Image Quality

hayesphotography

hayesphotography

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23
Name
Steve
Edit My Images
Yes
OK so I’d like to ask everyone’s opinion

I’m fairly confident in my own ability as a photographer, but of late, my confidence has taken as hit as I’ve looked at the photo’s that my local competitors are taking and noting how much brighter and vibrant they look.

This first link is MY Facebook page, the second, one of my competitors

My page:- https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.145109458859919.21591.132316320139233&type=3

Competitors page:- https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151626766133635.1073741892.89065063634&type=3

Now it seems to me that my competitors pics are more vibrant and a lot more visual.

Granted her creative background helps (I’m working on a similar set up myself) but I wanted to know what everyone else thought?

I shoot in my own studio, predominantly high key with a white infinity curve.

4 Elinchrom heads with softboxes or reflector dishes.

Fuji S5 pro and Nikon 28-70 2.8 lens shooting in Raw

I’ve tried different lighting set ups but am wondering whether or not the issue lies with either:

The lighting set up
My camera
Or how I process the images afterwards.

We can all manipulate the image to increase contrast, vibrancy etc.

What does everyone think?
 
I'm no expert, but a quick glance through your images shows:

A lack of sharpness - I'm no fan of the oversharpened look a lot of photographers go for, but lots of your work looks 'soft'.

Quite flat lighting, it makes life easier in a fast moving studio, but it's a bit 'meh'.

Some leaning towards the naff (sorry - but you asked), you're right to feel uninspired by spot colour and a general lack of inspiration.

I'd expect to see at least one picture I wish I'd taken, or one idea to nick in any photographers site (good benchmark). Is there anything at all on your site that you look at and it makes you go 'wow'? I know we have higher standards than customers, but meeting your customers expectations is about 70% 'good enough' IMHO.

As an aside; what are all your old 'snapshots' doing sat alongside 'pro' work you're using to sell yourself as a photographer? Move them to a personal site, or just delete them. They're watering down the quality.
 
The name of the game in this situation is to provide some kind of sandwich critique, in 3 parts...
1. Praise for what has been achieved
2. Constructive suggestions for improvement
3. Reinforcement of the praise, ending on a positive note.

Sorry, but I'm going to have to skip 1 and start with 2.

I can find pretty much nothing to praise. It's just a collection of extremely poorly lit shots, in the outdoor ones you've used whatever lighting happened to be there and the lighting on the indoor ones is more than flat, it's totally without consideration for the qualities of the individual subject, you've just stuck the lights wherever they didn't get in your way. And the white background shots are so overexposed on the background that contrast and edge definition has been destroyed.

And I can't find any kind of style, or personal brand. There isn't a single image that I can look at and say "Yes, that's Steve's work". Now, that's really more of an observation than a complaint, because personally I feel that any good photographer should be versatile, and use the composition, lighting, style and processing that suits the subject - but in commercial terms, a consistency of style builds a brand. The work of all great photographers can immediately be identified, for example Cartier Bresson, Ansel Adams, Man Ray - and, perhaps at the other end of the scale but important in commercial terms, Venture. Your photos are more of a dysfunctional collation, none of which has any relation to each other, except perhaps that at various times you have experimented with different background colours.

Harsh? Yes, and I don't wish to offend, but that's how I feel.
 
i know Lyn,she is extremely good at what she does,as far as competition,you need to step up your game considerably
 
Steve,

Thank you for linking to my FB page. :D

Im happy that you think my work is good enough to want to copy my style. But please try and develop your own.:bang:

Lyn
Wings Photography
 
Mark Ratcliffe said:
i know Lyn,she is extremely good at what she does,as far as competition,you need to step up your game considerably
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oops expect to be contacted by her,the only way to build your business is to develope your own style not attempt to copy what others do

firstly i would look at your basic photography skills they are mediocre to say the least
 
I've worked for 6 years and invested lots in training to get to where I am now and have my style.

Steve I suggests you invest in some quality training.
 
I was going to say the same as Lyn. Training, practice, Training Training, practice, Training. It's not all about creative backgrounds.
 
EOS_JD said:
I was going to say the same as Lyn. Training, practice, Training Training, practice, Training. It's not all about creative backgrounds.
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Your right Jim,

I could make that shot look good without the backdrop!:nuts:

Oh and Steve, you might want to look up the meaning of copyright and next time you run a competition where you get client to upload photos you dont use pics that have clearly been taken by a professional (namely ME). :bonk:
 
Dull, uninteresting lighting, compositions and processing. Then there's the OP's work ;)

Honestly.... practise your lighting setups, don't be afraid to do something different and stop concentrating on what other people are doing.
 
I can understand why Garry has skipped stage 1 of the critique sandwich but isn't the fact that Steve has admitted that there's something wrong a good start?

No-one can improve until they realise they need to.
 
ding76uk said:
The problem is your lighting. The only way to solve it is practice and education. Once you have the lighting down the rest becomes a lot easier. Add stock poses you can rely on and a bit of work on your PP and you will be there.
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That's the wrong way round, it's Education then practice.

It's only when you start training (and it's not cheap) that you realise you should have done that first. The rest is then up to you and best not to copy your nearest but set yourself apart - Which is what Jellycat has already done.
 
