Hawkins Gets Serious with Tinder: Photoshoot 2

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Hawkins
Posts: 38 | Thanks: 47
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2022 3:56 pm
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Age: 27
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Thu Apr 06, 2023 2:11 am

What's up guys.

If you've been following my recent posts I've set myself the goal of getting damn serious about getting some good Tinder pics over the next month. I posted my first photo shoot earlier this week and got some great feedback so here's round 2. I took a fuck ton of photos with a tripod and a remote shutter trigger. I was trying to recreate photos of guys that I've seen and admired, and have been recommended places like Andy's Tinder guide. I am still an absolute novice with a camera, have no clue how to pose, and am very much learning and a work in progress. That said, I'm encouraged that out of the nearly 700 photos (yes I counted) I took today, I managed to turn out these, which I think are good for a beginner. As you can see, I decided to experiment with some filters and minor photo editing (adjusting brightness, exposure, contrast, etc.) Let me know if this is a good idea or not, and whether I've done it poorly or well.

There are 3 sets here, the headshots, the walking shots, and the seated shots. The headshots were taken in my apartment by hanging a blanket from a wall for a background and moving a lamp. The other two were taken outdoors on my college campus.

As always, feedback is appreciated. Help me make the next month turn out some damn good photos!

Thanks Guys.
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MILFandCookies
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Thu Apr 06, 2023 3:51 pm

The photos have great posing and great composition. You did an awesome job here. You look candid and the photos are framed in an exciting way.

Some room for improvement:
What camera/lens did you use? There's no background blur. Either your settings are off, or your lens/camera combo isn't capable of this. Background blur instantly makes photos look 300% sexier. Example:
Simon-Dating-Unchained-79.jpg
Also don't put black and white on dating profiles. Those are the only ones I didn't like... it's a bit tacky in my humble opinion.

You'll get better at editing over time. I found the colors to be a bit muddled, and your skin too orange and in shadow. That come from practice, I sucked at editing at first.
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I've helped > 100 guys get laid on dating apps.
📸🔥 Dating App Photographer - I'll get you laid, click here: https://www.DatingUnchained.com/ 🔥📸

P.S. I don't like MILFs, just the name ;)

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Hawkins
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Motto: Show a little faith, there's magic in the night

Thu Apr 13, 2023 2:55 am

@MILFandCookies

Thanks as always for the feedback man. I very much appreciate it. I meant to go out and take more photos today but I'm rocking a bit of a sunburn and didn't think doing a cherry tomato impression was likely to turn into good tinder photos haha!

So instead of that, I've tried to take your feedback and go back to the editing board with the photos I do have. I've tried to adjust them to remove the orangish skin and brighten myself up a bit. I also took what I thought was the best of the aviator pictures and removed the black and white. I genuinely think this is the best picture I've probably ever taken of myself by a country mile and I'm not willing to abandon it without a genuine attempt to make it good. This version of it is edited to try to improve it, but It's a natural color obviously. I liked the black and white personally, but I trust you to know what you're talking about better than me so I'll try to avoid B&W on Tinder until I feel like I'm getting good results and can experiment a little. The rest are still from the same photo shoot, again edited with your advice in mind.

As for my equipment, I am using a Panasonic Lumix GH4 camera. The walking photos and the photos on the bench were taken with a 12-35mm lens, while the aviator picture was taken with a 42.5mm lens. I'm not sure how to achieve the "blurry background" effect you mentioned. I am VERY new to cameras. My equipment was a gift/loan from a relative who used to do a little amateur photography. I'm still learning how to operate them and what all the terminology means. Advice and further direction on how to get that effect would be much appreciated.

Thanks as always, and I'd love feedback from anyone and everyone. Are these pictures quality enough to put up on a tinder profile? Which ones?
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MILFandCookies
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Thu Apr 13, 2023 8:25 pm

Hawkins wrote:
Thu Apr 13, 2023 2:55 am
As for my equipment, I am using a Panasonic Lumix GH4 camera. The walking photos and the photos on the bench were taken with a 12-35mm lens, while the aviator picture was taken with a 42.5mm lens. I'm not sure how to achieve the "blurry background" effect you mentioned. I am VERY new to cameras. My equipment was a gift/loan from a relative who used to do a little amateur photography. I'm still learning how to operate them and what all the terminology means. Advice and further direction on how to get that effect would be much appreciated.
For the blurry background there are a few variables:
1) Size of sensor
2) f-stop
3) focal length of lens

1) The bigger the sensor, the more background blur you'll get. A "Full Frame" camera is idea. APS-C will do fine too. Andy has his recommended camera guide: https://kyil-extra.com/dslr-camera-guide/#recommended

Your camera has a Micro Four Thirds sensor, which is much smaller and will give you limited background blurriness.

Since Andy wrote his guide a couple other great options came out from Canon. The EOS R8 is essentially an updated RP that just got released this year. If you want to go for the cheapest, get a used EOS RP, I still use mine as one of the two cameras I take on shoots, and it's worked great even after 2.5 years of constant use, and about 200,000 photos taken with it.

2) The smaller the f-stop the larger the aperture, and the blurrier the photo. I mainly use an f/1.4 lens, always set to f/1.4. The lens Andy puts in the guide above is a great starting point.

Also use prime lenses rather than zoom lenses. Prime lenses have only 1 focal length (don't zoom in and out) and have a much wider aperture (smaller f-stop.) Zoom lenses have very closed apertures due to physics limitations. I could get all geeky about optics but all you need to know is for our purposes, prime lenses are ideal.

3) This is a more advanced thing, but once you get tired of your 50mm lens, try an 85. It's amazing for portraits. The higher you go in focal length the more bacgkround separation you'll have. You'll also have to stand further back though which might be an issue indoors, so I always keep a 35mm on hand.

That's a ton of info I hope it all makes selse.
I've helped > 100 guys get laid on dating apps.
📸🔥 Dating App Photographer - I'll get you laid, click here: https://www.DatingUnchained.com/ 🔥📸

P.S. I don't like MILFs, just the name ;)

Goal 1:
• Build + maintain $10k+ profit/month

Goal 2:
• Cut some fat to get abs again
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hyrtsmyrts
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Mon May 01, 2023 9:59 am

Hey you have really good ideas going on over there. I would reconsider the backgrounds in the walking and sitting pics. They look a bit boring to me. Just small adjustments and I think you'll nail it.

The pic with the shades is cool. You can get the same vibe in a full body pic, too.

One more thing. I think looking straight at the camera may give a weird vibe. Or it might be just me.

Just relax your face during photoshoots. You can massage your face and jaw muscles to lose that tension. Listen to some standup comedian or podcast or whatever. Or read some funny stuff to get that chill vibe. You can look serious or mysterious or whatever. But just lose the tension. Laugh. Smile. Have fun.
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