[stef]

Your colors are all over the place. Same sheep, same time of day, completely different colors: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brokenfocus/7772953382/in/photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/brokenfocus/7772953476/in/photostream

Looks like you might’ve been processing one with more muted color, but I’m not sure if it was intentional… the second one (Adele_01) color is pulling the eye away from the sheep to the grass behind.

 

This is almost a good picture, but has exposure and color issues, hacked off limbs, and a wonky crop. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brokenfocus/7772962710/in/photostream/ But not making it over the hill to good, it rolled back down to bad.

 

More bizarre color treatments: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brokenfocus/7772958310/in/photostream

 

This image is nice, but has exposure issues. You blew the red channel, and you can tell by the posterization on the back. It could’ve been a more relaxed pose if she wasn’t hugging herself. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brokenfocus/7772935094/in/photostream/ The one of her standing (Megan_01) would’ve stood alone without the extra hazy, aged processing. Also, I’m not sure if the horizon is straight on Megan_01; it feels off, but that might be an illusion.

 

I actually liked your Michael series, despite the gimmicky processing and artistic license with exposures. It looks like exactly what you were trying to do, not some “throw darts at the keyboard” processing. It looks like a good senior portrait session. I liked the crops, a lot of the processing, and although I’ve seen way too many brick walls, the series just sort of worked well. It could’ve been so much badness, but you pulled it off.

 

My advice:

Stop going overboard on eye processing. It’s ruining some of your pictures. This includes oversaturation in general.

Not everything needs to look like it came out of an Anthropologie catalog. Make at least a few traditional portraits during a portrait session, without any funky washed out, desaturated, aged look. You’re risking being a one-trick pony, and at some point, it’ll be passe.

Get a gray card and use it.

Calibrate your monitor. Some skin tones looked really bad.

 

I had to look at your photostream a few times to confirm, but you are not a fauxtographer. You do need to take your foot off the pedal though, because you’re barely staying on the road.

[stef]

Your exposure is off, but it’s consistently off except for one image. That’s a good sign, because that means you probably weren’t stuck in automatic modes. It’s also okay, because that means you shot to the right, and can bring down the exposure without issues of noise. For the most part, it doesn’t look like you blew the whites but there are a few where you did.

 

You have some basics of portraiture, but are missing a few things. First, you need a scrim. Nothing destroys skin like direct sun.. a scrim will turn the sun into a big softbox. Next, you need a reflector. Lacking a scrim to reduce the light on the shoulders and arms, a reflector can put extra light into the faces. Last, you need to FIND THE LIGHT when given the opportunity or CREATE it yourself, instead of trying to make do.

 

This shot is squinty, with a furrowed brow http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q613/AGloverPhotos/Hedeen%20Family%20Aug%2012th/2b3b1598.jpg That’s because you aimed her face into the sun. You’re also too close, causing the shoulder to be all distorted and huge.

This is a better shot, but with a reflector to your right for some directional light to create modeling on the faces, it would been really good, except for the oversaturation you added. http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q613/AGloverPhotos/Hedeen%20Family%20Aug%2012th/da9414f7.jpg

This shot is completely blown. http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/q613/AGloverPhotos/Hedeen%20Family%20Aug%2012th/1115c493.jpg If you can’t fix it by healing it from another image, it should be discarded. If you had nailed the exposure, it would’ve been a nice picture. Proper settings and a reflector would’ve saved it.

 

You avoided some of the most common mistakes of having tree branches coming out of dad’s head or missing focus, or overprocessing with filters to try to save the images. You failed on camera handling for exposure, and people handling of posing in poor locations.

 

 

So here’s my advice:

Avoid direct sunlight, or mitigate the issues with a reflector, fill flash, shady tree (without beams of light blasting through), or a scrim.

Keep your hand off the saturation knob.

Nail your exposures.

 

You need some practice, but you are not a fauxtographer.

[stef]

Shoot the gray card under the same light you’ll be using. Have your subject hold it by his chin.

In lightroom, use the dropper tool (hit w) and click on the gray card. Sometimes there are minor differences so you might repeat it.

Now copy/paste the wb into all the other shots with ctrl-shift-c/v

[stef]

Hellomarcy, I didn’t really see this thread since you requested comments on someone else’s.

 

You’re a little heavy-handed on the skin processing, but overall looks good. I saw a few things I would’ve done differently, but that’s just artistic interpretation.

 

I like your font. It’s not Neutraface, but it’s clean and modern. (You know I don’t have any heavy criticism when I actually talk about your font choice.)

 

A lot of your photography is shot with the camera tilted down a bit… this is causing some body distortion (long torso, short legs). Since you’re doing fashion stuff, you should get a little bit lower and shoot with the camera back more parallel to your subject. You might use a longer lens and take a few steps back. However, a lot of fashion photography looks better shot at eye level, in which case you can either shoot wide and crop, or adjust the vertical a bit in post processing. If you choose the latter, remember that you’re fixing distortion, not introducing new distortion, so don’t make people look freakishly tall either.

