Let's see how I rank…

[-IX Studios]

I mainly do this as a hobby…

http://www.negativeninestudios.com

[IHF]

I really don’t know how to put this lightly.  Your lighting, posing/directing, and most of your locations/backdrops are pretty bad.  You also seem to have some issues with white balance  or color management.  Most of your shots are lack luster, and kinda ho hum.  Your processing is also lacking, but I haven’t fully delved into serious editing myself yet, so I won’t be much help there    Your subjects are beautiful, but I don’t think your photography does them justice at all.  If you would like me to, I could go through some of your shots with you and point out some of the problems I see.  I may have some time later his evening or in the morning.

[IHF]

I really don’t know how to put this lightly.  Your lighting, posing/directing, and most of your locations/backgrounds are pretty bad.  You also seem to have some issues with white balance  and/or color management.  Most of your shots are lack luster, and kinda ho hum.  Your processing is also lacking, but I haven’t fully delved into serious editing myself yet, so I won’t be much help there    Your subjects are beautiful, but I don’t think your photography does them justice at all.  If you would like me to, I could go through some of your shots with you and point out some of the problems I see.  I may have some time later his evening or in the morning.  Just say the word

[IHF]

Oops. Sorry about the double post.  Just tried to edit a bit and the forum went wonky.

[iliketag]

I have to agree with IHF, the images really don’t do your models justice. You have these beautiful women wanting you to create something fantastic for them and unfortunately you’re not delivering that at the moment. While it is true that some of the women (and men) on Model Mayhem don’t have stellar photos for their portfolios, some of them do… and those are the ones who get noticed. Ultimately your images are rather uninteresting. The poor girls have hot spots on their faces in the images with the flash; this is very distracting and unflattering.
As their photographer, it’s your job to direct them also. If their hair is unruly, you do something about it; if their posing is awkward or the sun is casting harsh shadows on their eyes, you move them.

As it stands right now, none of those photos are portfolio worthy for those models.
Take someone else along with you when you shoot and have then assist you. Use a reflector, diffuser and softbox, you’ll help with those harsh shadows and the softbox can help with the hot spots on their faces when you use a flash. Bring some bobby pins and oil absorbing wipes. It will really help and save you editing time later on.

[-IX Studios]

Keep ‘um coming.  Feedback is always good.

[Worst Case Scenario]

you have all the problems mentioned above. plus your images are all to small! Most of them are not much bigger than the thumbnails. It’s going to be hard to type out all the faults, why not choose your best image and see what people think of that?

[cameraclicker]

WCS has a good suggestion.

There is no EXIF data for confirmation but it looks like some of your models, sometimes, got too close to a wide angle lens.

[-IX Studios]

Thanks people.

The gallery with the smaller images were taken mostly with an iPhone 4 with the last one on an iPhone 5 using a couple of Litepanel Micropros for the night shots and a Moose filter over the iPhone for the day shots.

The other gallery was shot with a Nikon D70S with a 50mm f/1.4D using an ExpoDisc Portrait white balance filter and post-processed with Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Keep the feedback coming, its all appreciated.

[iliketag]

Please tell me they did not pay you for the iphone pictures…

 

[-IX Studios]

Of course not.  Like I said earlier, a hobby.  But I always need feedback to get better and I want to get better.

[Worst Case Scenario]

Well I’m  usually the first to say that you don’t need better equipment to take better pictures…… But you do at least need a camera before you can start to learn photography.

Is there another site called ” You are not a FONEOGRAPHER” ?

[nesgran]

For shooting models a longer focal length is generally better as you don’t want to accentuate them with a wide angle. The lens on an iphone I think is 35mm equivalent and your 50 is equivalent to a 75mm. Lots of people like the 85mm (on a full frame) for portraits but I personally like to use longer focal lengths in the region of 135-200 (if you have enough space) as the compression is far more flattering and the longer focal lengths help with subject isolation. Just look up what a 200 f2 lens can do with portraits

I like the shot with the girl in black sports bra though, interesting lighting, good pose and nice framing. I would probably personally have added a small light from the back to give a bit more of a rim light in the hair as her black hair blends into the black background. This is probably the only shot I’d keep out of the ones you have put up in the portfolio. The other shot with the same girl could have been decent but her face looks completely smudged, did you use noise reduction on it? You want their skin to look smooth but not like plastic.

 

 

[IHF]

I finally was able to get some time to look a little more closely at your photography, but…

10 years of shooting and you only have some iphone pictures and 3 pictures taken with a camera?  I think we all may be getting messed with here.  If not, I’m still having a hard time taking this seriously enough to actually critique.

All I can say is… if you have been shooting for 10 years (more than just 1 picture a year that is), your photos should be much much better than they currently are regardless wether you are using a phone or not.  Can’t help but think GWAC trying to get women’s clothes off.  Either that or we all are seriously getting played, and this guy has completely waisted our time.  Sorry if I’m incorrect, and if I am, then maybe some changes in your online presence needs to take place.

[-IX Studios]

I took a break in 2008 and started shooting again in 2011 using just my iPhone.  I wanted to see the limits of what the hardware could do seeing all these newbies buying DSLR’s and saying “Look at me! I’m a photographer cause I bought a DSLR!”  So I set out and did what I could with the leftover camera gear I had left to prove its not the camera.

I removed all my old work on Model Mayhem to kinda start fresh but there is a link there which leads to a Facebook page showing my old work using just my Nikon D70S with the on board flash, then using a speed light and finally using AlienBees strobes.

I found this site 2 years ago and saw what people did with better hardware and was shocked like most you, the content on here.  I just want to get better and all your feedback is helping me so thank you all.

[Author]

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