[fstopper89]

The whole idea of Model Mayhem rubs me the wrong way. I’m sure there are a lot of great photographers and models on there, but I’ve stumbled upon a few older creepy male fauxtogs who shoot nothing but skanky, trashy models and only get likes because the women are half-naked. They use harsh flash and have no visible technical knowledge. There’s a creepy guy who hangs out at the bars in my town and asks girls to do photoshoots of them. He goes to their houses, picks out their clothes, does their hair and makeup, and then takes their pictures and over-edits them. Some of his “models from florida” images look like he superimposed the girl on an ocean background.

[fstopper89]

Oh my, those are horrible images! And the other one that was mentioned for spelling their logo wrong- why on earth is it such a pattern with fauxtogs to put words in the pictures (like names and dates) or “creatively” try to fit their “watermark” into part of the image? What’s wrong with just a simple watermark or logo to keep others from copying it off of the internet?

Nice stick front-and-center. Lol. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=507001049324995&set=a.347497775275324.89758.347319511959817&type=1&theater

[fstopper89]

Purchased them on the net… I’ve made a few simple ones myself, would like to learn a little more how to make them. There are some very successful businesswomen that sell actions (Florabella, My Four Hens, Paint the Moon, Stacie Jensen/Rock My Edits) Hey, technology is changing. If you really think about it, Photoshop is “cheating” in some ways. If I could blow my clients away with my SOOCs I’d be a happy camper.

[fstopper89]

I probably should have worded it differently, but thanks for calling me an idiot. Jeez. I guess my point was, does a faux even know WHAT these things are and how they relate. Yes, ISO and f-stops are related, of course, depending on what lens you use, yes. I’d shoot at 100 ISO anytime when possible, to minimize noise. But if the lens I have available doesn’t go down to a 1.8 and the lighting is a bit dim, the ISO has to go up unless I want to compromise shutter speed. Favorite F-stop also, I prefer to shoot wide open (situation permitting). I have a go-to lens that is versatile for many situations but also have others that I will use of course. RAW conversion- I meant do you prefer Camera Raw or Lightroom. I use Lightroom to import and then do editing both there and in Photoshop, then my batch export from LR.

[fstopper89]

I need to verse myself better in using curves. I usually do adjusting to color in Lightroom (luminance, saturation, and hue for each color separately) as well as white balance. Then I bring the image into Photoshop and do more, including using a variety of actions. Many of the actions have curve adjustments in them and I have a few favorites I know how they react with the images. Maybe that’s cheating a bit?

[fstopper89]

I agree 100% with MBC’s last post above. His workflow is similar to mine, assuming he uses Lightroom to import and rate/pick/reject his images right away. I do the same. I import all the images from a shoot (typically, for an average family shoot, it’s somewhere over 100, a wedding, just over 1000). Before doing any editing, I plug in my external hard drive and do an immediate backup. Occasionally, my Macbook overheats and since I only have 4 gb of RAM (when I can afford it, I will be upgrading to a newer computer that can take 8, it’s a huge inconvenience.) and when it overheats sometimes Lightroom crashes and whichever image it was trying to read on force-quit, it becomes corrupted. Since I have the images backed up I can just re-import that one. Anyways, I go through and eliminate any bad ones. Then I also rate the rest with stars. I usually present the clients with 30 ish finished images, and those are the best of the best. I NEVER include the unedited or RAW files on the disk. (I give my clients the option to purchase the disk with print release, or to purchase prints from me). My contract states all this. You should not show clients your so-so or bad images because he’s right, they’ll see those and use that in their overall impression of your work. MBC, I envy that you can get the majority of a wedding done in 2 hours. I can’t wait to be that good someday. Right now since I have another job and photography is not my main source of income, I have to unfortunately work around that stuff and I procrastinate a little.