 

Depending what kind of lighting you want to use, you can avoid heavy shadows from hair on the face by shooting into the part (with light on the same side). This would’ve helped on some of your shots, by giving short lighting instead of broad lighting which is also more slimming, esp on the face. https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/s720x720/208922_473446789350679_1017480067_n.jpg

 

Obviously, you’re not a fauxtographer.

[stef]

Watch your horizons. https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/s720x720/285733_431084896915064_1133611872_n.jpg

Watch your focus point. This is both out of focus, and tilty. https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/389182_431084940248393_1326458092_n.jpg

This is a funny pic, but it could benefit from a better crop, and it looks like you were walking backwards while shooting it (causing focus to fall a little short). https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/527818_431085063581714_327847115_n.jpg

Watch your white balance. On your easter shoot, WB is all over the place. https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/551047_385267478163473_1675099832_n.jpg

 

I give you full props on resisting tons of opportunities to do a horrendous spot color. Overall your camera handling is good, and I think you need to work on composition, and white balance. Get yourself a gray card and use it on all studio sessions. They’re cheap, and one shot at the beginning will really help you get proper white balance on the entire studio session. Slow down and make sure your focus is spot on, and walk the edges of the frame for composition. Fix tilted horizons either in-camera or in post if you aren’t paying attention.

 

Congrats! You are not a fauxtographer.

[stef]

Just looking at the headshots, looks pretty good. You show some advanced skill. Everything is in sharp focus, lighting is good (and in a controlled environment, it better be), and you show clear initiative in posing.

 

When using studio strobes, have them kick out the light, and lower your ISO to 100.

 

Run a lint brush over your subject’s clothes.

 

I was happy to see you didn’t use too shallow a DOF, despite the opportunity. I believe your aperture choices were good.

 

Some of the crops were a little wonky… they were tight enough crops that doesn’t have much room to put someone’s eyes above the 1/3 horizontal line. That causes a feeling of off-balance when it varies by much.

 

Don’t tilt the heads of men toward the upper shoulder. That looks feminine. They can tilt toward the lower shoulder without issue. http://www.davidvrj.com/Category/Headshots/i-RW5tbMJ/0/M/Test00024-M.jpg Women can tilt in either direction.

 

Clearly, you’re not a fauxtographer and I’m pretty sure you already knew this.

[stef]

Looking through only the album marked “portfolio”…. Unlike AndyF, I found much that is majorly wrong, so brace yourself.

 

You’re missing focus on many shots. Not always by a lot, but if you’re going to shoot with the aperture wide open, you can’t be missing focus like you are. https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/536415_462332867113797_1925127907_n.jpg https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/s720x720/543547_462344487112635_2083310632_n.jpg

 

Tilty. Ugh.  And not just now and then, but many dutch angles. This is only one of several, and looks especially bad with the water and bizarre focus effects like shot through a lensbaby. https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s720x720/165865_462344593779291_945291783_n.jpg

 

Fads & Gimmicks. Railroad tracks on several different sessions, seriously? Aged wash over everything (and I mean EVERYTHING)? This shot just terrifies me, and I’m surprised I didn’t see it on the front page of this website. https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/s720x720/581253_462338550446562_693292005_n.jpg

 

It looks like you did up your game a bit on wedding shots, but still are using too much processing. The processing is probably why this dress is blown, as I doubt it was before processing. https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s720x720/525137_462345287112555_1188558233_n.jpg

 

You need to be able to make an actual good picture, before any of your overprocessed images will ever be good. You’re guilty of trying to salvage things in post, instead of create good things from the get-go. This one is almost a nice, well-lit picture of the couple by their cake, except THE GROOM IS BLINKING. Holy crap, you put this in a portfolio? https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/292136_462345637112520_574747435_n.jpg

 

Some of your albums (not in the portfolio album) are decent… especially the kids. While most of the crops aren’t great, your photography shows improvement. I suspect those are more recent, so that’s a bonus.

 

You need to:

[ol][li]Learn to focus[/li][li]Learn to make a real portrait, before screwing it all up in post.[/li][li]Stop using fads until you show you know how to work your camera better.[/li][li]Study. Seriously… go look at some great portrait photographers. Think of where the light is coming from, and ask yourself “what makes this so good?” When you have that answer and understand it, try to replicate some of those good aspects in your own photography.[/li][/ol]

 

This image sums up your portfolio: https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/s720x720/577090_462345783779172_2076576549_n.jpg

It’s off balance, out of focus, and overprocessed.

 

You are a fauxtographer.

