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  • #4143
    TEV-Photo
    Participant

    Some of this work is older, some newer… have a pretty broad range of work so check it out and tell me what you think 🙂

     

    modelmayhem.com/stephensmith

    #4263
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    very nice

    #4642
    reality check
    Participant

    I sure hope these poor women aren’t getting charged for this.  You have a loooooong way to go before you are able to do shoots like this successfully.  YUCK!  Horrible!

    try working on more traditional portraiture for now, until your skills are up to par.  Shooting sexy photographs that flatter instead of exploit, takes a lot of skill that you don’t yet have.

    have you ever seen this page? http://meanphotographers.tumblr.com/

    thats what your work reminds me of.  I think you should have posted in “am I a Fautographer?”  Instead of this thread

    #4673

    I see nothing broad about your “work”.  “You’re a decent looking girl, take off your clothes so i can take your picture”.  These women don’t even look attractive in 99% of the photos.  Probably because they weren’t comfortable with the photographer.

    #4676
    TEV-Photo
    Participant

    maybe you didnt look through my port all the way but its quite broad.  I have a product shot (they paid me very well) a portrait of a latino hip hop artist from my PAID shoot for his album.  I have behind the scenes shots from working (yes, “working”, as in I got paid) at a music video.  I have PIAD work I shot for Krave Girls.  I have younger girls in age appropriate attire and I have some shots of older women in more edgy shots, but I dont see any photos where the girls look uncomfortable.  A lot of them have only modeled a few times and like anything,it takes practice and its far more difficult than one would imagine, so yeah, some of the shots the girls dont have the victoria secret confidence or the “look” but thats the whole point of BUILDING a port and working with as many people as possible, both ways, for models and photographers.  practice is practice and fundamentally it doesnt matter how attractive the subject is.  You just bashed the girls and skipped over the whole other, MORE IMPORTANT aspect of shooting, the QUALITY of the image.  The use of light and exposures and angles and composition is far more important the subject itself.  Instead of just trash talking, how about you give me technical pointers if my work is that horrible.  how can i better the quality of the photograph.

    post your work?  im curious of your credibility….

    #4677
    soaringturkeys
    Participant

    now now. Don’t act like an insecure puppy just cause you had a bad review. Be confident in your work instead of ruffling up your feathers like a begrudged peacock. Saying who you shoot for means nothing in an industry where you are only as good as your next shoot. Anyway his comment was unwarranted but you definitely didn’t take it very well.

    He doesn’t need to show you anything. His opinion, wrong or right, is as valid as the next person. It’s really how you take it that matters. Does a food critique need to cook a meal for a chef everytime he gives out a bad review? Despite popular belief, sometimes people do have good/ if not better opinions than the people themselves. It’s really how you take it that counts.

    Anyway.

    Your comment on the different aspects of photography  is quite wrong. If you want to get even further in the industry, then you’ll need to throw away the assumption that lighting, exposures and angles are more important than the subject.

    Sure they are a vital key to photography. Don’t get me wrong. But there are plenty of people around the world that can operate a camera to its fullest. There is no shortage of people who can shoot as good, if not better than us technically. But you have to realise the most important thing is the subject.

    How you interact with the subject, how you make them feel comfortable etc. Sure they don’t have the ‘victoria secret confidence’ but as a photographer you should be able to feed them that confidence. Look at Chase Jarvis and how he shoots. He would say that communication and the relationship between subject and photographer is far more important than the camera itself.

    You also need to look at learning how to do retouching. With the genre that you are in, it’s essential that your retouching is great – or at least pay people to do it for you.

    For example this photo. I’ll use this cause it has the most skin to analyze.

    http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/29180097

    Entry level analysis

    – She has bra marks by her side and breasts.

    – She has wrinkly armpits

    – her nails needs to be consitent

    – the curvature of her back by her tatoo needs to be fixed

    You’ve somewhat retouched her face, but it seems as though you left the entire body out. The skin between her face and neck is so completely different. I said entry level because i know you can do this, you did this to her face. I just feel like leaving the rest out is a tad lazy.

    Now to take your retouching to the next level you need to

    Dodge & burn quite a bit of the shadows and highlights

    You need to even out her skin tone on her side breasts. at the moment it’s teetering on blueish.

    The skin tone on her face (and i’m assuming that she’s wearing make up) is quite different tone to her body. Now if you are going to do shots like this again, then you’ll have to either make up her body or just fix it in Photoshop.

     

    Anyway thats it for me. I’m not going to show you my works cause well i don’t need to prove you anything. You can take this or learn from this. up to you.

    #4678
    reality check
    Participant

    Not bashing the girls at all.  They are all beautiful women.  I don’t like how they were photographed.  More care should have been taken.  Do you realize that all the YANAP features get paid as well?  All the togs to the link I posted are professionals too.  some charge hundreds.  getting paid is not a good gauge of skill.

    #4682
    reality check
    Participant

    “The use of light and exposures and angles and composition is far more important the subject itself”

    Ok let’s break it down your way, and a subject is just a subject, wether its a watch or a woman, and posing/directing/environment etc isn’t as important as light, lines, proper exposure and composition
    http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/1638400/viewall#/29180089

    http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/1638400/viewall#/22830008

    http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/1638400/viewall#/27777405

    Good use of light, angles, and composition? Really?  And there are plenty more “good” ones in your portfolio to choose from.

