# I need to create some portraits with extra cheese!



## Dubious Drewski (Dec 14, 2008)

Maybe you guys can help. Two friends of mine want to send their friends and family photo Christmas cards this year.  Sounds normal, except they want to do it in the style of cheesy, awful 80's Christmas family portraits.  I am happy to accept the challenge, but I'd like to see what you guys could suggest for lighting/prop details.

Surprisingly, it's been excruciatingly hard to find samples of cheesy portraits online.  But I have already envisioned red and green knitted sweaters, corny Christmas themed background, a small prop or two, like a miniature Christmas tree or oversized candy cane and maybe a pose along the lines of John C Reilly and Will Ferrel:






I am also going to process the image in a way that makes it look straight out of the 80s.  

Any suggestions though?


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## reg (Dec 14, 2008)

Most of it's gonna be in the hair and outfits, but I don't have much to offer past that, good luck!


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## Josh66 (Dec 14, 2008)

...can't help, but I'm looking forward to seeing the results.


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## JerryPH (Dec 14, 2008)

60's style portrait links

70's style portrait links

80's style portrait links

Google was my friend.


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## Dubious Drewski (Dec 14, 2008)

Thanks for the contribution Jerry, but if you peruse the links you provided, you'll see that none of the images you'll find are along the lines of 'Cheesy posed family photos'.  And I didn't even see one photo that looked remotely authentic. Did you?  I am hoping to create a photo that has such a strong, awful style that anyone who looks at can't help but laugh and/or be appalled.

I know what I will do to make this portrait work, but I'm definitely disappointed that google hasn't been so helpful.


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## rufus5150 (Dec 14, 2008)

Try this: http://listoftheday.blogspot.com/2007/09/great-olan-mills-photos.html

but that may go way too far on the cheese. I found that (though I'd seen it before) by googling 'olan mills horror stories'.


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## Dubious Drewski (Dec 14, 2008)

You cannot go too far with cheese. Thanks, some of those are just great. Soft focus, pastels, denim, stupid props, oh it's so wonderful!  I've forwarded that to my friend. We'll see what he thinks of it.


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## iflynething (Dec 14, 2008)

rufus5150 said:


> Try this: http://listoftheday.blogspot.com/2007/09/great-olan-mills-photos.html
> 
> but that may go way too far on the cheese. I found that (though I'd seen it before) by googling 'olan mills horror stories'.


 
I got a 20 that says he drives a Camaro. Great!

~Michael~


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## chrisburke (Dec 14, 2008)

this is my buddies from Sunday Night Cruise..  this has extra chesse, with Cheese on the top


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## JerryPH (Dec 15, 2008)

Dubious Drewski said:


> Thanks for the contribution Jerry, but if you peruse the links you provided, you'll see that none of the images you'll find are along the lines of 'Cheesy posed family photos'.  And I didn't even see one photo that looked remotely authentic. Did you?  I am hoping to create a photo that has such a strong, awful style that anyone who looks at can't help but laugh and/or be appalled.



I spent a good 45 min going through about 200 of those links.  Seems your definition of cheese is of a higher standard than mine, becuase I often cracked up or just clicked to the next one becuase it was literally AWFUL... lol


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## Dubious Drewski (Dec 16, 2008)

Alright. I think I got some usable shots here.  Some are better quality than others.  All of them are equally bemusing.  The colours on some were splotched to give it a low-quality, oldschool photo look.

1. The Aspiring photographer:




2. Happy roommates:




3. The wonderful electronic telephone!




4. Oh, it's you!




5. This has left me feeling unfulfilled.





What do you think, guys?  Got any criticism for me?  Remember though that they are supposed to look corny and somewhat eighties(excluding this last one here, which is just supposed to look weird).


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## rufus5150 (Dec 16, 2008)

Images #3 and #4 are really too small to give any good feedback on.


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## Dubious Drewski (Dec 16, 2008)

Huh? They're both 800 pixels wide. That's not big enough to see?