[stef]

Aye, you’re not competing for a title of photographer or fauxtographer… that’s a different game.

 

It also looks like you’re doing a 365 project. You’ll learn a lot. Keep it up, no matter what, and try to make any kind of compelling image every day.

 

As a math guy, you will appreciate things like the inverse square law.

 

[stef]

One glass of bourbon in, and I need another one after looking at your photography.

 

You use a lot of pop-up flash on people. It shows, in a bad way. Sometimes when you shoot with flash, you drag the shutter far too long (so even though you used a flash, there’s often motion blur).

Examples: http://vampireketsuki.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4v3ad7 (I really wanted to see his nostrils, and am so glad you didn’t move the crap by his feet; that really shows you looked at the picture before snapping it).

Full frontal blast of pop-up goodness: http://vampireketsuki.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4v3a2l

Not all your people shots are horrible. When you don’t use a flash, it’s much better. On this one in natural light, it’s exposed properly and looks pretty good. I would’ve tried to open up the lens as much as possible to wash out the very distracting background, though, or found a better spot. http://vampireketsuki.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4v39sg Oddly, this is one that could’ve benefited from a high speed synched flash.

Shots like this show you don’t know where your focus point is: http://vampireketsuki.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4v39j9

It looks like you’re experimenting with using light better. The split lighting you used on this is a bit extreme, and could benefit from a little bit of skin processing. http://vampireketsuki.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=48#/d4rdpoe Exposure has issues. A reflector very close to the subject on camera left might’ve yielded better results. Posing her better would’ve also helped.

More experimenting, but you missed focus. http://vampireketsuki.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=120#/d4ewozr This is a mix between split and rembrandt lighting, and I’m not sure what you were doing. But I am sure you didn’t know what you were doing, either. There is motion blur even though it looks like you used a strobe, which means your settings were way off.

Some of your best shots are the tunnels http://vampireketsuki.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=120#/d4ep4zo They would benefit from a little bit of noise reduction. This shows some skill at composition.

I love this shot, but it’s one of the worst wedding shots I’ve seen. http://vampireketsuki.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=192#/d469gw5

I hate this shot. See if you can tell me why. http://vampireketsuki.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=192#/d469euk

This is completely blown. Brides spend a lot of money on dresses, and kind of want to see the detail in them. http://vampireketsuki.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=192#/d469dba

 

The things you do okay:

Composition isn’t great, but not horrible. Shots on dolls and such are decent.

Processing. Honestly, I didn’t like the heavy vignette on the Amish dude or a lot of your wedding shots, but I do applaud you for not going overboard on most shots. The fact you don’t overprocess everything is good, although some things are pretty bad.

You’re experimenting with light. That’s good.

 

Things you do bad:

Artificial lighting. Stick to natural light for now until you get good at that. Buy a reflector and use it. Although it might work for snapshots, don’t use your popup flash for anything “real”… whenever you pop it up, think “This will look like a snapshot”. Learn to look for the light, and move people to the good light when you’re taking pics. Do some studying on lighting setups and camera settings before attempting to use strobes again. 3 hours of study between 1 hour of session will do you a TON of good.

Focus. You’re nailing focus on a lot of things, but it’s clear you have no idea what you’re doing. You’re just pointing and shooting and hoping the camera figures it out. This is a testament to how good your camera is at nailing focus, not how good you are at it.

Exposure – You’re depending on your camera to do everything. It shows.

 

Here is your assignment

[ol][li]Tape your popup flash down. I’m serious. Stop using it, and concentrate on shooting in natural light. LOOK for the light, and PLACE your subjects in it. Buy a reflector and maybe a lightstand to hold it.[/li][li]With your flash taped down, learn to nail exposure in manual mode. It’s okay to use the spot meter in your camera, but shoot in manual until you get a really good feel for proper exposures.[/li][li]Set your camera to do spot focus, and learn to focus and recompose. You’re clearly letting your camera focus on the closest point, and sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. You have a decent camera, but that doesn’t make you a photographer.[/li][li]Check your backgrounds before even bringing the camera to your face.[/li][li]Since you’re intent on using flash without knowledge how, at least buy yourself a TTL cable and an external flash. Hold the flash at arm’s length.[/li][li]Study. You’re obviously attempting to do things before you’re ready, and while I think that’s often good (to push yourself), you need to get better camera handling, and then learn lighting setups. Study the basics, along with learning new things.[/li][/ol]

 

At the moment, you are a fauxtog.

 

[stef]

Obvious troll not obvious enough?

 

Maybe he should’ve asked abut photographing gays or something.

[stef]

Clearly, it’s all a marketing ploy by lensmakers to sell shorter focal lengths.