To the original poster- the others are right, you need to work on technical skills a bit. When I first started I didn’t know the importance of using my ISO and aperture correctly depending on the situation. I can tell you shoot at an f-stop around 8 maybe? You should shoot much lower than that, especially when it’s only one or two people in the photo. You need to isolate your subject from the background much more. I’m not trying to be mean, but a few of those images I feel like anybody could have taken with their point-and-shoot. The angle too is just blah. Like this one: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151337157193714&set=pb.119281728713.-2207520000.1352771548&type=3&theater . However, I think this image is great! I maybe would have adjusted the white balance a bit, but there’s evident emotion and the image looks much sharper. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151285307153714&set=pb.119281728713.-2207520000.1352771642&type=3&theater . Overall, I think some of your images are MUCH stronger and more technically-sound than others.

[fstopper89]

You are NOT a fauxtog. You may have a few things to work on, but you’re not a fauxtog and you should not stop charging people for your work. Your work is so much better than the fauxtogs I see in my town. Your jaw would drop when you saw theirs. MBC obviously has a lot of experience, and he’s probably an excellent photographer, but some of his comments are discouraging! A lot of those points he brought up are things that you learn over time. I’m learning those things as well. I consider myself semi-professional. I don’t have a storefront. I’ve been in the photography business a few years (first as an assistant, now on my own). There is no way you’re going to be able to afford new, better equipment or software by just not charging. The way I figure is, don’t charge top-notch prices until you have a lot more experience and some higher end equipment. There are fauxtogs in my town who charge “$50 for the session and you get the disk with all the photos we take and the copyright!” Yeah, no. I know my work is worth a lot more than that as yours is also. I’m not going to charge $300 for a portrait session, because I’m not there yet. From looking at a few of your images, I would agree that maybe you need to work on posing and angles a bit. Your technical knowledge of using your equipment properly looks nice. Your images are sharp, and for the most part, well-exposed. Some of the color/white balance seemed a bit off to me on some of the images. I wasn’t crazy about a few of the locations. You’re shooting quite wide-open though so it helps minimize distractions on the background but some were a bit overpowering. And your logo? It fits your target market well. If you wanted to get into glamour or senior photography, maybe do a re-design, but it looks very child-friendly. I like your newborn photos.

[fstopper89]

I briefly peeked at some of them- I would not consider you a faux. Some I wasn’t crazy about, but some definitely looked very well-done. Do you do any post-processing? I could see a few that could have used some color correction. it seems you mostly pose the models well. The unusual subject matter does help bring power to the images though.

[fstopper89]

@Soaringturkeys, by grading do you mean noise reduction or skin softening? If so, I can kind of see what you mean there. I’ve done a lot or portraits of women which skin softening is more desirable and necessary but that does make sense with a guy.

Lol, though, the first image is actually me. My friend took it and I did the editing. She and I do that for each other all the time- give the credit to the shooter and do our own editing. I am usually very uncomfortable posing for photos myself, but practicing on each other helps each of us coach someone for posing.

[fstopper89]

Thanks, while I don’t think I use tilted horizons too much, maybe I just don’t notice it because it’s me. I do it a lot of times because I feel it adds a little more of a dynamic feel to an image, with angled lines helping to lead to the subject. Sometimes I do it, sometimes I don’t, I think some images could work well either way. I probably picked that up from the photog I used to work for, she did that a lot. No they aren’t composites- some of mine are composites like when I have a family photo where I’ll take 10 of the same pose since somebody is always blinking or has a funny face, then I’ll carefully swap faces. I’ve done some composites with babies/kids though. I try to keep things looking as natural as possible… I see some fauxtogs literally photoshopping people onto backgrounds that they never were on in the beginning!

