Hey /p/, after years of slowly learning the basics of photography, I think I'm ready to get into the world of portraits. The one small issue is that I don't have any good sources of references other than here for learning the different poses, angles, lighting, and everything else to make decent photos. Don't get me wrong, there are amazing threads that pop up here, but with the gear talk and the shit posts, I really want to branch out and find some from the outside. Instagram is what most people say, but I also want to find stuff that's unconventional or just really creative. So are there any websites, books, or photographers you anons can recommend to check out? Also would love to hear some tips and pointers for a noob like me starting out, especially when it comes to "directing" and posing a model
i like tumblr myself. flickr is fine too. try the website digital photography school for technique references. from tumblr i often get people linking projects which have been published on a web zine or editorial, which is another thing you can explore and follow once you know about it. eg i came across this one last week: https://www.broad.community/
>>4514728Get C-stands with extension arms instead of tripods for your strobes.
>>4514728Go on lomography and search by lens, just pick a focal length you like
>>4514728Watch some bts of working photogs, see how they interact and pose models, see how their images look. Take lots of practice shots with different styles of lighting and see what you like.When I first started, I liked OneLight by Zack Arias to light on a budget. Joey L has lots of great BTS, like this 4pt series:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlPTY_GOqekPhoto challenges like this can be informative:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtTakN-YW3kThis playlist has a bunch of BTS for bikini type shooting:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXDt1pJ6a0Y&list=PL42TyHF8rb4KEByfTgMinL-fKfg1z7vvzPeter Coulson has tons of youtube videos for BTS studio stuff:https://www.youtube.com/@PeterCoulsonPhotographer/videosFor a total goober shooting pretty ladies outside, look to Xing Liu:https://www.youtube.com/@caliallstaringTry to find 1-2 pieces of advice or something you can learn from all the pros. Like from Peter Hurley (headshot master), I learned about the "squinch" and "pointing your forehead towards the camera" as a cue.For more creative uses of lighting, with like projected images, look at Jeremy Cowart. For someone the board was obsessed with for many years, look at Benoit Paille.One small piece of advice from my own shooting, is to prioritize the most important shots for the middle 50% of shooting. The first quarter is just for them to warm up and get used to the camera and you, and by the last quarter energy levels can drop a bit.
>>4514795Adding some more, the GPP annual shootouts were always interesting.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_noqltVoK4Trotti has a good basic posing video for normies:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcgEs2mDIUADefinitely get to a point where you have several base poses in mind, and then you can just start pivoting from there.Mango Street too:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xWxpunlZ2w
>>4514734thanks, I'll check out that school. I haven't heard anyone talk about tumblr in years, but I'll also look into it>>4514735funny thing is that I weirdly have one from a relative, though it's pretty old and will definitely need to be replaced>>4514739I'll also be looking into this>>4514795>>4514796Wow, I appreciate the in depth info. I really enjoy looking at the BTS stuff for photography and find it extremely helpful for understanding the process of getting a good shot. I'm definitely going to be looking over all this, so I'm absolutely grateful for the help
>>4514966The chinese c-stands are really decent quality and less than 200 depending on the size you want. I have neewer ones and they're solid. 3 is a good number to have along with 3 strobes and a couple different colored cards to begin with. You can use the stands to mount cards or even small backdrops if needed. There is a huge amount of different lighting you can do with 3 strobes and you will be set for a very long time. Even one strobe has many possibilities.Avoid gearfagging over expensive strobe modifiers. Cheap shoot through umbrellas, soft boxes, beauty dishes, etc are good enough to begin with and maybe even to end with.
>>4514971how are they for transporting? I'm only asking because I don't have a studio or any empty room to work with, so I'll probably be doing stuff in different locations outdoors
>>4514977They are kind of heavy, but the legs rotate so they can lay flat. You'll also want atleast one sandbag or equivalent 25-ish pound weight for each c-stand that you have.
