I had some great tweets back and forth with @nicolesy about her tweet about the official US Olympic portraits:
Is this for real? This shows "official U.S. Olympics portraits", but they're so bad it's difficult to believe. Wow. http://t.co/G8ShXCYY
— Nicole S. Young (@nicolesy) July 1, 2012
They really are bad, and the commenters on the story rightly agree that the images are mediocre at best, and not represent the work of the photographer Joe Klamar, whose other work doesn’t (for example, the shot of the fencer) seem to be as.. “unpolished” as what’s shown there.
The images seem unfinished, and quite frankly, poor quality. I don’t claim to be a great photographer compared to the vast majority of folks out there, but these scream “soccer mom with Rebel” (no insult to soccer mom’s and dad’s intended). The posing, the lighting…. just doesn’t work. Some of the images look like they’re going for an “unpolished” look, but the vast majority of them, well, they just don’t do it for me.
A bit of searching found some more polished versions on The Atlantic’s site, which look like they came from the same shoot(s). If you compare the images of Michael Phelps for example. Same pose, similar lighting, but the one on the atlantic’s site looks good, not like someone had taken the shot off the back of a camera.
Solstice Visual Find
The Atlantic Version
(Images via the mentioned sites)
I really hope that the Solstice Visuals site just happened on outtakes, or second shooter shots, or something, and these aren’t a real representation of the quality of work representing the US athletes. It’s also a stark reminder to photographers as to why you never ever let any images you are not proud of out into the wild. Of course the pros have publishers they work for, editors, or retouchers that simply get a memory stick full of shots and it’s out of control of the the image creator, the photographer. But if you can avoid sending out shots that you’re not happy with, and making sure that the only thing that leaves your computer and makes its way onto the internet are fully edited, adjusted images that you are proud of.