Maestro mastering Tinder

[pancakemouse]

None are usable. Style needs work and you need a better camera.

 

[Squilliam]

That being said: I was a very baffled when I read "none are usable". Thats a very strong statement. like "they suck".

Coming from a guy who talks with Pancake fairly often, I can assure you blunt honesty is just his style of feedback. I much prefer it to fluffed up sugarcoating. Don't read into it. Just accept the feedback and think about how you can improve.

At the end of the day, I don't really care how feedback is delivered to me as long as it's done in good faith. I don't feel offended by Pancake's honesty because I know he is telling me this so I can improve.

As for your photos, I agree with Pancake. These are unusable. The vibrancy in the photos is terrible, were these taken with a smartphone?

You need to work on your style as well for sure. Check out Radical's basic fashion guide, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link the website here. I think if you PM him he'll give it to you for free.

Radical's basic guide is good as a start, but it looks quite generic/basic, so you will eventually want to upgrade, and you can post again on the forums to get feedback about that.

As for your photo quality, you need to take them during golden hour, or in a place with better lighting conditions. The problem with shooting outside of golden hour, especially in harsh sunlight, is that it's very easy for the sky to become overexposed and look white, which looks awful in a photo. And you should use a DSLR or mirrorless camera (assuming you aren't already), not a smartphone.

 

[Squilliam]

Thanks mate. That is a little more specific atleast.

Nope, no smartphone. It is some old Nikon D80 of a guy I know. F5,3. Fokus 58mm. ISO640. Lightingtime 1/100s. No idea if it is usefull info, but thats the info i have.

About lighting: Here in Austria we are right in the middle of super cloudy Autumn. There is barely any golden hour. And when the shot was taken it was cloudy AF.

BTW: what do you mean by Vibrancy?

About style: Yeah i read his guide. Read a lot of stuff. Besides the fit of the jeans, On the walking shot I feel like I look like a posterboy for the style he is advocating.

Thats kinda the the thing, I actually read all the ressources. And even thought to apply them fairly well. So I am really confused hahaha

Ok, so for portraits you want the lowest F-stop number to get the blurry background, ideally if you have a lens that goes down to like f/1.8 that would be good.

By vibrancy I meant the overall coloration and lighting in the photo, the photos are overexposed. You can also take photos where the sky isn't as visible. I'm still learning how to deal with this issue myself, so I can't really say much more than that.

Honestly, I'm visiting Vienna in a month or so, I don't know how far that is from you, but if you'd wanna go and take some photos together, I'd be down. I wanna try to get photos in the countries I am visiting.

 

[pancakemouse]

About style: Yeah i read his guide. Read a lot of stuff. Besides the fit of the jeans, On the walking shot I feel like I look like a posterboy for the style he is advocating.

The fit of the jeans is truly everything, because that's the first thing the eyes are drawn to, and the fit is very bad. That's not the style of jeans you want, and it's throwing everything else off.

The jacket sleeves are also too long. And where have you ever seen Radical advocate dad shoes and a 5-panel hat?

 

[Squilliam]

Where have you ever seen @Radical advocate bootcut jeans, dad shoes, and a 5-panel hat?

And a turtleneck, I've never seen anybody recommend that, ever.

Ok thanks.
About the Vienna idea, sounds fantastic! Shoot me a PM about when you will be there. I am down to it for sure!

About the Vibrancy: Isn`t this something that can be fixed in Editing? The dude who shot the photos promised me to send me them back edited (the ones I uploaded are unedited). I will upload the edited once he sent me.

About the style part: Would be really nice to hear some advice from @Radical about this. I read his stuff, so I thought i applied it somewhat okay. Would be nice to hear his opinion.

Now, that I know that the photo quality and the style is off, how about the poses? the facial expressions? the vibe I give off? Do the pictures make me look good? Do they look natural? Are these pictures ones that I can re-shoot 1to1, or are there things to change?

Thanks guys

To an extent it can be fixed in editing, but it's always better to take good photos and then do minor tweaks later. You can only do so much to a low quality photo.

I can't really speak much on the facial expressions and poses because I'm still new to that myself, but I'd say most of them look forced and unnatural, you have to take tons of photos until you get some good natural looking ones.

Over time you learn how to make your face look a bit more natural, it's a skill that takes practice. The more confidence you build, I think the easier it becomes.

I'll see if I can give you some pointers when we meet, but it's kinda hard to give advice on facial expressions and poses lol.

 

[Radical]

Not the worst effort but I agree with pancakemouses advice. Some little things and choices you are doing slightly wrong are throwing that walking outfit off

And little details count a lot with fashion.

Yeah the fit of the jeans is way off. This is the biggest issue to fix
The hat is the wrong vibe with the shoes you have picked - 5 panels are a grungey skater, beach bum hat option while the shoes are too far in too far in the other direction (ie smart) and im not keen on the colour anyways
If you really like the 5 panel caps that outfit would work better if you swapped in busted knee slim jeans (that fit better) and shoes like vans old skools or hi top converse
I personally think if you want to wear a hat with leather jackets then beanies work better but thats just a personal thing. I dont really combo caps with them

I'd probably bring your beard down a grade or two
Getting leaner will help you a lot too