[fstopper89]

I think there is a spectrum of what a true professional is vs. a fauxtog. Personally I feel I fall in between. I have a goal to make a living someday as a photographer, but for right now, it’s what I do on the side of my job, and yes I charge accordingly. I don’t charge as much as some around me who have more experience/better equipment, but I WILL charge more later on. I won’t sink low to give cheap work for cheap prices. I have told myself I will never stop taking suggestions or learning. I took a few photography courses when I was in college and thought I was ‘good” then, now I see I was not. But it was a learning process. I never charged anyone for photos then. (Well, except some family photos for a friend, didn’t charge much, but they were horrible… but they knew I was a beginner). I also worked as the editor and assistant to a very good local photographer for almost a year until her family moved away. She was very picky and got me to see how important properly editing photos, color correcting, exposure correcting, etc. was. Her plan was to get me out shooting with her more but then her husband got a job out of state and I didn’t get the chance. However, she was my mentor since then with shooting, as is my best friend who is also a freelance photographer in a different town. (She works also for a pro but is allowed to do her own stuff as well). The first wedding I did, you could maybe consider me a faux. But it was a girl I work with, and I charged them dirt cheap for it being my first, and she knew that. I’ve done two weddings since then (one as the 2nd shooter being contracted out, one on my own) and I think both turned out amazing. I know I’m not the best, and not all my images are perfect, and I have technical errors here and there, but I always try to be very conscious of these things and know I’ve been improving all the time. It’s so foolish to believe you can fix a bad photo with Photoshop. You can take an ok photo and make it look a little better, but nothing beats a photo done right the first time and just enhanced a little.

I briefly checked out those pages and the first two they don’t quite have their exposure right and don’t seem to color correct in post-processing, but the images aren’t horrible. I wouldn’t call them a faux, I’d consider them to be good but not great. The third one was kind of all over. Some of her images look good, while many look over-edited or too contrasty. When I edit I try to be pretty consistent. I’ll throw in some black and whites for images that work in black and white, and then some different-style edits in addition to a clean edit. Nobody wants everything edited for a vintage look.

I also wouldn’t say someone isn’t professional if they aren’t a member of the PPA or have business insurance. Yes, those are good things, and someday I will be at this point, but it’s a process. I can’t afford some of this stuff yet. I don’t charge as much as some of the super-pro studios do. I’m working on saving up for a full-frame camera and another lens. Occasionally my equipment I feel is hindering an image from being perfect. I’ve used top-notch equipment a few times and it takes it that extra level. I call myself semi-professional.

A fauxtographer is not someone like any of these links posted by the original poster. Those are photographers that are good and have potential but aren’t quite there yet. I’m sure some of my images fall into that category, especially some of my work from a year ago. For laughs, here are a few fauxtogs in my town that people surprisingly pay for, and if you’d ask them about lenses, RAW, f-stops, shutter speed, white balance, exposure, or Photoshop actions, they’d probably give a blank stare and reply “Um, I just like taking pictures. I have a nice camera.”:

https://www.facebook.com/BekkaGenePhotography?ref=ts&fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fantasy-Memoria/401576019869269?ref=ts&fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/alteredrealityphotos

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dana-Tryon-Photography/130491120297952

Here is my Flickr page. I’d appreciate any constructive criticism : http://www.flickr.com/photos/roxanne_elise_photography/

[fstopper89]

My town is exactly the same! There is a facebook group someone created here for local buying/selling (it’s a very useful online rummage sale) and people, myself included, often advertise business on there too. Every time someone posts “I’m looking for an affordable photographer to do my family pics this fall” tons of people comment and suggest “photographers.” I often click through all of the suggestions. Yes, there are a few that pop up that truly are good, sometimes a few that are well-established businesses or freelancers who’ve been doing it for awhile and are great. But 80% of what’s posted is HORRIBLE. I wrote in another forum topic on here about a few of them, but a couple stick out in my mind. One has no clue about how light or composition works in photography. I mean complete disregard. She posted photos where the people were sitting down and clearly bright sunlight was filtering through trees and giving them spots of orange on their faces. Another one takes nothing but out-of-focus photos, and has no idea how to pose people (several had trees growing out of their heads, and there were several of a very overweight girl laying down exposing her armpit with deoderant residue and her huge double chin front and center) And another one also had countless blurry photos (well, the background elements were somewhat in focus, but the people were not). A person commented on a horrible photo and asked to have it in an 8×10 and the fauxtographer commented “I’m sorry but an image that size will be pixelated.” All of these look like they’re using a point-and-shoot camera, honestly though I could take a better photo with my cell phone. I’m soooo tempted to knock their work when others suggest them, or to comment on their page “So, what is your favorite lens and f-stop, what RAW conversion program do you use, and what ISO would you use on a cloudy day?” but I’ve had to bite my tongue and remain professional and hope that people see my work and realize I’m actually good. I think some people are blind, or have extremely low IQs to think some of that work is good. Oh, but they’re “super cheap” as others suggest, and “they give you the full copyright for free!” aduhvuaigfiuabskjvabkdjf! You don’t ever give away your copyright! I sell print rights for those who want it. I have a 2-page contract and a separate print release form. I back up my images on an external hard drive and SmugMug for safety (hey, my hard drive almost failed on my computer this fall and I had to send it in to get a new one right in the middle of all my sessions, and I hardly missed a beat other than being delayed a few days on editing) I think I charge a little too less but am waiting til I can get a 5D Mark II before I raise my prices up.

