Wondering if im a Fauxtog?

[Jace Lightman]

Haven’t posted here in quite awhile. I am just wondering peoples opinions about my quality of work. What would I be considered, and would i be considered a Fauxtog??

http://jace.dreamboxlouisville.com/event/582332/view#a_all-mason

 

http://jace.dreamboxlouisville.com/event/634736/view#a_all-mason

[anonymoususer]

The only thing I can see that I absolutely hate is the dutch angle it is in a lot of your pictures. I am not a photographer I am a customer so I can’t really see anything else wrong with your images but I hope this helps.

[cameraclicker]

I would do a number of photos differently, but that is because I am me, and you are you.  I’m pretty sure you know exactly what you are doing and you are getting the results you are seeking.  Fauxtogs tend to be inconsistent.  I’m not seeing that in your work.

[Worst Case Scenario]

Just a few colour issues with portraits, the pregnant woman in the red dress has skin so yellow you can’t see that is wearing a top.

The wedding pics have a lot more problems. Colour is very inconsistent. One bride has a yellow dress in one pic and a magenta one in the next. There’s bad flash shadows, messy backgrounds, over flashed images, images that need more flash, images that aren’t needed  ( often repeated) there’s even a white vignette!

I wouldn’t have guessed the two galleries are by the same person.

[Trainwreck]

Hi Jace,

Might I suggest that you have some rather unfortunate crops going on and they seem to be very consistent across the bodies of work you have presented for review?

I see this a lot and seems to be a common thing. It is my opinion that newer shooters have not yet developed the important habit of watching the sides and corners of the frame. Same habit applies of carefully watching the backgrounds.

For your consideration? It is not a good thing to chop off hands, feet, elbows, fingers, nor is it good form to crop at a joint of any kind period. It either looks like a mistake or worse; that you don’t know what you are doing. Perhaps your next time out you might like to consider framing a bit wider. There are times when “shooting for crop” is a good thing. Especially when you are shooting candids on the fly.

As regards backgrounds, it is simple. The eye will be drawn to the brightest area of the shot. If your background is too bright, that is where the eye will go. If your main subject is not your background then the photo fails. One of the very few exceptions to this is a true high key image where the eye will be naturally drawn to the darkest part of the image. But you have no true high key images in your presentation.

This is why white vignettes fail. They typically serve only to lead the eye out of the frame completely. It is difficult for the eye to overcome the white vignette and focus on the subject. Conversely a subtle (keyword- subtle) dark vignette skillfully applied such that it is hardly noticeable serves to lead the eye into the frame and gives a more “targeted lighting” effect to the subject.

Any good composition will lead the eye into and around the photo and not have compositional elements that allow the eye to leave the frame. There is more to composition than the Rule of Thirds.

You have some decent lighting in some of your studio work. Watch your kickers because some of them are blowing out areas of your subject. In some of your location shots I detect some improper use of fill, as has been mentioned already. In some cases no use of fill when it was needed. Also mentioned.

To be honest Jace, the “still life” (wine glass and flame) doesn’t work at all. Good concept but not executed as well as it could be.

All in all I think you are on the right track and have some good stuff. However (and there is a big difference here), if I had hired you to shoot for me and this is what you presented you would not get called back.

[MikeUptonWrites]

I wouldn’t say you’re a fauxtog. While there are some issues with consistency, most of what I’m seeing is of significantly higher quality than what I consider a fauxtog to be. More practice and more critiques would suit you well (it would suit most of us well, right?) but you’re on your way. You’re an advanced novice, I’d say.

[Author]

Posts