OK... more feedback please.

anonymouscuban · August 30, 2011

First, I'd like to apologize to all the guys. My wife had a long day at the office so I gave her the night off from modeling. The good news is, you guys get to see more photos of me. I kept my shirt on this time. :dunno

I'm no model so please bear with the poses I will post. Here is the first. I took this with the two gridded strip lights but the main softbox had no front diffuser, only the inner diffuser. The light is a bit harder but not as hard as I anticipated it to be. What do you think? Edgy enough? Too much? What about the processing? I muted the reds a bit.

Elaine · August 30, 2011

I think its edgy, and I like the processing.

0scar99 · August 30, 2011

Despite having envy for almost every aspect of your life, equipment, muscles, wife etc etc.. I have to admit this is a great shot.. Seems quite hard -edged to me.. I like... please can we go back to the regular content now..

anonymouscuban · August 31, 2011

Thank Elaine and Oscar. I promise to post more pics of the wife soon but here is one more. My best model pose and "Blue Steel" look. I used thoughts of how happy Daniel gets when he sees pics of me to get me "in character" for this shot. BTW, I stood just a tad further from the main and turned up the juice on it just a tad for this one. Shadows are just a tad more distinct here.

Bryce Wilson · August 31, 2011

I like the light. I like the light A LOT! For my tastes though, I think you could step back a notch or two on the PP. The idea is good, I think it was just overdone a tad.

Someone is loven those new soft strips ain't he?

RebelSol · August 31, 2011

I personally like this subject just fine

. I like the edge to your shots and the lighting gives you some awesome lines. Makes me want to set up a studio and shoot my husband a few thousand shots!

(mine is 6'3, 300 lbs of muscle. Lots of curves to bounce light off of !!!)

wolf911 · August 31, 2011

I like this kind of processing and the lighting is nice. Posing is never fun and I never feel comfortable doing it for self portraits.

Foques · August 31, 2011

I like!
out of curiosity, though, what BF % are you at right now? i'm starting my cut at the end of the month.. $:\$

zoomer · August 31, 2011

That looks good.
Looks like you added just a smidge of tonal contrast or topaz or that other expensive one.

anonymouscuban · August 31, 2011

Foques... I'm am about 10-11% BF right now. I'd like to get down to about 8%.

Zoom... thanks. I did all the processing in PS.

Foques · August 31, 2011

Ok, you called it. I hate you. A lot!

Qarik · August 31, 2011

Alex, I manged to get through these shots. They are spot on..edgy and strong.

Sam · August 31, 2011

All righty now...........in the first photo, is that a Cuban gang sign with the hands?

In the second you look very dark and mean.

Don't tell Alex, but for those of you who don't know him, he is one of the nicest and most genuine people you will meet.

Sam

anonymouscuban · August 31, 2011

Foques wrote: »

Ok, you called it. I hate you. A lot!

HAHA... I was a skinny kid growing up. My nickname was "boner".

. Never bothered me much. When I was 21, I weighed exactly 145 lbs. I remember because my wife was 8.5 months pregnant at the time and we weighed ourselves at one of those coin scales at spits out a receipt with your weight. It's in one of our albums next to the my wife's. Hers was a 175 lbs.

She gained 75 lbs during her pregnancy!!! BTW, I just shy of 6'1" so that is really skinny.

My point is that BF has never been an issue for me. Quite the opposite; gaining weight has always been tough. Right now, I'm sitting at 184 lbs. I'd like to cut down to 175 before we go to Hawaii in Oct. After that, I will bulk again, try to hit 200-205 and then cut back down. My long term goal is to be 185-190 lbs at 9% BF. Hoping to be there by this time next year. Not sure. Going to take a lot of work in the gym and a lot of protein.

Qarik wrote: »

Alex, I manged to get through these shots. They are spot on..edgy and strong.

Thanks Daniel. Yeah.. I like these from a technical perspective.

Sam wrote: »

All righty now...........in the first photo, is that a Cuban gang sign with the hands?

In the second you look very dark and mean.

Don't tell Alex, but for those of you who don't know him, he is one of the nicest and most genuine people you will meet.

Sam

HAHA. You know me Sam. I'm a crazy Cuban gangster! Joking aside, thank you for the kind words. I'm a softy... actually, "Goof Ball" is how my wife describes me.

Foques · August 31, 2011

I know what you mean.. i went from 90lbs (yes, 90, when I just moved here, to US) to 220.. i'm 6'4"..

the change took a wee over 4 years.. but i'm at 17% right now.. $:\$

I look forward to your shirtless pictures when you're at your goal %s.. I mean it in the straightest way possible.. (aaand wife is giving me a glare as I'm typing this)..lol

anonymouscuban · August 31, 2011

WOW... 90lbs? So you know the plight of the skinny guy.

It seems we humans are never content. Skinny people want to put on weight, fat people want to lose it.

Well, back to the photos. Thought this was kind of cool. I really suck at selecting in PS. Really trying to work on it. This didn't turn out too bad I think.

Hackbone · August 31, 2011

These are great!! Congrats. On the first one the kicker seems alittle hot but that is really personal preference. On the second one the head tipped to the front should is a bit feminine to me and the hands look like they are in need of something. Hook the thumbs in your belt of loops to do something with them. On the extraction I think you did a heck of a good job. The lighting on you matches what we see in the background. Great job.

Macushla · August 31, 2011

I prefer the shirtless photos.

(That's not creepy is it?)

anonymouscuban · August 31, 2011

Charles... thanks for checking these out. I don't mind the kicker on the first. I kind of wanted it a bit hot. On the second, I do cry during sound movies so my I was inadvertantly channeling my feminine side. I no model and it felt a bit ackward actually being on the other side of the camera and try to figure out what to do.

Yeah... I'm a big Joel Grimes fan I know he does a lot of this stuff. He uses a very similar light setup which makes it easy to do composite because the lighting is not so directional. I'm just learning to use the Refine Mask tool in PS and it's helped quite a bit.

sweet caroline · August 31, 2011

Alex, I have enjoyed seeing all the fitness shots lately. I like the phtoshopped BG!

Z6I · August 31, 2011

So, no longer anonymous?

puzzledpaul · September 1, 2011

Hackbone wrote: »

On the extraction I think you did a heck of a good job. The lighting on you matches what we see in the background. Great job.

Only comment I'd make re this is to be aware of scaling issues.

The horizon / vanishing point seems to go thro the top of the 21st course of bricks (on pic L).
I have no idea what size US bricks are - sizes have probably changed over the yrs like the UK - but for either of the main UK brick systems this'd make you well over your stated height (7.5 > 8.5 ft) by my rough reckoning

pp

anonymouscuban · September 1, 2011

Those are Cuban bricks, they'e much smaller.

OK... more feedback please.

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