Photoclubalpha

I recently did a model shoot in the local transport museum... some of my more favourite images..

If I had to pick just one, that would be the B&W shot, but have to admit that the 4th shot is also great.

1,4 and 6 are my favorites. In the B&W, I felt the gent's left hand was too stiff and that made
his face a bit taut. I feel if he is relaxed a tad, it certainly would have been a debonair and suave
shot.

With best regards,
Sury

I rather suspect that I'm going to make myself unpopular now - and I apologize in advance.

None of these 'do it' for me. IMHO they are contrived and overlit. The model's expressions are unattractive (in the main) and the backgrounds need a lot of attention.

The last is the best, for me, but even that suffers from the 'severed leg' at bottom right.

I do apologize. I feel that it's important that negative opinions are heard alongside positive ones. There are too many fora where 'great shot' is the norm and alternative views are never heard.

MickH

Mick, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. Photography is an art form and what works for me might not work for others... you say the are overlit.. by that I presume you prefer more moody images - I don't. I don't understand what you mean about contrived? What attention do you believe that the BG's need?

RobbieA wrote:Mick, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. Photography is an art form and what works for me might not work for others... you say the are overlit.. by that I presume you prefer more moody images - I don't. I don't understand what you mean about contrived? What attention do you believe that the BG's need?

Robbie,
Let me begin with some agreement. What you say above is true - absolutely true. Maybe I should have made it clearer but everything I wrote is, of course, my opinion. What follows is also my opinion - but I won't keep reminding you of that.

Overlit.

No I don't mean moody. I mean that the lighting, to me, seems very heavy handed and therefore unnatural. Take 1 as an example. The light that you used for the back lighting seems much more powerful than it needed to be. Less power and more subtlety in my opinion.

Contrived.

I much prefer shots in which the 'action' is in someway believable. Take number 4 as an example. How often would you expect to see a young lady (apparently) in her underwear, in curlers, eating fruit and wearing gloves? That's the most obvious example but, to a lesser extent, I feel similarly about most of them.

Backgrounds.

I found most of the backgrounds distracting. Number 1 has some indeterminate material as a back drop. It's lit almost as well as the model and it's in good focus. To me it adds nothing and distracts a lot. Similar in 5- what are those contraptions behind her? I can't see that they add anything but they do distract. Number 4 again - a brick wall? Not the most attractive of backgrounds. Even the car. What does it have to do with the couple or the pose?

Finally, although you didn't ask - expressions. Look at number 2. I'm sure that she's a charming young woman - maybe even pretty but that expression does her no favours at all. I would be very surprised if it turned out to be one of her favourites!!

Let me repeat - all my opinion and I shall not be upset or surprised if you tell me to go away and shut up.

However you did invite me to justify my opinion and I hope that I've said enough to do that.

RGDS
MickH

OH and I went on one of these shoots last year - it's a good chance to get some practice in, although most tend to be outside or with basic lighting gear.

Also - we noticed that there seemed to be an element of men that went who wanted to shoot 'glamour'. Fine, if they want to and they don't tread on toes, but it's very far removed from our photographic interests.

I have an old college friend who runs these shoots from Face Book and she found that some models didn't want to attend because of the 'glamour' element of photographers/models so she organised an indoor 'head and shoulders beauty shoot' in an attempt to counteract this.

It didn't work. We were allowed to take our high end studio stuff (we have comprehensive insurance for our work) and shared this with others but the day was spoiled by the fact that 'king porn' (as we call him) decided to turn up. A lot of models dropped out and he took over doing his glamour 'thing' with some of the models. He also touched them inappropriately and one 16 year old was a little upset.

Also - this man decided to tell everyone you didn't need gear like ours if you knew what you were doing, quite audibly, too - which was incredibly rude!

From what I've seen of his results he relies heavily on post processing (really plasticised skin etc) because he uses harsh flash heads with umbrellas. If he had proper gear he may be quite good......... But still a not very nice man

All in all - we now avoid these get togethers like the plague.

I take on board how difficult it can be to get a good shot in these situations that can be quite hectic and rushed. Also when you post the results the other photographers and models tend to say 'great' because they are often just networking rather than wanting to really learn and no-one seems to want to listen to good advice..... it's the old story of too much praise and the resulting falling standards in this day and age. That's why college can be good - a good tutor will tell you straight!

Regardless - I'm sure you learnt a lot by the experience.

Pat