Who Shot it Better? Kate Upton: Walter Iooss vs. Terry Richardson

I love the GQ cover. The styling, colour and the high contrast combined the beautiful Kate Upton add up to a stunner of an image.

Terry Richardson, by a country mile

I agree with rhe author GQ by far is better but then with a model like that any pro would be hard pressed not to take a great photo!

different styles for different briefs(no pun intended)
Its always easy to photography good looking people as we tend to look at the person rather than examine the photos technical merit.

I dig Walter’s work, but in this case, Terry takes the cake. The angle in the SI shot is odd, and so is Kate’s pose. I hate the super small bikini, but that is not Walter’s fault, that is up to the stylist.

Walter Iooss is an outstanding photographer but the retouching looks absurd and the pose is kind of weird.

Terry wins.

The retouching on the SI cover is WAY too much. The pose is OK, but not great. The whole thing reminds us how small a role the photographer plays in covers like this. Someone chose the model, the swimsuit, which one of the frames that was shot, how it would be retouched…for all we know Walter shot a different frame that looked like the GQ cover. I’m continually amazed at the good pictures I shoot that my editors don’t use and vice versa.

My vote goes to Terry Richardson!

The GQ cover wins hands down. Aside from the horrible retouching job on the SI cover (as Pete mentioned above), the GQ cover is fun and hot. The lighting, expression and concept all work. Love it!

It’s Terry all the way! As already mentioned, the retouch on the SI image is so wrong – it seems to be the same for other SI images I’ve seen. The colours on the GQ cover just pop. TERRY! TERRY!

I may be in the minority, but I think there is too much light on Terry’s shot. Walter’s shot looks more natural.

Not knowing how heavy handed the editors are at these 2 mags its hard to know how much of the photography is left. There are elements I don’t like in both photos. Reasons pretty well summed up above. I’ll take the SI cover from the necklace up and the GQ from the lips down. If I had to get off the fence I guess the GQ would win.

The picture made by Terry Richardson seems more simple, direct and not over produced. My kind of picture. I’m a simple photographer who appreciates a simple approach.

The GQ cover definitely. I mean both GQ and Sports Illustrated have their own cover style, however with Kate Uptown, the photo overall worked much better here.