When you’re putting yourself out there on the internet, of course you’re going to work to put your best foot forward. People would generally rather look at nice photos–myself included! But don’t be misled: taking outfit photos is NOT all fun and games and looking pretty. There’s a whole lot of real life that goes down behind the scenes. Today I’m switching things up a little by sharing the photos that wound up on the proverbial cutting room floor.
For one post with 8-15 final photos, I’ll take anywhere from 60 to 150 pics. I’ve honestly never been very comfortable in front of a camera nor do I fancy myself some sort of effortlessly photogenic person. But, I grin and bear it for the sake of what I do enjoy: writing, creating something original all my own, and sharing information. With that in mind, rooting through the 90%+ of pics that don’t make the cut gets really interesting, not to mention humbling.
Here’s a glimpse into some of my less photogenic moments and photography disasters. These photos are totally unedited so you can appreciate all their raw glory.
“…No one walks like that.” –Mr. AA
Final post: Allbirds review
I always think walking/running pics will look neat but oh man, they never do.
Final post: Do Lyfe review
“I’ll do one of those running in place pics, it’ll look cool.” Famous last words.
Final post: lululemon inspire tights
The faces I make when I’m looking through my photos, probably.
Final post: Alo moto leggings
Literally no idea what I was going for here.
Final post: Carbon38 + Varley
We drove 45 minutes each way to this location and took nearly 300 pics of just one outfit for a final post with only 20 photos.
When we started taking pics, I thought I had gotten the camera settings right. Throughout the pic-taking process, I previewed the photos on the camera and was really excited about them–with a few notable exceptions of me looking lightly traumatized while crossing the creek on wobbly logs.
Then when I got home and plugged them into my computer…disaster.
What I found was loads of horribly dark photos. Then when I turned up the exposure, they were disastrously grainy. I was on the verge of panic. I had 300 crappy photos and no time to reshoot because the post was on a deadline. On top of that, the post was sponsored, and when I’m being paid, I put twice as much pressure on myself to create something I’m proud to present. I had no choice but to burn the midnight oil and salvage what I had. On the plus side, many of the pics were good shots in terms of composition/posing, the blame rested squarely on the photo settings. I spent hours slaving away at my computer trying modification after modification before I started to get something workable.
On that note, if you’re wondering why a lot of the photos in the final post have a slightly ethereal, blurred look to them, my poor choice of photo settings was the culprit. The “soft” look was a side effect of de-graining the photo. (For my photogs out there: ISO 3200 with a 1/1600 shutter speed in a dark canyon? What was I thinking.)
The icing on the cake: my headband was upside-down the entire time!! <facepalm>
In spite of all this, the end result wound up being one of my most successful posts and I learned a ton about editing from creating it. Ultimately, this near-disaster had a happy ending.
Final post: Lululemon winter ’16
This was another photo shoot gone wrong. I tried to branch out a bit with a different location and different lighting. It was 40-something degrees with 30 mph winds, full sun, and mud everywhere. We spent about 20 minutes trying to get some workable pics, but eventually threw in the towel.
We redid the shoot the next day at a different location (read: different lighting) with much, much better results. It was still FREEZING though. I alternated between blitzing as many photos as possible and jumping around in my coat to try to stay warm. When I said this top was lightweight and breathable, believe me it is.
Final post: Alala spring ’17
Slouched shoulders? Check. Blinking? Check. Random bit of water bottle sticking out? Check. Weird foot angle? Check.
Final post: Varley union tights
Instagram husband got jokes.
Or maybe not.
Final post: Olympia mateo leggings
I thought wearing the hood up would look cute. Mr. AA said I looked like an alien. He’s not wrong.
Final post: Alala city puffer
Although slightly cheesy, snow blowing pics are kinda cute. Turns out it’s harder than it looks and usually just looks kind of forced and awkward.
Final post: snow day outfit
The helicopter hair flip: half win, half fail.
“Take a picture of me walking down this hill.” Nailed it.
