[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

[DavidVRJ]

Proper exposure, nice composition, not a lot of editing if any.. Just get a little creative with your exposure by getting it off auto and you’ll be well on your way. Putting your camera on “M” will get you thinking more about whether you want things to look a little brighter or darker to balance out the light and dark parts of your photos. It will also make the flash ettl actually work effectively. which reminds me, don’t use the pop up flash http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m90hhbkFJ31repqoao1_1280.jpg

This one is really cool http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m90iokcEYV1repqoao1_1280.jpg

overall, not bad! no oversaturation as far as I can tell

[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.

[DavidVRJ]

this one would be considered fauxtog though, sorry http://melissasuemullins.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/9/6/10961146/2239433_orig.jpg

[DavidVRJ]

i wish i could like your main photo, but the composition is a bit weird to me.. and I can’t seem to grasp how the guy’s arm got where it is, or at least I hope it’s his if it’s that hairy lol

looking at your boudoir photos, it’s borderline fauxtog but not quite there. You can see in the expressions of your subjects that they’re enjoying getting their picture taken by you, which is great. You just need to work on getting that expression to come out in a way that better suits the mood you’re trying to set. The lighting too.

this one’s cool http://melissasuemullins.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/9/6/10961146/283046_orig.jpg but if you’re trying to capture raw human emotion like that, i’d prefer more raw, lifelike editing. it’s a bit highly airbrushed. What you could do is take that, overlay it over the same photo without all the editing, then lower the opacity until you get a right balance between wax and human.

[DavidVRJ]

The chicks look damn sexy, especially the blonde. I forgot if you mentioned it before but do you shoot full frame?

 

Btw, Peter Hurley emailed me earlier today, I can’t believe it https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/561779_218420221617158_1853536823_n.jpg

 

and then I talked on the phone with him and he said my photos were awesome and asked who my makeup artist was, and said  I can never have enough squinting in my photos and I should do that more. He said I could call him anytime too. I guess I’m no fauxtog!

[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

[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

[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]

I’ve experimented with it and noses look a bit bigger with the 85mm. I personally love shooting headshots at 135mm, and on peter hurley’s site he recommends the 100mm f2.8 macro for canon. Can I see some of your headshots?

http://ph2pro.com/gear/101

 

[DavidVRJ]

I would have to get in way too close with the 85mm for headshots; everything looks much more flattering at 135mm for photos like mine, maybe even 100mm but no closer. I think 135 is the definite sweet spot. for photos like yours, or this http://www.davidvrj.com/Category/Headshots/i-bZGLQcX/0/L/pinup-L.jpg I’d definitely prefer the 85mm as I’d be the same distance away to capture that much of the subject

 

(ignore the fact that it says “pinup”; a chick challenged me to take pinup photos and I asked her if that counts. I took the photo before she challenged me and just saved it with that name)

[DavidVRJ]

5d mark II with 70-200 2.8 IS lens

135mm focal length, with a few tweaks here and there of shutter speed 1/200, 2.8 f stop and 200 iso, depending on the lights and subject

custom white balance and portrait picture style with a little more sharpness and contrast added in camera

 

the 70-200 lens isn’t my ideal lens, but it’s what I have. I’d like to try out the 135mm prime, but i’m afraid it might be too detailed. Maybe I’m wrong

[DavidVRJ]

The focus is flawless in that pic; The front eye is perfectly in focus and the back eye is slightly out of focus as it’s further from the camera, as expected. I  took the pic just now and quickly edited the hair, so that’s just a link to her default pic. here it is on smugmug http://www.davidvrj.com/Category/Headshots/i-TtnrkHc/0/XL/damn-XL.jpg

btw, here’s her most recent facebook pic https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s720x720/548513_10150732620322181_1546281514_n.jpg

 

and this is possibly her best ever photo before mine, taken a year and a half ago https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/225574_10150172572512181_1987505_n.jpg

for comparison.

[DavidVRJ]

Every shoot I get much better; I made her look daamn good https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/391525_4309703536818_1869910956_n.jpg

 

anything I should change?

[DavidVRJ]

which one? adobe rgb (1998), srgb 2.1, prophoto rgb, colormatch rgb all havent worked so far and there isn’t just plain “rgb” as far as I could tell.   and, i’ve tried it on all three of the programs I’ve stated

[Author]

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