We, as a group, had a chance to photograph some Thai royalty costumes a while ago. It was a part of an exhibition by a Thai designer here in LA. While there were several there but this particular costume struck me as unique and photogenic. I do not know whether that Thai designer added her touches to the original design or not but I do know that the outfit is awesome, complete with the finger extensions.
We did the shooting in a rented studio and for this particular costume, I ended up using a dark background. The model? No, she is not from Thailand but a tall and pretty Russian girl. But I couldn’t remember her unusual name after a while... I am sorry . Yes, we took images of different costumes, different models and backgrounds but this set stood out for me.
Thank you for stopping by and please feel free to leave any comment,
Joshua
Joshua, the model is attractive and engaging. I'll ignore the whole cultural smear and just say that your images are darned good, with a few nits.
On the minus side, I don't like the lighting or dodging of the background; it looks like smoke. If it is smoke, I'll have to remove my foot from my mouth. For sure, the shoes are too contemporary and don't really go with the costume. On my monitor, the tassels are supersaturated and lack detail.
GoodEgg wrote:
Joshua, the model is attractive and engaging. I'll ignore the whole cultural smear and just say that your images are darned good, with a few nits.
On the minus side, I don't like the lighting or dodging of the background; it looks like smoke. If it is smoke, I'll have to remove my foot from my mouth. For sure, the shoes are too contemporary and don't really go with the costume. On my monitor, the tassels are supersaturated and lack detail.
Thank you for your feedback! You can critique my work to your heart’s content but I didn’t get that you considered my post as some sort of a cultural smear although you ended up ignoring it. What made you think that way? For sure, I didn’t intend to make it that way, not even the slightest.
As far as dodging of the background concerned, I preferred it to be deep black. Too bad there was no black and more light absorbing backdrop at that studio. True the shoes are contemporary shoes but I didn’t know what shoes would fit the costume better. And the whole idea is to take images more from the fashion point of view and not a historic documentation. The tassels are simple bright red artificial wool knitting yarn and unless photographed as such in larger magnification, there should be much textures in them.
First, I'm not sure of a smear either. Beyond that, I do agree about the inconsistency of the background. What was your shutter speed for the shoot?
The other noticeable thing was the light falloff of the full length shot. The legs and shoes were much darker than the upper body. If you're working with a smaller modifier, next time try a silver reflector or white foam board to add more light to the lower body. As always, these are my personal suggestions
story_teller wrote:
First, I'm not sure of a smear either. Beyond that, I do agree about the inconsistency of the background. What was your shutter speed for the shoot?
The other noticeable thing was the light falloff of the full length shot. The legs and shoes were much darker than the upper body. If you're working with a smaller modifier, next time try a silver reflector or white foam board to add more light to the lower body. As always, these are my personal suggestions
Thank you very much for your feedback, Larry! The amount of dodging/burning I did on the background was done that way to leave the area around the upper body of the model alone. If that’s what you referred to as inconsistency of the background, it was more by design. The shutter speed was 1/125sec the sync speed for using studio strobes.
Yes, I agree that the lower areas from the knee down did get less light than the face/head or upper body. There I was more focusing on what was more important in the sense of getting some kind of vignetting effect, highlighting the main section that way. But point well taken.
I will only comment as a viewer Joshua. Your type of photography leaves me technically challenged.
I think your images are wonderful!! Now yes I would have liked to see a Thai woman in the clothes but not essential.
I have visited Thailand many times, from the mid 1960's to 2009, and always seek out the culture(when time permits). Kick boxing, boats, markets, all the temples and the monks, take an elephant ride..the people are wonderful and I love Thai food!!!!!
Very nice images!
Strangely, and this is outside of any cultural appropriation comments, the model is too pale. I know that sounds weird but to my eye there's too much variance between her and the costume.
As far as the feet and shoes are concerned, just needed a floor level kicker light to add some separation.
All that being said I've spent quite a bit of time looking at these so a good job done!
Danpbphoto wrote:
I will only comment as a viewer Joshua. Your type of photography leaves me technically challenged.