Final post: Sweaty Betty power leggings review
I had really high hopes for making this shoot look cool given the awesome location, but it was anything but seamless. We drove an hour each way to this remote location down miles and miles of unpaved roads. The first problem was that there were people everywhere, including at my preferred location. It was a Sunday night so I was hoping the weekend crowds would have subsided, but no such luck.
The second problem was that the light ended up being awful, and not what I envisioned at all. The shadows were way too harsh. Not to mention, I made some amateur mistakes that just exacerbated the crappiness of the resulting photos.
We took over 300 photos and still ended up re-shooting 2 of the 4 outfits at a location closer to home. Although I did manage to get some good photos here, it was nothing like I hoped or planned.
…Go on, try to tell me these last two photos aren’t the stuff of nightmares.
Final post: Alala fall ’16
P.S. Side note: word on the street is that a lululemon warehouse sale will be happening at Fair Park in Dallas, TX on May 19-21. Texan gals: keep your eye out for more info! Thanks to reader KC for the heads up.
Haha, these are gold. I still love the purple winter jacket – Lululemon just released it down under but only in white and black!
Aw bummer they didn’t save some purple for you! Fingers crossed you’ll get a different seasonal color. That said, I LOVED the white and almost bought it too!
Being a photographer, I totally understand. I spent the first 5-6 years of my photography doing a lot of self portraiture in an effort to figure out how to pose in pictures, how to smile, how to not look as though I ate too much paste as a child. I’d shoot 40 pictures and often come up with 2 that didn’t have AWKWARD emblazoned across them. The art of making something look candid and natural when it’s not… most people don’t realize just how hard that is.
There are honestly about a dozen questions/comments I could make, but they’re all intensely camera geeky. I’ll spare everyone else. ;-)
Thanks for pulling back the curtain and giving us all a good laugh, and a window into what it takes to have pictures for a successful blog!
Yes, to your point, there’s no substitute for just grabbing the camera and shooting SOMEthing. Practice has definitely been the best teacher. I think it’s especially true for blog photos, since there’s not really guides out there for “how to be okay at photography when you’ve never picked up a camera before and also you’re having your untrained husband take portraits of you that aren’t really portraits.” Haha!!
P.S. I never mind a little geeking out in the comments. :)
LOL! I love outtakes when I photograph people. I’ve tried that helicopter – flip the hair thing with several of my subjects and it always comes out goofy looking.
FYI, if you aren’t shooting in RAW format and Post processing with Lightroom, I highly recommend it. RAW will remedy 80% of exposure issues.
Love your blog!
Thanks Shirley!! :) I’ve gotten one or two hair flip pics that look decent but they are *definitely* few and far between!
And yes I do shoot in RAW! It took me a while to learn that lesson though so that’s a fairly recent change. For a long time, I thought JPG was fine since I wasn’t doing heavy, technical editing (and I wanted to save space on my memory card). But since I switched over I’ve never looked back! Besides rescuing my exposure woes, it’s also made a HUGE difference for color.
The ONLY reason my lululemon hiking pics could be saved were because they were RAW. On the other hand, one of the main reasons those last Alala pics were so difficult to work with was because I shot JPG HDR. I thought HDR would save me from the high-contrast issues but instead it just made me look like an alien when I didn’t stand perfectly still. :P
Oh P.S. another fun fact about RAW: I forgot to switch to RAW til a few shots into the Alo moto legging post. So, the first pic is JPG and the second two pics are RAW. That REALLY drove home the color thing since you can see a difference in the washed out yellow tones of the JPG image vs the slightly more balanced look of the RAW photos (esp true once I started editing them!).
Yes, you have more leeway with RAW especially with color casts and white balance! I’m really anal about my photos (like the horizon has to be straight, even on my iPhone pics), I’m always post processing them.