If anyone is curious, here’s some of my work: http://www.flickr.com/photos/roxanne_elise_photography/

[fstopper89]

Luckily, I don’t have any experience with fauxtogs as a client, but my city is just saturated with them, and they’re stealing business and credibility from other small-business photographers like me. Maybe other towns have this problem, but every day another Facebook “business” page pops up for one! Or someone “got a nice camera,” now they’re starting a business. Average-Joe clients sometimes don’t see how horrible the images are, either that or they’re just really, really stupid, because somehow these pages have a lot of likes and people comment on how “awesome” the photos are. (Shaking my head!)

One of them I hate to make fun of, because she recently passed away suddenly from an illness… let’s just say it looked like she used a point and shoot for everything, it was all shot in the same park in town that EVERYBODY uses (by the same covered bridge, same fountain, same flowerbed, you get it) and she often had people wear matching American flag t-shirts. One that stuck out from hers was the engagement photos, the guy and girl were standing on either side of his Chevy and over the license plate… well, 3/4 of the license plate, she photoshopped a white block with their names and “2013” over it.

Another one that has been advertising on a local buy/sell group on Facebook had some terrible baby photos that were completely out of focus, lots of bright white and colored vignettes, lots of goofy frames, lots of text in the photos, etc. One image was of a little girl on a bridge. The bridge was in focus, and the girl was not. A person commented that they wanted a certain print in an 8×10, and the page owner said “I’m sorry but a print that large will be pixelated.” WTF?

I met a local fauxtog at a “gallery showing” last year (local crappy art gallery that accepted anything and everything and eventually closed). I chatted with her briefly (after viewing her work on Facebook) and asked what camera she used. She said “Oh! It’s here in my purse actually, it’s a Powershot.” All I needed to know.

Now the kicker- a girl I work with got married a few years ago in a courthouse and is renewing her vows next summer, and they’re making it like a full wedding ceremony, dress, bridesmaids, and all. She has been talking to me about doing the wedding. She really likes my work. I’ve done 3 weddings now only but I think I’ve done very well (the first was ok, not terrible, but the recent two I feel I did top-notch work). She said she’s trying to convince her husband that my work is better than this other one, Bekka Gene. I finally found them on FB and OMG how can he even compare me to her? EVERYTHING is blurry. She uses some free editing service online. I can take better pictures with a cell phone. She has no idea what composition is, as most of her portraits have a tree sticking out of someone’s head. She has rampant use of spot color and putting people’s names “creatively” into the image. The photo he had in question was a perfect shot I did at a wedding where I was the 2nd shooter (I was in charge of the groom’s first emotional look at his bride coming doing the aisle as the 1st shooter was in charge of the bride). I got that happy accident perfect shot of his face in perfect focus, trying not to cry, while it was framed just right by her dress in beautiful bokeh. (Link to my image here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/roxanne_elise_photography/8028585176/in/set-72157631618564124). Well, this girl’s husband said “What he heck, the bride’s all blurry.” At first I felt bad for being remotely compared with this other photographer, but now I just have to laugh. Here’s the fauxtog in question. https://www.facebook.com/BekkaGenePhotography

 

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