I think your images are wonderful!! Now yes I would have liked to see a Thai woman in the clothes but not essential.
I have visited Thailand many times, from the mid 1960's to 2009, and always seek out the culture(when time permits). Kick boxing, boats, markets, all the temples and the monks, take an elephant ride..the people are wonderful and I love Thai food!!!!!
Great images all Joshua!
Dan
Dan, thank you very much for your kind words! I understand where you are coming from. We did have other models, actually 2 Asian models but the designer chose this one model to showcase that particular costume. Somehow, I got the impression that although the original design was Thai in origin but she added her own touches and modified the costume that way. I remembered how everybody was awestruck when the model came out in that costume.
Joshua, my comment was not intended to be a nit. Asians, Thai women..tend to accent the wardrobe more than fairer skinned women.
It appears you had no control of the subject or its wardrobe.
Dan
Tristanstudios wrote:
Very nice images!
Strangely, and this is outside of any cultural appropriation comments, the model is too pale. I know that sounds weird but to my eye there's too much variance between her and the costume.
As far as the feet and shoes are concerned, just needed a floor level kicker light to add some separation.
All that being said I've spent quite a bit of time looking at these so a good job done!
Nick, thank you very much for your kind words! Yes, the model is pale. The designer was the one to choose the model to showcase this costume. She must have felt that the costume would be best on her. It was done more as a collaboration effort, where everybody chipped in their time, effort and some expenses.
Yes, there are ways to add more exposure to the lower section below her knees.
Danpbphoto wrote:
^^^Not weird at all! I picked up on that also..hence my comment.
Joshua understands.
Dan
I understand that entirely, Dan!
Danpbphoto wrote:
Joshua, my comment was not intended to be a nit. Asians, Thai women..tend to accent the wardrobe more than fairer skinned women.
It appears you had no control of the subject or its wardrobe.
Dan
Yes, most circumstances were beyond my control. Frankly, it was done more on-the-fly and we didn’t know what to expect before hand. The designer got stuck in traffic coming from LA; we did the shooting in Orange County. She had a lot of costumes in her van and she did all the costume and model selection. We used 2 backgrounds for that model in that costume. The other was more for ¾ portraits and I do like the two full length images I posted here. Although the model looked pale but I believe that she felt comfortable and actually, she looked great in that costume.
I really don’t have any room to critique because you are a much better photographer than I am and they are fantastic! I love “different” and these are very different. #3 is my favorite. As my friend would say....it speaks to my inner symmetry. I would love to see more from the set as well!
Yes, most circumstances were beyond my control. Frankly, it was done more on-the-fly and we didn’t know what to expect before hand. The designer got stuck in traffic coming from LA; we did the shooting in Orange County. She had a lot of costumes in her van and she did all the costume and model selection. We used 2 backgrounds for that model in that costume. The other was more for ¾ portraits and I do like the two full length images I posted here. Although the model looked pale but I believe that she felt comfortable and actually, she looked great in that costume.
Tristanstudios wrote:
Hope you post more from that day
Thank you , Nick!
J. Pow wrote:
I really don’t have any room to critique because you are a much better photographer than I am and they are fantastic! I love “different” and these are very different. #3 is my favorite. As my friend would say....it speaks to my inner symmetry. I would love to see more from the set as well!
Joel
Thank you very much, Joel! I am flattered...
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Here are two more images from that day...
The first image is of the same model wearing the same top, which was almost completely covered by the various neck laces and hanging parts of the head gear. This metal head gear here doesn't have any hanging parts and she is wearing a broad metal necklace that looks more like a hanging shield. Again, the designer made the calls on whom to wear what with what accessories.
The costume and accessories of the model in the second image very detailed, too and more in line with what I would consider more Thai classic appearance. The same goes for the hand pose. I am not here to judge nor to give background information on the model.
Danpbphoto wrote:
You did WELL.very WELL........most excellent with what you had Joshua! If you like, I like..! Again just great photography Joshua!~
Dan
. Yes, we took images of different costumes, different models and backgrounds but this set stood out for me.