This was a really fun post. Thanks, Suzanne! :-)
Glad you liked it!! <3
That was awesome! Your pics always look so good and you look so perfect that it’s nice to see that it’s possible for you to take any pics that aren’t perfect. I love your blog. Thanks for the smile :)
Oh it’s VERY possible, hahaha! :) Thanks for the kind words.
omg sooooo funnnnnnyyyyy. i woke up sick this morning and stayed in bed reading your post and giggling before getting up. just what i needed.
I hope you’re feeling better by now! Sorry you were under the weather but glad I could lift your spirits for a few moments. :)
Hilarious commentary! Thanks for being able to laugh at yourself — we all need to be reminded of that lesson!
Absolutely, can’t take myself too seriously or it wouldn’t be any fun. :)
This is amazing! Thank you so much for being so candid! My boyfriend did a photography project recently and I ended up as his subject for a lot of photos, and man did I have to get over the feeling awkward in front of the camera thing!
http://156photochallenge.tumblr.com/
I love that challenge! The fairy light photos is gorgeous. And yes, it’s surprisingly hard to act natural when there’s a camera in your face!!
Love this!
Amateur picture taker here but I found how to take the perfect “walking” picture. Take a step and freeze mid-stride (both feet on ground of course) and have the pic taken. Done. Now you have a walking picture.
Somehow I even manage to screw that one up, lol! It definitely ups my chances of success though, for sure. I probably need to use a mirror to figure out the natural foot/body position and basically just memorize that. Who knew walking could be so difficult. :)
HAHA! These are awesome and funny!
Thank you, glad you liked it! :)
You are hilarious! There’s nothing more refreshing than someone who can laugh at themself and not take life to seriously. Thanks for being you! This is an awesome Blog BTW :-D
Thanks so much Tiffany!! <3
These are some great photos! I actually really like the first one of the sweaty Betty shoot and I didn’t notice alien hood in the photo at all until I read Mr AAs comment underneath. Now all I can see is alien! Haha! But I love it!
Also loved mr AA’s comment on highlighter vomit, which is also all I can see now every time I see the SB power leggings in the lava print! I’m far to naive on photography and what other people might see in a photo , but I love all your photos on this blog!
I know, I liked the alien pic too…oh well!! Thanks for the kind words, Priya! :)
Suzanne,
Such an awesome post! Loved the insight into the process, but more than everything the glimpse into your wonderful personality.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much! <3 This was a fun post to put together. :)
Hah, I can totally relate to this post. Whenever I’m shooting my photos for my blog I just set up a tripod and a timer and start shooting. It can take me a good hour to shoot and all I’ll get are 10 photos out of it. I did take photography when I was in college and my professor said if you get 1 good photo out of 10 that’s a really good success rate. My husband does not take photos at all and even when I try to direct him, it’s always a disaster and he doesn’t have any patience at all. So tripod it is for me. But because of that I will never have photos of me out and about. =( It’s so hard being the model, the photographer and the director.
I toootally get it. I wish I could clone myself sometimes! If it’s of any comfort, your tripod photos always look great, so it’s time well spent. :) My husband doesn’t have much interest or skill in photography either. One thing I found helpful is to give him specific examples (e.g., from Pinterest) or tell him VERY specific instructions like “make sure I’m lined up with the leftmost line on the grid in the viewfinder and taking up about 1/2 of the frame” or something like that. That plus a LOT of patience. He’s gotten a lot better, and it’s not nearly as frustrating as it used to be, so there’s hope if it’s something you want to keep working at. :) That said, sometimes it’s not worth the frustration!!
Love love love ❤️❤️❤️ And love that you have such fun with these shoots and not take it too seriously
Thank you! It’s definitely a lot more fun not to be too serious about it. :)
I really loved the pics, the different locations makes me want to go on a road trip. I love going up to the mountains and looking out over the horizon and seeing all the different colors at sunset.
the different outfits were great, I really liked the one with the pink sports bra, green top and blue pants. I think that is my favorite
Thanks so much Donna! Mountain sunsets are the best sunsets if you ask me. :)