New work - Christian

[jetrim]

Need more dudes in my book, so Christian was one of the first shoots in the new studio. He's one of the bigger name agency represented commercial models I've shot so far. After our session he was heading of to Chicago to shoot the Kohl's spring ad campaign for menswear.

[gahspidy]

Excellent work, Jim Especially the first and last images are nailed well.

[GB1]

Hmmm.

I see you were going for high contrast lighting. I think it's an OK attempt but something seems a little off overall on the top two images, hard to say what. W/ the top one, the light seems so strong on that side that I expect him to squint. With the second one, it's so dark on one side I can barely make out his eye there, which could be Ok for a moody shot, but in this one he's smiling as if it's a catalog shot, and the lighting will never be like that in such a shot (needs to be smooth and even).

The bottom one intrigues me, as it has mood and a lot of interesting elements - hat, unshaven model, beer, interesting pose. It's slightly blown out on the Corona label, and may be a bit soft/edited in the mouth area. What makes me wonder though is, why the light is strongest on the beer? That will make the viewer immediately look to that area, but then I wonder, is it a beer ad, or ? Another nit would be more space above the hat, slightly less behind his back, and maybe a tad more light on the back of his head (very much a nit pick on that one). Very good shot overall though.

G

Ps - Tough contrast situation with the white shirt and black vest, but I think it would be better to move the main light closer to the model to make it smoother, decreasing the intensity as needed so not to overexpose.

[jetrim]

First shot, key light is a softbox directly across from his right ear, the gridded spot is a secondary set at 1:1 ratio kicker is directly behind him an 1/2 stop brighter. He's not squinting because none of the lights hit him directly in the face.

Second shot, you've made a few good points and I do have several "catalog style" frames that the light is softer and doesn't drop off so dramatically towards the bottom, as well as 1 or 2 with a more serious face. This was an attempt at something a little different, somewhere in between commercial and editorial. It's hard to make out in this small size/compression but nothing here is clipped - light or dark.

Third shot, the bottle bothered me a bit on this one. Tried it with a flag, but then you lose the hand and right leg to deep shadow. Bouncing hard gridded light off something white, round and glossy is always a problem, but I liked the overall effect. Trying to tone down the label just turned it gray. I do have extra room at the top and the left side is wide to include the chair arm, which again is hard to see at 800 px compressed. Have a dozen other shots with this wardrobe that I'm very happy with (with/without cigarette and/or beer), though this is the only one with the hat mid-air.

[Anbesol]

Excellent work. My only suggestion would be to light the cigarette, and possibly drinking just a bit of the beer. When I look at it, I see an unlit cigarette and a freshly opened beer, I would like to believe that both have been at least slightly consumed, as such, it looks sort of contrived.

[armando_m]

Interesting range of personalities obtained from the same person via a change of clothes and light

The little exposure i have to shooting models make me realize this is much closer to acting than anything else, and the photographer has to know plenty in order to direct the models so the photo communicates what he wants.

Do you see a difference in how hard or easy is it to work with guys vs gals ?