First attempt at "modeling" shoot

[caradoc]

The rest of James’ online set is here

Overall, I’m not totally disappointed with the way things worked. James is the first TFCD model who’s actually shown up after setting a time and place via Craigslist. The other four have been flakes. They didn’t show, and haven’t bothered responding to e-mail or phone messages – so, their loss, as far as I’m concerned.

Constructive criticism welcomed. I’m heading out to a “fashion photography lighting” workshop in a couple of weeks, and wanted to get one session banged out before going in so I’d have some idea of what questions I’d like to get answered by a pro.

[Analogy]

I think the key light should be higher and diffused a bit (at least find a way to get rid of the ugly shadow of his nose), and it looks like it’s overexposing a bit. The idea is very good though.

[caradoc]

I think the key light should be higher and diffused a bit (at least find a way to get rid of the ugly shadow of his nose), and it looks like it’s overexposing a bit. The idea is very good though.

At least part of the overexposure was deliberate for this particular shot – the sunlight behind him was bringing up certain flaws that I was trying to hide with more light (decreasing the contrast that was blowing his stretch marks and acne all out of proportion.)

To get the key light higher would have required a 12-foot light stand, given where he was positioned on the stairs. I unfortunately didn’t have a way to push it up there.

Thank you for the comments, though – they’re exactly what I’m looking for. If I were to reshoot this, I’d probably not push as much overexposure as I did and simply retouch the photos in post to lose the acne and stretch marks.

What about this one?

[Analogy]

That second shot looks good.

I think pushing the exposure in the first shot could have worked better if your model was wearing darker clothing. Light gray/white clothes aren’t very tolerant of overexposure, especially on digital. The shorts especially are really showing obvious blowouts.

As for the position of the light, meh. You really should have found a way to position it differently, even if it meant putting your flash on a pole and holding it out. That shadow from his nose and really the whole lit-from-underneath vibe really kill the picture. Even diffusing it with an umbrella or something could have helped a lot.

One thing you can do to lessen the harshness of the sun is get a large diffuser and put your subject in its “shadow.” Making the apparent size of your light source bigger does wonders to hide skin problems.

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