    Yep, you know how to expose properly, and know the exposure triangle well.  So do millions.  It’s not rocket science we are talking about here.  You should not be charging for an expertise you do not have, end of story

    #4698

    You call 3 pictures of guys and 1 watch with 77 pictures of scantily clad women broad?  Maybe you should look up what broad means.  Also, when have you EVER seen a picture of a watch with the photographers logo on it.  That screams amateur.

    #4699
    TEV-Photo
    Participant

    http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/27153985   not scantily dressed, looks comfortable and having a good time

    http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/26662493 not scantily dressed (her mom was present and both loved the photos)

    http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/26600346 not scantily dressed.  one of her first shoots so she was new to the whole thing

    http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/28578857 not scantily dressed.  her facial expression was out of my hands.  its just her facial structure

    http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/28578857 once again not scantily dressed.  mother was present.  bothed liked the outcome

    http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/26863857 not scantily dressed.  she later sent the other photos to playboy, got a casting call and has had TONS of work since then, not that you guys care

    http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/30293612 not scantily dressed.  mother was present.  new model.  but still had fun.  she loved the photos

     

    shall I go on????

     

    and yeah i put my logo on that ONE product shot cause its online.  i shot HUNDREDS (if not a thousand) of watches for them.  they were published in catalogues, posters etc.  its a perfect image, you wont find anything wrong with it. obviously the images i catalogued for the company didnt have a logo, they conformed to their specs.

     

    I dont know why you insist that i was paid for these shoots.  i wasnt.  never said i was.  i get paid for other shoots (music videos, product work,  but all the girls in my port was trade for time and photos because i have to start out somewhere.  thats how people get better at what they do.  at least soaringturkey gave me actual things to focus on.  idk how i have anything to do with her nails being consistant… talk to her manicurist about that.  she had TONS of make up on… when i first meet her i almost left because her in real life is NOTHING like her photos.  trust me, i touched them up a lot just to get them to not look so cakey and rough.

    if i had edited more you probably would have ripped me apart for over editing them.  youll always find something to bash people about.  but i really dont care, i was expecting it from an anonymous site created to bash peoples work, which c’mon… you can’t even compare mine to the shit on here.  yeah i know im not a professional, i dont claim to be.  i know i am not even great but i think im decent and with more work, more practice, more shoots and more models to work with i will get better.

     

    #4700
    soaringturkeys
    Participant

    You have everything to do with the final edit. What the make up artist doesn’t work on ultimately ends up on you as you are the one who can fix it.

    Thats the point though, I could tell that she had tonnes of make up on her. But none on her body. Noone not you or the MUA bothered to focus on that.
    All i’m saying is that if you want to take your photography to the next level, you’ll have to start working on that. Understanding everything with the shot is your call. If the make up is too much, tell the MUA that the make up wont translate well on screen. It’s your call.

    Fine art retouching is something that you’re not supposed to notice. A great retoucher wouldn’t give away clues that they’ve been touched up. If you want to take your photography to the next level, you need to add a retoucher to the process, modelmayhem has many amazing ones. Or you need to learn how to do your own. Not editing. Retouching.

    You can take any of this as a way to get better. I’m not here to hinder you at all nor to criticise your work. I didn’t bash any of your work but I suspected that you would turn advice into insult.  I’m also on modelmayhem and trust me, this very advice would be given to you whether we are on modelymayhem or on yournotaphotographer. I’m not here to bash you. You asked us what we thought. I told you how to take your photography to the next level, you took it wierdly. Take the blue pill or the red pill. The choice is yours.

    #4701
    TEV-Photo
    Participant

    i appreciate your actual critiques and your tips.  i will definitely take what you said and use it and work on it all.  i respect your opinion because you actually gave real legit things that i know i am not up to par on yet.  im gonna work on it and keep shooting and keep doing what i do and i know everything just takes time and practice.

     

    #4702
    reality check
    Participant

    TEV,

    Might I make a suggestion?  You get paid for events, product photography, and I see senior portraits, head shots etc are listed on your Facebook Business page.  Yet, there are only a handful of samples of any of these genres provided.  That’s very confusing.  the way you have explained it, learning how to shoot good erotic photographs of women is your personal goal/project.  Why not explain in your mm bio that this is what you are working on?  Clean up your portfolio there showcasing only the best of what you have shot in this genre, and let your business page be about business, so future clients get a better idea of what you can provide them.  Better yet, create a dedicated site for business as well.  Trust me when I say, if you ever reach your goal, you won’t want the photos you have currently attached to your name or your professional work.  By separating personal from your business you will come off as more professional and most of those red flags we have (and potential clients have) while viewing your photography will be cleared up.  Keep your personal project personal, And between you and your model. I personally never publicly post my personal projects/lessons/experiments unless it is warranted And pertains to my work. I’m afraid you may be closing a lot of doors to paid work as things stand, and you won’t get the respect or the proper attention you are seeking If you don’t make some changes.  If you don’t want to be a GWC, then stop behaving as one.

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