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November 26, 2012 at 6:51 pm in reply to: Will someone please go tell this woman she is a fauxtog? #4807
soaringturkeys
ParticipantIt’s hardly weird. It’s adorable. I think some people here have become too comfortable with outing people who are starting out and are just a tad bit jealous of success.
Puzzle piece photographer may not be the best photographer out there, but her clients are very happy and that clearly shows with how many likes she has and with how many praises she gets. I doubt that she has 2000 family members just building her ‘success’ rather this many likes is innate proof that she has incredibly happy clients. Her shots may not be the most technically great photo but the kids look comfortable. They look happy. She can direct a scene better than most people in this forum that i’ve seen thus far.
These food-baby photos, yeah they aren’t the greatest shots ever but they aren’t marketed to photographers nor the higher market. They are marketed to the mothers who love that cute adorable stuff. and you know what, she’s a great at what she does!
Perhaps some of you aren’t Fauxtographers but there are quite a few people here that are GWCs and so far, none of you should even be giving anyone advice. A whole lot of people here on this website just seem to be real bitter about people having better success at photography. Not knowing that taking good photos is only part of running a successful photography business.
Yeah the first two people are quite bad but i challenge anyone here to show me their entire portfolio and i can guarantee that none here will be able to show better direction than this photographer.
ParticipantWell you are very beautiful! You take self portraits very well! Considered being in front of the camera instead? Like Garry pepper style photo blogging?
But don’t worry about not learning how to retouch. It’s just another step that people need to take to get further up in fashion world. The most important part is that noone should know that the photo is retouched. That’s the fundamental difference between retouching and editing.
Lets look at 4 of my photos for example. I’m not the best retoucher so I apologize!! I know that I still have quite a while to go and I don’t usually retouch my photos. I only retouch when a client doesn’t want to pay for another person
Dodge & Burn Technique
The main purpose of this dodge and burn is to over accentuate certain features that she has.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/222546_484951474877963_1975386981_n.jpg
Notice the shine on the lips to make it a little more glossy. Her cheek bones are darkened. Her collarbone is burnt and dodged. Her forehead is evened out to have less shadow. But yeah this is a very over the top retouching. Not the most done up that I’ve seen but one of my most.
Selected colouring. ( I don’t know the official title lol I’ll explain)
So I would make a layer on photoshop to solely focus on the slightly bluer skin tone in her neck area, select only that and match it up closer to the rest of the body by adding red etc.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/530589_484960251543752_822353028_n.jpg
I chose this photo because it still has artefacts of the old skin tone. Notice her hand has slightly blue tinge, so does her neck. I matched it up closer to the skin tone but take note that I only do it to a point. The main point of this technique is to cover up the mistakes that would otherwise be fixed with make up. This is wear blush and foundation on the body is actually useful because it evens out skin tone.
Clone
Getting rid of unwanted wrinkles in odd and love handles caused by wierd angles and positions. Now this might be a personal preference but if you are going to fashion then you need to do this.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/374395_484959814877129_873396279_n.jpg
So notice just by her belt that there are a little bit of wrinkles there. I didn’t get rid of it completely but I did eliminate possible wrinkles caused by having such a weird poses.
Grading and Colouring.
Make her look healthy.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/263552_484958904877220_1698214693_n.jpg
In this shoot the raw photos of her looked slightly blue. She looked a little bit pale and cold. Although the place she is in is a cold place, I didn’t want her to look sick. I put a bit of red in her skin tone just a little. Notice that even though she has a bit more red, she does not stand out from the environment.
So be wary of that when you do your final grades. Some of your shots makes the model look a little bit ill.
Anyway thats pretty much it 🙂 I’m not the best but google google google!! There are many many better retouchers than me. Usually I would hire Retouchers rather than do it myself! 🙂
In case you are wondering what i do with fashion. (now this is strictly fashion which is completely different to all my other works)
I would spend around an hour taking photos, choose the best and would spend about an hour editing the best photos.I would first duplicate the layer.
