First Fashion Photography Shoot

[nikonx]

Hey guys, any suggestions for improvements are welcome. This is one of a series of shots I took of a client who needed a picture of him in one of the tshirts he designed for his website. The shot was taken in late afternoon and an off-camera SB-600 was used for fill and directional light. I edited the image in photoshop and ran a high pass filter on everything but the face for sharpening and a bit of an effect that i like. Let me know what you think.




EXIF:
ISO 200
1/125 at f/9
Nikon D300
Tokina 16-50 f 2.8 at 25mm

[rajpradhan]

Too dark. That bunch of Tshirts hanging there is totally lost except for the white text on them. I could see them by increasing gamma. need some fill there.

[nikonx]

I'm a little confused.. you said bunch of tshirtS and there is only one shirt on one person. you also said white text and there is no white text on anything.. only blue. Either both my monitors are severely miscalibrated or you are looking at a different image?

[Eberbachl]

Originally Posted by rajpradhan

Too dark. That bunch of Tshirts hanging there is totally lost except for the white text on them. I could see them by increasing gamma. need some fill there.

Are you referring to the market umbrella?

[Chip]

This is just my take, and I'm by no means any sort of expert:

The shot - while well-composed - doesn't "show off" the t-shirt enough. The shadow across the middle of it, plus the way the t-shirt is bunched up near his right arm, combine to make it a bit too hard to see the details of all the t-shirt.

Just a thought, but how about a shot of your friend in his t-shirt, with the t-shirt filling the frame, and the arms of a young lady wrapped around him, from behind, in a way that doesn't detract from the t-shirt itself?

Again, I have no experience in anything like this, so feel free to disregard if you like.

[Nathan deGargoyle]

If I was asked what product this shot was selling I'd have said the shoes.

The T-shirt needs to be up-front and centre, not creased and in pin sharp focus.

[jovz88]

I agree a lot with Chip....except for the well-composed part. Here is where I side in with Nathan for, because the visual point of focus clearly seems to be the shoe. Because of the red in the shoelaces, and in the drink, my eyes automatically find myself going to there, which is NOT something that you would like in an ad; to find the viewer's eyes to be distracting by an element that's meant to be background support.

[Ginger Pixie]

My eyes were drawn straight to the shadow on his crotch (not in a naughty way!) but they then lingered there as the width of the area and angle of the leg made it seem distorted.

The red is distracting, with the current composition, the t shirt is the last thing I noticed to be honest.

I'm sorry - I'm not trying to be mean, just honest.

[JoesPhotos]

Not trying to jump on a bandwagon, but I'll have to agree with the majority here. Among the items of distraction are the glass of tea, the red shoelaces, and the 1980 Ray Ban sunglasses. Yes I know they are back in style but the darkness of the photo doesn't "call" for sunglasses. Try going to a park, and him hanging from some monkey bars, Chest up shot. or This same shot, minus sunglasses and some lighting on your right to help remove the shadows. PS everything in the frame B&W but his shirt. It will definately stand out then.

[nikonx]

Thanks everyone.
@Ginger Pixie: don't worry about sounding mean! i asked for critique, I can take it.

I didnt really notice how distracting the shoes are until they were pointed out so thank you.

And that is a beer, not tea. Haha.