfolio images for him you need to include different images.
1. Portrait (with some emotions), half body, full body
2. mix B&W and Colour
3. check out “America’s next topmodell” :D
4. the expression of your modell could improve a little bit (different characters, lovely, bossy, relaxed, aggressiv…..find his best one)
5. Include a story into your imagein the moment, a guy is walking through landscape, he is angry and full with himself and there is no interactions with the landscape….sorry i try to be honest with MY point of view. If you would like to show an emotion, it has be done in a strong and powerfull way without beeing awkard.
Change the cloth for the different images (portrait, halfbody…fullbody)Check out hugo boss advertising to get some inspiration. Think about a colourmood or contrast mood of the images which makes them more artistical. The colours right now are kind of boring and dirty!
So i hope some of my ideas help out! Good luck.
Oh, and use different lenses.Thank you Madeleine for the tips.
I accepted the fact that I don’t like photographing fashion or portraits and decided that I’ll just stick to what I like and can do. This was a blind venture for me. Still, your points might be useful when I have to do something like this in the future.
And I guess, shooting in a studio would help a lot when preparing a portfolio… carrying the lighting gear around and hoping that the wind won’t blow away my umbrellas is not something I found to be fun.
Thank you for the honest critique and for taking the time…
Zoltan
If you will add to him lady with nice dress will show more pro. try this way.
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