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## JerryPH (Dec 16, 2008)

I... don't know what to say. 
I think you accomplished your goal. :lmao: :thumbup:


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## abraxas (Dec 16, 2008)

#3


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## rufus5150 (Dec 16, 2008)

Dubious Drewski said:


> Huh? They're both 800 pixels wide. That's not big enough to see?



I think I got in right after you posted them. 3 and 4 were huge.  Excellent work but perhaps a teensy bit oversharpened.


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## SrBiscuit (Dec 16, 2008)

well done!

when pondering your original question, i was thinking of those portrait photos where there is a posed shot in the lower left side of the frame, and then a closer cropped head shot, larger and in the upper right...maybe with a corny border on it...

hmmm im reading what i wrote, and it seems harder to explain than expected...am i making any sense?...lol


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## Dubious Drewski (Dec 16, 2008)

Thanks guys.



rufus5150 said:


> I think I got in right after you posted them. 3 and 4 were huge.  Excellent work but perhaps a teensy bit oversharpened.


Ah, I am a victim of sarcasm once again!  I agree that #4 is possibly too sharpened, but that one isn't a great photograph anyway.  Which did you think was the oversharpened one in particular?  The idea was to have these very, very bright and vibrant though.  The images should jump at you and assault your eyes with the colours.  I thought maybe the contrast would help that.


EDIT Funny thing about all of this: these photos are the first things I've shot with my new 50-135.  What a weird maiden studio session.


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## dEARlEADER (Dec 16, 2008)

love the loud sweaters and candy cane backdrop...

the happy roomates and oh... it's you... are pretty convincing...


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## Parkerman (Dec 16, 2008)

They needed some old aviator glasses on.. lol. Or just some cheesy glasses in general.. Anyways.. Pretty funny.


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## Craddie (Dec 16, 2008)

Turtleneck (or dickie is even better) under the sweater.


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## Craddie (Dec 16, 2008)

..oh, and I like #2 and #4 the best.


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## rubbertree (Dec 17, 2008)

Happy Roommates is the best!!!
What I imagined when I read your first post was doing the traditional side staggered pose with them looking up into the light, both with such innocent looks on their faces with a nice vignette around it.


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## elemental (Dec 18, 2008)

rubbertree said:


> Happy Roommates is the best!!!



Agreed. These are excellent. Great shooting and models.


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## PhilGarber (Dec 19, 2008)

O|||||||O said:


> ...can't help, but I'm looking forward to seeing the results.


Same.


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## manaheim (Dec 19, 2008)

I am literally sitting here giggling out loud.  As soon as I saw the subject and who was posting I was like "Oh BABY this is gonna be good..." and I was rewarded by scrolling down. 

I'm still lauging. haahah

I wish I got in this a bit earlier, though.  Some things I might have suggested:

- big hair!
- "Flashdance" style clothing (like...)
   - Sweatshirts with cutoff sleeves and painted lines on it
   - Parachute pants
   - Maybe a white glove!
   - Lots of zippers
   - Ripped jeans
- Did I mention big hair?

Still, awesome shots.  LOVE the expressions.


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## Dubious Drewski (Dec 19, 2008)

O|||||||O said:


> ...can't help, but I'm looking forward to seeing the results.
> 
> 
> PhilGarber said:
> ...


Phil! Look on the previous page. I think you missed them!




Anyway, thanks for that Chris. I appreciate it. Here's one more for you guys that I kind of liked. It's a bit more of a genuine portrait of these two.  This one was taken by surprise in between the "real" poses; that's when you always get the best photos, in my experience.


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## Tolyk (Dec 20, 2008)

SrBiscuit said:


> well done!
> 
> when pondering your original question, i was thinking of those portrait photos where there is a posed shot in the lower left side of the frame, and then a closer cropped head shot, larger and in the upper right...maybe with a corny border on it...
> 
> hmmm im reading what i wrote, and it seems harder to explain than expected...am i making any sense?...lol


 You mean like a silhoutte shot superimposed into the bottom corner of a close up? I had a high school portrait like that.. never did like it.


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