Fix any minor imperfections, stray hairs, pimples etc.
First step of evening out small lighting imperfections
Fix any major imperfections ie big wrinkles, love handles etc.
Dodge & burn the main beauty spot [collarbone, cheek bone, jawline, eyeline, eyebrows, lips and neckline.]
Fix and skin tone abnormalities. Make a million layers to match skin tone with other skin tones.
Bring back original photo, and fix and imprefections that my editing may have caused, i.e cloning too much that skin repeats itself – I would bring back some of the original skin to give it an even look.
Grade the lighting
Colour Grading the skin
Colour grading the environment.
one hour later and 50 bagillion layers later. Save and export.
Get paidAnd that’s it 🙂
Notice that there is no softening of the skin or surface blur. It’s a popular misconception but we never ever blur the skin!!Anyway just remember that i’m not the best 🙂
ParticipantBut the client shouldn’t have that much control in the matter.
I charge $3500 on average and I would be pissed if the client thought that my photos are only worth $3000.
She paid $150 worth of professional works, she got given $150 worth of photos.
ParticipantHe gave her 4 Cd’s. It’s hard / near impossible to argue in court that the photos aren’t good enough. Unfortunately personal taste doesn’t really hold very well, especially since she paid so cheaply.
i’m on the side of the fauxtog. He did a horrible job. But noone deserves to be underpaid. He’s put in the hours. and you know what? That’s exactly the quality you pay for.
you can’t expect to come out with something good paying only $150
ParticipantGreat analogy Gnork.
ParticipantI don’t think that’s how it works. You have to pay. Depending on what you agreed upon, he has delivered a number of photos. Unfortunately arguing personal preference and ‘quality’ of photos is not really that liable in court. Just lesson learnt not to do it again next time.
ParticipantAge has little to do with it. I’m 22 now and i’ve been charging for about 2-3 years for weddings but that’s because I’ve been to about 20 weddings prior to that. So I know the ropes and are well accustomed to the importance of different moments. I guess thats the only issue with age for me. I wouldn’t trust someone who has never been to many weddings just because they might end up vital moments.
Your wedding photography is pretty cute and romantic. Depending on how well you did with the photos that you didn’t end up loading up, I would probably end up hiring you as a secondary photography for my wedding if you were in town. You just catch moments well! 🙂 Good job.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/208203_379853232046925_1882589728_n.jpg
In terms of fashion, you are on the right track, you have a while to go but at least you are getting there. You just need to learn how to be a better retoucher or hire someone to do your retouching.
These photos would have benefited from that.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/557006_308897749142474_1481779378_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/563208_331014756930773_1371732005_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/403682_382726595092922_563896658_n.jpg
For example this photo
The model’s skin is different all throughout her body. Her skin is uneven even on her legs and it’s just not a good look for fashion.
However you do have some beautiful portraits though. 🙂
There will be a few people here that will argue against you charging. In a way i can kinda see why. You seem to have a hit and miss of really great and not so great photos. but otherwise I think you are doing fine 🙂
ParticipantYou have everything to do with the final edit. What the make up artist doesn’t work on ultimately ends up on you as you are the one who can fix it.
Thats the point though, I could tell that she had tonnes of make up on her. But none on her body. Noone not you or the MUA bothered to focus on that.
All i’m saying is that if you want to take your photography to the next level, you’ll have to start working on that. Understanding everything with the shot is your call. If the make up is too much, tell the MUA that the make up wont translate well on screen. It’s your call.Fine art retouching is something that you’re not supposed to notice. A great retoucher wouldn’t give away clues that they’ve been touched up. If you want to take your photography to the next level, you need to add a retoucher to the process, modelmayhem has many amazing ones. Or you need to learn how to do your own. Not editing. Retouching.
You can take any of this as a way to get better. I’m not here to hinder you at all nor to criticise your work. I didn’t bash any of your work but I suspected that you would turn advice into insult. I’m also on modelmayhem and trust me, this very advice would be given to you whether we are on modelymayhem or on yournotaphotographer. I’m not here to bash you. You asked us what we thought. I told you how to take your photography to the next level, you took it wierdly. Take the blue pill or the red pill. The choice is yours.
Participantnow now. Don’t act like an insecure puppy just cause you had a bad review. Be confident in your work instead of ruffling up your feathers like a begrudged peacock. Saying who you shoot for means nothing in an industry where you are only as good as your next shoot. Anyway his comment was unwarranted but you definitely didn’t take it very well.
He doesn’t need to show you anything. His opinion, wrong or right, is as valid as the next person. It’s really how you take it that matters. Does a food critique need to cook a meal for a chef everytime he gives out a bad review? Despite popular belief, sometimes people do have good/ if not better opinions than the people themselves. It’s really how you take it that counts.
Anyway.
Your comment on the different aspects of photography is quite wrong. If you want to get even further in the industry, then you’ll need to throw away the assumption that lighting, exposures and angles are more important than the subject.
Sure they are a vital key to photography. Don’t get me wrong. But there are plenty of people around the world that can operate a camera to its fullest. There is no shortage of people who can shoot as good, if not better than us technically. But you have to realise the most important thing is the subject.
How you interact with the subject, how you make them feel comfortable etc. Sure they don’t have the ‘victoria secret confidence’ but as a photographer you should be able to feed them that confidence. Look at Chase Jarvis and how he shoots. He would say that communication and the relationship between subject and photographer is far more important than the camera itself.
You also need to look at learning how to do retouching. With the genre that you are in, it’s essential that your retouching is great – or at least pay people to do it for you.
For example this photo. I’ll use this cause it has the most skin to analyze.
http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/29180097
Entry level analysis
– She has bra marks by her side and breasts.
– She has wrinkly armpits
– her nails needs to be consitent
– the curvature of her back by her tatoo needs to be fixed
You’ve somewhat retouched her face, but it seems as though you left the entire body out. The skin between her face and neck is so completely different. I said entry level because i know you can do this, you did this to her face. I just feel like leaving the rest out is a tad lazy.
Now to take your retouching to the next level you need to
Dodge & burn quite a bit of the shadows and highlights
You need to even out her skin tone on her side breasts. at the moment it’s teetering on blueish.
The skin tone on her face (and i’m assuming that she’s wearing make up) is quite different tone to her body. Now if you are going to do shots like this again, then you’ll have to either make up her body or just fix it in Photoshop.
Anyway thats it for me. I’m not going to show you my works cause well i don’t need to prove you anything. You can take this or learn from this. up to you.
ParticipantThe first lens flare takes away from the photo. It doesn’t add to it and, if anything, it just shows that you made a mistake. I personally think it’s fine to have lens flare in things. As long as adds to the photo like your other two photos.
One of my photography pet peeves however is people saying “o I kinda like it in an artsy way.” when they make an error and say that it just makes the photo all the more beautiful. It’s a mistake, no point covering up a mistake by saying that you discovered some hidden beauty.
Flickr and things like Facebook is not really the greatest place to get opinions. All you really get are a whole bunch of sycophants affirming everything you do as gold. If you really want honest and true opinions, go to modelmayhem.com or any photographer dedicated websites and they will come up with the same conclusion. The lens flare was a mistake.
ParticipantFree always wins over discounted
Not the least bit true. It’s how you market yourself. The OP might be a brilliant photographer but if he markets himself as being of cheaper value then they would always certainly go for the cheapest because You are marketing money. If you market yourself more than money, if you instill the idea that you are something of worth then they will think past money.
Don’t market yourself as money. Value yourself and others will value you.
Participantactually on second look. the 160 seems to have better sharpness on the reds
Participantyeah! I did this test on Video for 7d’s and the results were amazing a. 5dmkii looks like 100 is still the best value.
Participantit doesn’t even matter if you are taking a good photo. just as long as you look goooood doing it!
Participantwhat bodies are you looking at? 7d’s have a habit of needing fine tuning. i knowmine did.
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