A few musician portraits

travistank · May 14, 2010

Hey All,
I am new to the photo forum and just wanted to post a few portraits of musicians that I have done for open critique. Thanks to everyone who views/comments, I am open to everything you have to say .
Thanks,
Travis Tank

AnneRiceBowl · May 14, 2010

Hey Travis and welcome to TPF!

Some people say I have an excellent eye for detail, but I don't see any pics.

D-B-J · May 14, 2010

AnneRiceBowl said:
Hey Travis and welcome to TPF!

Some people say I have an excellent eye for detail, but I don't see any pics.

+1

travistank · May 14, 2010

yea sorry guys it took me a second to figure out how to get the pics up. I am veeerrry new to TPF. Once again my apologies

D-B-J · May 14, 2010

i can only see three, but they look good to me. Although, i just dont seem to like number one. Not sure what it is, but its not doing it for me.

EFHATCH1990 · May 14, 2010

Nice photos what kind of lighting was used on #1 and #3? :thumbup:

travistank · May 15, 2010

I used a profoto compact 600r light with a softbox for both one and three. The second shot had about 6 lights all together.

c.cloudwalker · May 15, 2010

I like those but I have to agree that there's something that bothers me with #1. Maybe the contrast is too high. His teeth are one solid white area, the cigarette seems to have lost details, the shirt seems to have done the same in the highlight, etc.

Love the guy in #3. What a face! Do you have any tighter shots of him?

travistank · May 15, 2010

Yea the first photo was a pretty hard setup, shooting a really dark african american out in the hot texas sun without clouds can run you into some high contrast issues. Plus my editing is of a higher contrast and could have added to that. I appreciate all of your critiques. I have some other shots of the 3rd guy but in my library somewhere. I can find them and post more.

Derrel · May 15, 2010

I like the band members clustered around the car in #2...that looks like a classic Chevelle Malibu SS...I have a funny story about a car just like that. I like the house in the background, and the positioning of the guys across the frame.

The guy in shot 3 reminds me of Alice Cooper! Thanks for posting.

Dallmeyer · May 15, 2010

Derrel said:
The guy in shot 3 reminds me of Alice Cooper! Thanks for posting.

Totally!

Slick photos.

travistank · May 15, 2010

Right on, Alice Cooper would be a great subject to photograph. Almost had the chance but didnt go down.

c.cloudwalker · May 15, 2010

travistank said:
I have some other shots of the 3rd guy but in my library somewhere. I can find them and post more.

No urgency. He just has the kind of face I tend/love to photography pretty tight. Beautifully lined with great hair with matching shirt

Did you PP his face more than the rest of the image? Looking at it again, it almost looks like a drawing.

I think you should try bringing down the contrast on #1 and see what happens. But I agree that dark skinned people can be a challenge. At least it was for me and it took me a few sessions with a friend to get to a point that I liked. It may sound stupid but what I ended up deciding is that if they are dark in real life, they will be dark in my photos. It ended up working out quite well.

travistank · May 15, 2010

Well I did the post on the entire image pretty much the same his face just turned out to be more drawing esc. Yes I think I am going to start living with the fact that dark folk are going to be darker in my images as well. I have some new stuff coming out soon and I have shot a few homeless guys for my homeless series on my site. Turned out pretty well, practice makes perfect or as close to as you can get I suppose.

c.cloudwalker · May 15, 2010

There's a certain smoothness I see in his face that is not in the background but it seems to be in the place that he is standing in too. Somewhat. It is so hard to tell on a computer screen sometimes. It is nice though.

After my few sessions with the friend (who was darker than this guy btw) I decided there were 2 things I could do to help. 1/ is to photograph them in somewhat darker surroundings (which you did with your photo) and, 2/ is to not photograph them in light colored clothes. Both of those are of course much easier to control with people who are willing participant in the image.

I will be interested in seeing your homeless shots.

And yes, practice helps but there is nothing perfect in the world so don't worry too much about not being perfect :lol: