Today’s Post by Joe Farace
…wearing a corset certainly changes your state of mind. —Radha Mitchell
Depending on where you live in the world, Boxing Day is a holiday that occurs on December 26th or the first or second weekday after Christmas, depending on national or regional custom. Traditionally Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, when servants and tradesmen would receive gifts known as a “Christmas box” from their bosses or employers.
Open a box of film on Boxing Day.
One of my 2026 New Year’s resolutions is to shoot and write more about film photography. I plan to have the film processed and scanned to work with the images in my old (CS6) version of Photoshop while trying to “save the world, one pixel at a time.”
With the advent of digital cameras, I sold many of my 35mm film cameras. I now realize this was a big mistake. That was especially true about selling my Contax rangefinder and SLR cameras, although I have replaced one of them—167MT—as part of my renewed focus on film photography. I did keep a few film cameras, including a Zeiss Ikon SW because it and a Leica M6 TTL are such beautiful instruments I could not bear to part with them. Similarly my Jaguar-themed Leica Z2X and Minolta Prod 20 have a sentimental attachment as well as appealing aesthetics.
If you want to give your portraits a “film look,” why not just shoot them with film?
How I Made this Portrait: Brandy was an aspiring model who was referred to me by a local modeling agency and while that is no longer a viable option for me, it was great while it lasted. During the film era, a local agency referred several models to me but Brandy—one of two Brandy’s I ever photographed—was a model I only photographed that one time.
I photographed Brandy before I even started the #corsetmonday series for this blog. I made the image in the space between the living and dining rooms of my former home using available light coming from a window in the back door of the house. There might have been a reflector placed at camera right; I don’t remember. The camera used was my original Contax 167MT and a Carl Zeiss 85mm f/2.8 lens. The exposure on Kodak Tri-X film was unrecorded.
Scans of the film I shot were made using Kodak’s Photo CD process and were opened using the MacOS version of Lemke Software’s GraphicConverter producing fairly good quality image files but the software is not without its quirks for those, like me, using older computers and operating systems. I added a few dabs of red to the front of her corset to punch the image up a little bit. Then I applied a light touch of the Glamour Glow filter that’s part of Color Efex.
Question of the day: Should I bring back the #cosetmonday series? And maybe on anther day? Click CONTACT and let me know what you think.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat me to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), please click here. And if you do, thanks so much.
My book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography and includes information on all of the cameras used as well as the complete exposure data for each image. New and Used books are available from Amazon starting around ten bucks.as I write this. Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.