This site has me asking, "Am I a Fauxtog?"

[New2This]

After stumbling upon this site, I have been asking the question, Am I a Fauxtog? This to me is a serious question because I have had a recent offer to team up with a hair and make-up artist to start up a business. Therefore serious critiques would be greatly appreciated.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/4cjpiy85z53oikk/nI2uR5LoAf

[New2This]

By the way these are just a few samples of some of the work I have done.

[nesgran]

If these are the seven shots you want to show us to tell you whether or not you should make a business of it, then I must be blunt and say no, you shouldn’t

1) The shot is not sharp. Why are you standing over them?

2) This could work but the shot is really noisy and the back ring is not in focus. You need to stop down a lot for ring macros

3+4) Seriously overexposed, you’ve burnt off all definition in the face

5) The soft focus doesn’t work and it looks like my eyes are just really tired

6) You have merging of the ring and the tree, the colour temp is also incredibly warm so it will look horribly out of place if you have a series of shots and this is one of them

7) probably the best shot out of the seven but still not quite hitting the mark with some technical problems. The pose makes her look about four or five months pregnant, the black panties don’t match the corset (different textures), you’ve chopped off the guys hair and you’ve given him a muffin top. The shadows are too dark on their faces and it looks as if you have not had any additional light apart from what came in through the window which could have helped with that. Having extra light would make you be able to have the highlights on her right shoulder not be blown out.

Because of all this I would say you need to practice more before you start your own business. Go out and shoot lots more and when you instinctively know what makes for an interesting photo that is also technically good, find a photographer that will take you on as an assistant and go from there. I know it isn’t the quick solution you might be after but it will mean that you will be a photographer rather than a fauxtographer. There is no reason why you can’t team up with them for fun and portfolio building for all three of you but you have a long way to go before you should be charging.

[Worst Case Scenario]

nesgram has pretty well summed it up. Come back when you have 7 shots that are all sharp, not burnt out and don’t include two shots of some rings.

[Brownie]

I concur. Thanks to nesgran for writing a very fair and honest critique.

[zoomlens]

I concur with nesgran also.

[ebi]

Who the hell just randomly starts up a business with Hair & MUA? Oh, I know, Fauxtogs. Just team up with them and test like crazy. All of nesgrans comments are not only correct but also incredibly obvious and if you cannot see that then you are certainly way off the mark.

In addition, two other general comments

– get skinnier, prettier girls

– get girls without so many tattoos. A few are fine but they should be small and less obstructive to the overall image.

This is nearly universal when marketing to almost all women.

 

[iliketag]

Wow… the whole “get skinnier, prettier girls” comment is AWFUL!
Yes, a glamorous person will be great in a portfolio, but if you have a heavier set woman and you photograph her well and you can TELL she feels beautiful, I think that’s more meaningful to a potential client than nothing but unrealistic promises! REAL people hire photographers too, Ebi.

Nesgran really nailed the critique. Also, in terms of WCS’s advice, if you’re going to include macros – make sure they’re unique and interesting. The ring shots were ho-hum in terms of grabbing attention. Nothing that even really showed them off.

[emf]

I’m in a similar position to you New2This, I have had it put to me a couple of times, first by a make up artist and second a friend – who shoots auto! to start up a business. Both times I have declined as I realise I’m nowhere near ready. My long term plan is to try doing this professionally but I know to do that, I need to put in the ground work and develop my competency with my camera. I’m very happy until then, to learn the craft properly and build my portfolio.

 

[ebi]

Wow… the whole “get skinnier, prettier girls” comment is AWFUL!

Obviously it is awful. Obviously real people hire photographers. But when real people are shopping around for photographers, they don’t want to see pictures of girls in sexy clothing with fat hanging out everywhere. They like to believe they will look as sexy as the girls in the magazines. As sexy as the fake girls. And good photographers can make them look sexy and maybe even do a little retouching to “take the edge off” and there is nothing wrong with taking those photos and making the money off of them. But they don’t belong in your portfolio.

[iliketag]

A decent photographer would not photograph a heavy woman in revealing clothing. That’s just stupid to say. Taking a heavier woman and photographing her in slimming poses and instructing her through a good wardrobe decisions is encouraging to potential clientele. I’m not saying include the entire session in a portfolio, but take a couple of portfolio-worthy ones and mix them in. Having beautiful women is a boost, absolutely, but have REAL women who you can help look and feel gorgeous too. I disagree to not include them.

[nesgran]

You won’t catch a bigger woman in my portfolio, nothing against them but unless you are marketing yourself to boudoir sessions for the overweight, you want the prettiest things possible in your portfolio. If you have 20-25 pictures to sell yourself would you really go for anything other than perfect in every way? I’m completely on ebi with this one.

Having a photo book you are showing clients for ideas is a completely different matter, there you must have the heavier women if you want to be able to take their money. You need to be able to show them how flattering you can make it which is after all a skill most fauxes lack.

[iliketag]

Isn’t that what most people meeting with clients have? A photo book of examples? An online portfolio, sure thing, but I’m really saying don’t hide the photos you take of people away. I’m curious then of what Ebi thinks of photographers that have blogs where they post most of their sessions – it’s a better marketing tool in a lot of ways because it shows if the photographer has consistency, instead of just getting lucky a lot.

[ebi]

I don’t like blogs like that. I think that serious photographers need to be extremely guarded with their work. 90% of what I photograph is never seen by anyone other than me. The other 10% is seen by the client and of that only 1% is seen by the public. So 1% of 10% of my work will ever been seen. You should control the quality of your content online. Just because you have unlimited space doesn’t mean you should put everything out there. It’s fine if you have a blog but they too should be edited meticulously. No one wants to go through 100 or even 15 photos from someones “session”. This is short attention span theater here…you need to be concise. I think the best first lesson for someone who is producing work is to teach them how to edit. It is something that takes a lifetime to learn. You can’t tell them what to look for, they need to know what to look for. So it is easier to say, “you’ve got 5 looks, show me the best one from each”. Once they’ve chosen what they think is the best, I can then start tearing it apart”. They may have had better images in the stack, but that is inconsequential. We only care about what they perceive to be good.

As for big girls: I don’t think other big girls find big girls attractive. I think they say they do to show support and solidarity amongst other big girls. But they all want to be smaller. Even the ones that say they are happy with their bodies. So, in photographs, they also want to look smaller. Bellies hanging out are not attractive on anyone. I wouldn’t even show them to prospective clients that happen to be fat. Just give them to your clients and that will be the end of it. Many jobs I do never end up in my portfolio.

[iliketag]

I really just can’t take you seriously. You are so overly negative. It’s seriously impossible for me to digest anything you say.

[Author]

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