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Are studio photographs becoming cliche?
I shoot only with available light and was thinking at one time to do some studio work, but after a year of research and looking at ports and images made in the studio settings...they seem somewhat boring to me. Yes, they are technically perfect and look great...but somewhat vanilla and boring. Does that make any sense? Aug 27 05 08:38 am Link All it suggests is that you probably need to change your research methods. Aug 27 05 08:43 am Link piers wrote: An amazingly accurate and economical use of words. Aug 27 05 08:47 am Link One can still be original in the studio. There are plenty of boring photos shot on location too... Aug 27 05 08:47 am Link I'll have to agree w/piers. If you have the budget, studio can be quite liberating. I don't have the budget so my stuff is def getting boring. Had a location to shoot today and it's raining. I will be getting outside more as I need to add to my versitility. Aug 27 05 08:49 am Link Mister B wrote: Seems you've never tasted real vanilla. It's delicious! Aug 27 05 08:50 am Link Brian Diaz wrote: i'm afraid to go over to the dark side. Aug 27 05 08:52 am Link Brian Diaz wrote: (It's also metaphorical.) Aug 27 05 08:57 am Link A lot of times available light photography is about being able to see light and studio photography is about being able to previsualize and create light. Aug 27 05 08:59 am Link XtremeArtists wrote: LOL Aug 27 05 08:59 am Link Seriously, boring is in the eye of the beholder. Okay, let me start again. Seriously, having a lot of "stuff" going on doesn't necessarily make a photograph "interesting" if the subject isn't sufficiently isolated via DoF, contrast, etc. I looked at your portfolio and you have a great eye for those things. As Brian said, don't knock it till you try it. Bring your sensibility into the studio and see what happens! Aug 27 05 09:04 am Link The images that always turn out best for me are the candids, in-between poses...when the model is relaxing and thinking i'm not going to shoot. it's more natural and not that "posed/fake" look that you get in studios AND on location shoots. catching the model lost in their thoughts or just being themselves off camera is the challenge to me. Get them out of their comfort zone and have fun. i see my thinking was wrong on starting this thread...its not the studio set up or lightings fault that makes the image look vanilla and boring..its the photographer with the cliche poses. i should of remember the prior threads on cliches. sorry peeps! Aug 27 05 09:07 am Link Todd Steinwart wrote: Thanks. Perhaps I will rent some studio time and give it a shot. Maybe it will be like crack and once I get a taste of it I will be hooked for life. Aug 27 05 09:10 am Link A lot of the time it is the studio setup and lighting that make photos boring. And a lot of the time it's a lifeless expression. And a lot of the time it's both. Aug 27 05 09:13 am Link Mister B wrote: This depends on what you're going for. Sometimes you have to bring them into their comfort zones and have fun. Aug 27 05 09:14 am Link Brian Diaz wrote: just start burning some trees like randy moss...they will get comfortable soon. J/k models! Aug 27 05 09:21 am Link I love shooting both, but I'm probably 70% in studio and 30% location. That's just kinda how it works out. Even in the studio, I'm chatting and catching the models in poses that are just them being themselves. Those, mixed with the posed images give the model and myself a nice variety of images to choose from for the project. "Luke....I mean Mister B, come over to the dark side" Aug 27 05 09:23 am Link Mister B wrote: The dark side is good. It's funny, but some models won't work with you unless you have a studio. I've never had one. I guess my work ain't so good. LOL Aug 27 05 09:28 am Link I like the clean, uncluttered images the studio gives me plus the total control over all aspects of the lighting. .... kind of a lighting control freak. Aug 27 05 09:32 am Link Shooting indoors can be just as cliche as shooting outdoors, or it can be just as original. It all depends on what you do where you are. As far as keeping models in their comfort zone, here in Arizona in the summer time that means air conditioning. Aug 27 05 12:26 pm Link Mister B - It may be more about your comfort zone - and I totally understand. I always have been a landscape/outdoor photographer and after I branched out into using models - I was scared silly to try to figure out working indoors. But I studied a bunch - had a few very understanding models that helped me while I flailed around. And I might have BEGUN to get the hang of it. And it has been really fun. If you have an infinite possibility in controlling context, lighting and environment - I can't imagine that a person with a good eye could not make some stunning images. VintageV Aug 27 05 12:27 pm Link Outdoors in Wisconsin? bbrrrrrrr  Aug 27 05 12:31 pm Link shooting indoors is way cooler than shooting outdoors. shooting indoors on the same set over and over is cliche. i'd rather shoot indoors on location than shooting in studio. i got tired of shooting in our studio a long time ago. we do gets props though. it's like, wow a studio! forget the studio! let's take this to the hotel. hehe Aug 27 05 12:38 pm Link YES YES YES there will always be a time to do something and to create the gels that change a mood or set of a part make studio lights a tool often overlooked and scary to most photographers. A big flat light source from a soft box is easy now light the hair and get a glow with a reflector it aint rocket science people. I mean unless your in Aug 27 05 12:44 pm Link If you live in Montreal or the Texas Panhandle (one of the coldest