 

[stef]

Some of your stuff is pretty good! I am concerned about some of your focus points. For instance, you use a thin DOF on many of the boudoir shots (which works well in theory), but you’ll focus on something like an elbow in front, instead of the face behind. That looks like an accident to me. On another with a snake, you got the snake’s back in focus, but used far too thin DOF, and the actual subject (the girl) is completely OOF. Any viewer can tell there’s a snake, the interest should be on the girl, and she should be in focus. You should’ve cranked that down to f/5.6 or f/8. There are exceptions like if you were focusing on the snake’s head with an inobvious woman blended into the background blur, but for the most part, your focus point needs work. Use thin DOF wisely. It’s a great tool, but like any tool used improperly, it’ll give less than perfect results.

 

There’s one b/w of a woman sitting in a pond, that looks like scanned film. It has what looks like dust particles on it or a very dirty sensor. Water is tilty… looks wrong. Otherwise, that could be a very nice shot.

 

Suggestions:[ol][li]Use your DOF preview button. It’s on your camera for a reason, and works extremely well for up-close portraits. Or, mount your camera on a tripod and zoom in using live view + DOF preview… this will help a lot to get exactly what you want in focus to be spot on.[/li]

[li]Use spot focus. Your issues are probably from using a large area focus… use only a single focus point instead and focus on exactly what you want… usually the eyes.[/li]

[li]Ease up on the saturation knob.[/li]

[li]Convert to b/w by adjusting color channels manually. Looks like you’re just desaturating it, and that results in washed out images, often with bad skin tones.[/li]

[li]Very few images look good with a tilty horizon or water. Make the horizon level, or unseen.[/li]

[li]Work on your crops. Many bullseye crops that could be better, tilty horizons, and so on… Open up the area where people are looking, and close in the area where they’re looking away from. This keeps the viewer in the image better.[/li]

[li]Faces are sexy. Use them a lot on boudoir shots.[/li][/ol]

 

Overall your composition is decent with some work needed on cropping. Shooting boudoir can be quite difficult. You’re good at putting your subjects at ease, but there’s definitely some tenseness to a few of those shots that come through on the images. Consider some music of the subject’s choice, and start the shooting with a long lens from far away and move closer. You can also start with shots that don’t have the face at first. By the time you’re doing the real shots, the camera will be more like a piece of furniture. Set your camera to silent mode, too, if it has one, and keep a conversation going about pleasant things (like the guy she’s doing the shoot for, how much he’ll love the shots, etc).

 

You are not a fauxtographer.

 

[stef]

I’ve seen way worse.

 

Pay more attention to your backgrounds, even when using thin DOF.

 

You shoot a lot of kids… shooting positions other than “standing and shooting down at kid” are generally more interesting. When you’re doing shots of “kids being kids”, try getting down to their eye level but be careful of any stray limbs in front of the camera getting all distorted. Your different angles are good to try and give some dynamic feel, but don’t get all tilty and Dutch… keep the horizons either out of view, or flat.

 

If you were charging for your work, you would be a fauxtographer. Right now you’re a MWC preserving memories. And that’s okay!

 

[stef]

Hrm… I have a real problem with cropping through someone’s eyes. Either leave the eyes in, or crop them out. The viewer’s eye is drawn OUT of the picture, not toward something IN the picture … it is a potentially really good image ruined by a really poor crop. It’s difficult to imagine any image made stronger by cropping through the iris.

 

Your Arangtram shots might be off on white balance (not sure because they’re also a stop underexposed). They feel heavily saturated, too, which combined with the darkness really gives a heavy feeling (like forboding) which is probably exactly opposite of what you were trying to achieve.  I’m not sure if the red channel clipped or if that was post processing, but the reds might be blown (even when underexposed) which is why I was wondering about wb. It looks like a stage performance, and that can often be difficult, especially when you can’t move around and you end up with a plant in the background coming out of someone’s head. With all that white background, you couldn’t find a place where there wasn’t a plant? The one where she is standing is better (except for exposure), but you cropped the feet. Shoot a little wider.

 

The b/w “dish in the dirt” shot was also plagued with an exposure issue – the arms are blown. Looking at the color version, the wb is off and it’s way too saturated, too. Otherwise, it’s a really good composition with nice lines, tonality, and skin tone. The arms can be saved with healing brush tool, but that should not be necessary in the future. Even on the cloudy day, a reflector into the face would have helped you nail the exposure (or some sort of scrim to block the light from her arm. And keep your finger off the saturation and vibrancy knobs.

 

I don’t have much issue with your work … it’s not bad, and clearly shows basics of composition and camera handling. I believe some of your experiments with cropping or framing were not successful. Actively think “How does this crop make the image better” when you’re doing it, and experiment with several different crops to try to find the one that feels the best.

 

You have some solid groundwork to improve upon, and that’s an enviable position compared to many. You are not a fauxtographer.

[stef]

double-ouch

[Author]

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