I am terrified of you people! Here goes nothing.

[IHF]

Vintage inspired and aged looking photography isn’t taboo here, just unnatural skin tones are.

 

Do a google “Vintage inspired Photography” and just take a peak at some portfolios of images.  Notice that the skin tones are natural while still giving you that “look” you are after?

This is a resource site, but good information in there, that might help you understand what we are trying to say

http://www.takeoffyourmommygoggles.com/

[stef]

Although, I’m not sure what you’re talking about when you say you’re looking at my “portfolio” album as none of them are named “portfolio”. All of my albums are named for the subjects. I can only assume that you misread “profile pictures”.  Thank you for your detailed descriptions of how each shot could be improved.

Yes, I misread.

 

As I said, I drink a lot before giving CC! 🙂

I hope it somewhat valuable.

 

 

IHF: Yes, this one has very flat lighting. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=286209438127338&set=a.286207998127482.66918.135543696527247&type=3&theater

Photography takes a 3D object and turns it into 2D from a single perspective. You can make 2D objects look much more 3D by using shadows. Flat lighting has very few shadows to give subtle 3D information that you can incorporate. This is especially important on portraits, but a lot of fashion photography does use somewhat flat lighting.

[BuggersMom42511]

Love, Florabella. That woman is incredible. I follow her on Facebook. I love her updates.

I know exactly what you mean, I Hate Fauxtography. I didn’t mean that as a snarky defense. I was more referring to any time that I see a “fauxtographer” on this site attempt anything vintage and then fail miserably and get eaten alive in the comments.

Stef, very valuable indeed! I see what you mean. Perhaps I was using my “daughter goggles” because that is my beautiful mother. 😉

[BuggersMom42511]

P.S. Do I get any brownie points at all for NO SELECTIVE COLORING?! 😀 Totally kidding…but really. 😉

[IHF]

Thank you so much Brownie and Stef.  I get it now!

and Bug,

Your mother is absolutely gorgeous!  In your shoes, I’d use the heck out of her to learn lighting and posing.

Here is an article I found after Stef (in a different thread) talked about split/broad/short lighting.  I plan on doing the exercise as soon as I can set up again.

I had been using some of the patterns without even knowing it, and Im sure I’ll do even better when it’s done purposely and more correctly lol OY

6 Portrait Lighting Patterns Every Photographer Should Know

[DavidVRJ]

Want the secret to good photos? Don’t overedit them! If you don’t like the way your photos are coming out straight out of the camera, you’re doing it wrong! I used to hate canon thinking they take worse photos than nikon, but I found out it was just me taking the bad photos, not the camera. Quit making people look like plastic and learn to use your camera wisely! I’m turning 21 in 2 weeks, I’ve never taken a photography class before, I got my first dslr in january, and I started taking headshot pics less than a week ago. Now, check out this pic I took a few hours ago http://www.davidvrj.com/Category/Headshots/i-TtnrkHc/0/XL/damn-XL.jpg

The only thing I edited in that pic were some stray hairs that were bothering me. Besides that, that’s how it came out of my camera. Learn to see light, compose and play around with your camera settings; that’s what separates a professional pic from an amateur one, always.

[DavidVRJ]

Some tips: here’s the most recent facebook default of the girl in my last post https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/548513_10150732620322181_1546281514_n.jpg

Why does she look so much better in my photo if shes wearing light makeup and it isn’t edited? well:

-I used portrait picture style and bumped up the sharpness and contrast to make it look edited already

-I used a long focal length (the zoom of the camera) so that everything is proportionate; if you shoot from up close, the nose will look bigger than it should, and the ears will look smaller. For babies, I would highly recommend the 100mm macro; it doesnt even have to be the L version. 85mm is better for more of a body shot for people, but remember, the more distance you have from your subject, the more flattering they look.

-keeping the camera around the middle of the photo is typically very flattering. In my photo, I kept the camera around the mouth and nose, although I always play around with it and get creative. With more overweight people, shooting headshots, it is typically more flattering to go a little above the middle point to decrease double chin, but dont exaggerate it, I’m not telling you to tower over your subject lol

-I pay attention to as many little details as possible before I take the shot (or try to). this saves time editing stray hairs or it can save what could have been a great shot, but got ruined because a bra strap was hanging out or something. I trash these kinds of photos, no matter how nice everything else is, because you’re only as good as your worst photo and if you’re gonna be keeping the screwups, you’re not gonna be very good, are you?

-I have the subject stick their forehead toward the lens to get a better jawline. play around with this a little, but generally this means you want the subject to stick out their neck a little to get rid of the double chin and get a more pronounced jawline.

-take a good look at the photos you like and think about why you like them, while also looking at every little thing you might not like about it. I spend HOURS looking at photos I like, or think I like. This is why I feel I improve so quickly. I work on perfecting myself by avoiding everything I didn’t like about my past photos. I took this photo monday, and the chick loves it, but I don’t like it at all anymore http://www.davidvrj.com/Category/Headshots/i-3R2G9KZ/0/L/Clipboard01ehhh-L.jpg . Compare it to the photo I took a few hours ago, and you should see a huge difference. If you look at your photos more often and compare them to similar photos by better photographers, and realize why you like their photos and think about how they composed their shots compared to how you composed yours, and you’ll get much better, quickly.

I think these few examples show why the chick looks so much better in my pic, though there are definitely more reasons, like my extreme energy and giving continuous, assertive directions to my subjects throughout all my shoots. If you show enthusiasm and passion during all your shoots, that’ll show in the subject’s face. It makes them forget a camera’s in their face and avoids giving you a bland, deer-in-the-headlights look. Maybe I’ll say more later if you’re interested.