places on earth) try not shooting in a studio in January. Aug 27 05 12:49 pm Link Mister B go to the library (or Google) Avedon or Penn and tell me that they are boring. And Helmut Newton (while he shot a lot on locations with lights) took some fabulous photographs of very tall naked women (in a studio). It's there. Aug 27 05 12:50 pm Link alexwh wrote: Thanks. I always enjoyed Helmut's stuff...and that Marilyn portrait by Avedon is to die for....I think i will give the studio a shot or two next month...i will be a complete novice with everything, but who cares. I'm sure i can wing it and get some nice results. Aug 27 05 09:28 pm Link Brian Diaz wrote: Those are some good use of words. I'm gonna have to remember them. Aug 27 05 10:17 pm Link Mister B it was Bet Stern who took some of the best photos of Marilyn. In spite of a terrible intake of drugs through the years I believe he is still alive. He (Stern) pretty well invented the Cosmopolitan cover. It consisted of one main light at 45 degrees to the photographer and up and then 45 degrees down on the subject. This light guarantees cleavage! Aug 27 05 10:19 pm Link Do what comes naturally to you. Everyone has a calling, gift, thread, path, God given talent... whatever you want to label it. If yours is natural light and candid shots than follow that path. At the same time I think that is both healthy and beneficial to learn and expand. Step out of your comfort zone and shake things up form time to time. So try to get a comfortable with the studio too. For me natural light is the only way to go. I would rather shoot with a single lit match than use artificial light. But I do use studio lighting when it is called for and when it's raining outside Aug 27 05 11:04 pm Link Mister B Allbright has given you very good advice: "At the same time I think that is both healthy and beneficial to learn and expand. Step out of your comfort zone and shake things up form time to time. So try to get a comfortable with the studio too." If you shoot edgy develop a more relaxed look. If you shoot relaxed develop an edgy look. If you shoot people practice some tabletop and some landscapes. If you shoot clothed people you will shoot them better if you practice with fully nude people. If you have never shot babies, try it. If you only shoot b+w shoot colour. If you only shoot digital, shoot film. The good photographer is like the good cook that has an excellent book of recipes and he can cook no matter how many people show up at the last moment. Where I draw the line and probably reduce my monthly income by lots is that I will not shoot a wedding. Aug 27 05 11:11 pm Link Brian Diaz wrote: Lol...that is true there is nothing like vanilla it is such a sexy flavor and scent. If you want something special it mixes great with chocolate and coffee Aug 27 05 11:14 pm Link Mister B wrote: I agree, here's one of my most posed/fake looks I got in my studio. Boring as hell! Aug 27 05 11:21 pm Link AlbrightCreativeImagery wrote: Why is a match not considered artificial? Aug 27 05 11:37 pm Link no, use a lite panel Aug 27 05 11:41 pm Link I love my studio... But then i love all light so.. When i get bored i Change Color.. (:----- Aug 27 05 11:44 pm Link Brian Diaz wrote: Another common fallacy revealed! Aug 27 05 11:47 pm Link Brian Diaz wrote: a match is a poorer example of the method used by photographers before flash which was magnesium powder. That stuff was very bright but very dangerous. It was used in many countries until the 1950s (belive it or not). The problem with the match is that it offers two things that we want to usually avoid in portrait and or glamour photography. This is what we call a point source of light (others are the sun, and lightbulbs as well as your camera's nasty buddy the pop-up flash. To take decent portraits you need indirect light. This can be light that bounces off a wall, a ceiling or light that goes through large white sheets, softboxes, etc) The largest of the indirect lights is the sun on a cloudy day. For good reflected light you need lots of intensity. A match is very low on intensity and tough on the fingers holding it. Aug 27 05 11:50 pm Link The natural thing has to be looked at too. Many say that the moment you go into some unknown virgin forest with a camera you have already altered it. Your natural light is full of hydrocarbons, methane from farting cattle, fluorocarbons and so on. What is then " natural" light? Does it exist anywhere? In Lima, Peru it rarely rains. In some periods it hasn't rained for years and all they get is a low fog. Since water is scarce garbage in garbage dumps smolders and smolders. So on your first days in Lima you will discern a smell in the air. Then you will notice that on sunny days the shadows are rarely black or hard-edged. Then you will know that one the most beautiful lights of the world is garbage driven. Aug 27 05 11:55 pm Link I agree with you Mister B, the only advantage to shooting indoors is being able to better control lighting. 95% of the time, studio shoots usually look like typical "portfolio" work. Especially those where the model can do nothing but stand in front of a fake backdrop. Plain colored backgrounds get old fast and sets look, well, like sets and many times kinda fake and cheesy. Nothing beats a beautiful, natural backdrop in my opinion. Take my shoot today as an example. I did a GREAT photoshoot outdoors with a model on a horse, try doing that in a studio!  However, ALOT of it depends on location. For those who live in bad weather or those who live around dull, boring landscapes, shooting outdoors isn't too compelling. Being in SoCal, I shoot on location every chance I get and will only go into a studio in bad weather or as a last resort.Aug 28 05 12:04 am Link |