Getting better control over your lighting would be a good place to start. You don't need to spend a heap on expensive training to do this, especially if you already have your own studio set up which you can use for free.

Read up on the basic principles of how light works, if you need to. Then look at work you aspire to, work out how it's lit, and then go in your studio and figure it out. It shouldn't be that hard. Or, once you understand properly how light works, simply work out what you need to do to make photos look as you wish.

It's all well and good people saying, you need your own style to set yourself apart, etc. but the long and the short of it is, you're in family and baby portraits - everyone shoots them the same anyway. Well, obviously not everyone but there are general themes. You seem to aspire to Lyn's work, and there are hundreds of people shooting very similar stuff to her, they all seem to be doing OK.

Formulaic photography is generally the order of the day with this stuff, you shoot what people buy, then when the next family come in, you shoot it again. There are people out there shooting more artistically who do set themselves apart, and can price accordingly, but you have to get to a much higher level, and then have the market available to support that as well.
 
EOS_JD said:
That's the wrong way round, it's Education then practice.

It's only when you start training (and it's not cheap) that you realise you should have done that first. The rest is then up to you and best not to copy your nearest but set yourself apart - Which is what Jellycat has already done.
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Well, yes, technically...
But unfortunately a lot of the "education" just isn't worth having when it comes to photography, there are a lot of people out there, earning (or making) money from teaching others even though they know next to nothing themselves. I suppose the only good thing that can be said about them is that they may think that they know what they're doing.

Lighting can be learned just from experimenting, once the principles are understood. See this post.

A day spent with someone like me, as part of a group, would probably cost more for petrol getting there than anything else, and you'd come away understanding the principles of lighting - before the mods get mad at me, this isn't an advert, every one of the occasional events I host is oversubscribed, I'm not looking for new customers and because of changes I'm making to my life I may not even host any of these training days again. anyway.

Producing work to a formulae does work, in commercial terms. Lighting or composing to a formulae doesn't.

The trick is to learn the craft, develop your own style and constantly develop it, and grow. There just aren't any shortcuts.
 
Lets not forget that the OP is charging for his services,then openly agrees his images are not up to scratch.........thats Arse about Tit and damages photography/photographers as a whole presumably the OP has a studio so there should be no reason for not spending hours each week honing his OWN style,admittedly most kids photography is pretty similar,which makes it even more important that you are on top of your game
 
DrGed said:
I can understand why Garry has skipped stage 1 of the critique sandwich but isn't the fact that Steve has admitted that there's something wrong a good start?

No-one can improve until they realise they need to.
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Thats fine Ged,but people are being charged for the photography.we arnt talking about someone who is preparing for the future,and supplying images that are poor in the long run will in fact damage the business,My advice stop charging for the photography at the moment get on to a few lighting courses,then come back with a strong portfolio and hit the ground running with a bit more confidence and build the business from there
 
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Mark Ratcliffe said:
Thats fine Ged,but people are being charged for the photography.we arnt talking about someone who is preparing for the future,and supplying images that are poor in the long run will in fact damage the business,My advice stop charging for the photography at the moment get on to a few lighting courses,then come back with a strong portfolio and hit the ground running with a bit more confidence and build the business from there
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Well said Mark,

Once you have an understanding of the different lighting pattens and how to use them its all about practice.
I alway invest in lots of training in different areas that i think i need improvement in.(i do this at lease once a year). Once ive had the training i get clients in for a play (ie I dont charge) so I can practice.

Steve, I dont have a big studio, I had my garage converted. I dont have an infinity curve (i do have 4 bowens lights but i rarely use more than 1). You dont need all the gear to produce stunning work.
 
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My view is that Steve "put the boat out" well before he was ready and I wouldn't have been charging people for those images. I'd have been coming on here asking for advice as, in fact, I currently am doing.

Whilst I think it's a good thing he has asked for help I also think he should put the business side of things "on hold" until he can consistently create much better images. He probably has done his reputation some damage but a new and improved portfolio at some future date should help repair it.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Well, yes, technically...
But unfortunately a lot of the "education" just isn't worth having when it comes to photography, there are a lot of people out there, earning (or making) money from teaching others even though they know next to nothing themselves. I suppose the only good thing that can be said about them is that they may think that they know what they're doing.

Lighting can be learned just from experimenting, once the principles are understood. See this post.

A day spent with someone like me, as part of a group, would probably cost more for petrol getting there than anything else, and you'd come away understanding the principles of lighting - before the mods get mad at me, this isn't an advert, every one of the occasional events I host is oversubscribed, I'm not looking for new customers and because of changes I'm making to my life I may not even host any of these training days again. anyway.

Producing work to a formulae does work, in commercial terms. Lighting or composing to a formulae doesn't.

The trick is to learn the craft, develop your own style and constantly develop it, and grow. There just aren't any shortcuts.
Click to expand...

Gary
That is certainly true.

Perhaps a day with you would be useful. The trainers I've trained with show their work so it's easy to choose based on seeing the quality of their work.

Another difficulty is that many don't actually know what is good and bad lighting or what makes a good image! Which may lead people to using trainers that in the end are useless.

There's lots of great trainers out there.
 
It's tough hearing your work is poor. But that should be enough to push you to be better and learn.
 
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