 

Ok, last tip, squinting=confidence. Wide open eyes= confusion, and fear! have your subjects pretend theyre trying to read small letters inside your lens, and presto

[IHF]

David,

I love your post!  Got a lot from it.  I have to add to your last tip though.  Squinting because your subject is trying to protect their retinas doesn’t equal confidence, just bad lighting lol

 

One “trick”  I learned early on, was to always say the subject looks fantastic, and they are doing great, even when they are self sabotaging their photo and it’s not going well.  By doing this it builds a confidence that wasn’t there to start with, and they open up.  lol  I have to laugh.  My daughter is my most used model for my experiments in portraiture, and our first sessions were beyond horrible, and hilarious.  We didn’t work well at ALL together, and we’d end up grumpy each and every time.  She learned to run away when I got the camera out, and to say “NO!” if I asked.  So I got online and studied posing and direction for a few weeks.  I then had to promise her that it wouldn’t go like it had in the past, and if it did I would never ask her again, wait a few days for her to feel pretty, and BLAMMO!  Now she asks ME for photo shoots…and it all started with a lie “You’re doing so good.  That’s perfect!  BEAUTIFUL!  Now try this”  lmbo  I love it!  who would have thought?  (God!  I hope she doesn’t ever read this)

[IHF]

David,

What kind of light set up do you have going on?  I have a heck of a time achieving a white background with only 2 softboxes and ambient.

[DavidVRJ]

Haha that’s a great tip and one of the biggest things to remember!!! When I say “high energy”, it includes ballads of me saying “you look amazing!” with high enthusiasm. I’m always feeding something to the model, and if I’m not saying something, it’s because I’ve gotten them into “sexy mode” and was adding tension. I always try to give more enthusiasm every shoot, and it works.

My lighting? It’s this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBPDSBCoN2c&feature=channel&list=UL

They’re veryyy similar to kinoflows, as you can tell. and I use high color rendering bulbs, which really make colors not only pop, but actually SHOW UP in the photos! As you can see, my subject’s eyes look amazing, and that’s without editing. My background is a play on using a white paper backdrop hung on tripod stand with a flash sandwiched between the backdrop and a white science fair project board. I use the gary fong lightsphere with the flash, and place it behind the backdrop, which leads to a slight gradient look which I like. Like i’ve said, it’s only been a week, so for now I’m just playing around with what I have. In a few months, when people are paying top dollar for this, expect to see a more creative setup

[WhyOhWhy]

Since reading your replies, I went to calibrate my monitor and everything is in check. The “yellow” tint or “jaundice” mentioned earlier is a vintage inspired filter. Most of the people I shoot for ask for that “vintage” or “aged look” and so that’s what I used. These people were pleased with their photos but I see the “aged look” is sort of taboo here, lol. In fact, everyone I’ve shot for has never had a complaint and has always been more than satisfied with the final product. I know I’ve just thrown myself into the lion’s den for saying that. Of course I know I still have A LOT to learn. Again, I never claimed to be a professional. This is mostly fun for me. Like I said, I will apply what I have been told here to my future endeavors and I will never stop asking questions. Thanks again.

Gina

 

How are you calibrating your monitor?  Which calibration software are you using?

I personally use spyder express (I don’t have clients so I purchased the lower end calibration device but will be upgrading shortly to the sypder Elite to get even more control.

[DavidVRJ]

I don’t trust calibrating. I used a spyder 3 and all I got was a bad white balance every time; they say that photos vary from screen to screen, even on 2 of the same screen, but then how come i see little to no variation between my photos on my laptop screen, phone, ipad, and print-outs? If i had used the calibrated settings, the photos would look warmer on my screen than everywhere else. Maybe it’s that the spyder 3 sucks, because I see a lot of complaints about it online. Using a white balance card would solve a lot of issues about the colors being too warm or cool, because it’s pretty accurate, so that’s one less thing to worry about. Then go from there.

[archy]

Thanks, ihf, for the back up on the bad outdoor lighting david, I like how you strive to improve with every photo you take , it definitely shows, your work is kick ass.
As for monitor calibration, I agree to am extent. Like david said, his images all look the same on all his devices. And white balance will take care of the skin tone issues for straight off the camera. But when people arr doing heavy editing, such as the OP, they should probably calibrate to avoid the awkward neon skin tones.

And buggersmom, if you enjoy florabella’s editing tutorials, I suggest finding stock images to practice on first. You cant exactly use techniques like that to improve your images if they arent high quality to begin with.

[DavidVRJ]

Thanks archy, I really appreciate the kind words! That’s what keeps me going. And I agree, taking a good photo is a lot more important than editing, not to mention it saves you a lot of computer time. I trash photos that can’t be improved with a few minor tweaks of exposure, white balance, contrast, levels, etc. If there’s something you want to edit, try to find how you can avoid it next shoot, and then avoid it! I’ve been doing headshots since last monday, and I was going to edit my headshot photos from monday and tuesday, but I improved so much on wednesday from critiquing all the things I wanted to edit in those photos that I chose to not even give the people their photos and promised to reshoot them this week. That’s what you should do. Btw, here’s my new headshots page if you want to see my progress; by the end of the month, I plan on shooting at least 30 more people. Like the page! http://www.facebook.com/VRJphotos

[WhyOhWhy]

While I use a grey card to set a custom white balance and don’t run actions, you can tell by looking at the OP’s images she does not take the time to do so, so if she is going to let her camera set her white balance, run actions at full strength and try to market it as  a “vintage look” she needs to calibrate her monitor so she isn’t getting such terrible skin tones.   There is no nice way to put this, her “vintage look” is failing, her subjects look terrible.  If she is selling this, she owes it to her clients to at least attempt to make them look healthy.

 

[Author]

Posts