My comments below are not a criticism of you, your model, your talent or your skill. I offer them in a friendly tone of voice and with the sole intent (goal) to help you.
Nice images. Nice figure model. Nice light (on most).
My immediate observations are mixed. Some (see above) are positive.
Some, are a little more "critical" but I will offer them in a "friendly tone of voice."
1. The skin looks "processed" as if the figure has been "skin smoothed" somehow using software. In some cases my eye was drawn to the background and the figure seemed "soft."
2. The red and the colorful walls are nice colors. But I find them a distraction from the figure.
3. Image #4 has the front of the figure in a shadow. This makes the pecs/chest look "concave" and "sunken" rather than "pronounced" or "prominent." IF I were to work out and get a great physique (nice pecs) I would want them to stand "out" and not look "sunken in" or "flat."
Thanks much for your C&C! I'm not sure what's happened in the forum that you need to preface your C&C with such a politically correct "feel good" statement before giving your comments. I really appreciate C&C - as it helps one get better. No need to sugar-coat anything for me. Not to say that I'm going to agree with all your opinions.
In the high-res files, all his skin imperfections are quite noticable. He's a guy - so I didn't smooth him. I only removed the big zits. I did do a lot of layer work - so perhaps the soft light manipulation is giving that impression. Compression for the web may also be working against me here. I liked the background textures, and brought them out hoping to create a 3D-ish look with my dodging and burning.
Image four was me playing around in the studio looking to receate a Sin City lighting effect (rims about 1.5 above the main). He was just goofing around when I took this and I liked the shot from the experiment. I have a "crap load" of shots of him showing off his muscles - I liked this one simply because he isn't.
These are very well done. Dudes are a very hard to shoot and you did a good job. Now, I couldn't get over the size of the poor guy's beak! I'm not being mean, just an observation. Seriously, damn!
These are very nice! I like the overall look and feel. As Steady mentioned, the skin does look a little over-processed, especially #3. It looks the most natural on #4.
Nice series. Although I'm finding the red wall in the first two a bit distracting, at the same time I can't help but really like it at the same time. I guess that probably doesn't make any sense but I can't explain why. I really like the bg in #3 as well and I don't find it distracting as in #1 and #2.
My first impression was also that you applied a lot of skin smoothing. However, I see you indicated in a follow-up response that you didn't apply any.
#4 is probably my favourite but mainly becasue of how his skin looks. If the skin didn't come across as so smoothed in #1- #3, then I would be picking one of those as my favourite of the bunch.
I also really like the processing. He really pops out and has a 3D type look. The texture and tones of the clothing are awesome too. Very nice work.
