Today’s Post by Joe Farace
I am used to wearing corsets. Even when I was first starting out it was either Shakespeare or Chekov. Everything that I was doing involved corsets. I guess I am just not destined to breathe that deeply.—Kate Beckinsale
I recently did another Google search for “glamour photography” and it produced 1,340,000,000 results! And while that number is somewhat lower than last time I did a search, that’s still a big number so there’s a good chance that you might be interested in this genre. If so, you might want to follow Dita Von Teese (@ditavonteese) on Instagram because of the inspiration her images provide. On Mondays one of her IG fan sites publishes glamour portraits her wearing corsets and that’s why last year, I decided to give #corsetmonday a try but this series may be coming to an end next month. (See Special Note at the bottom of this post.)
Some of these models in this series have either never appeared on this blog or may be under represented for many reasons, including how many shoots that I did with them or whatever.
I went through a phase where I asked every model I photographed to wear a corset during our shoots together. And I even tried to include a shot with a model wearing a corset for each shoot I did as well as the lighting equipment reviews I wrote for the former print edition of Shutterbug.
I photographed Courtney three times, mostly for lighting reviews for Shutterbug. And one of the images from the corset portion of my shoots with her may have appeared in the magazine! But again maybe not. I don’t have any of the issues anymore, except the last one, having recycled 30-years worth when nobody was interested in taking them off me hand, even for free.
How I Made this Portrait: When photographing models I want to make them comfortable during the shoot. Some models project a sexy vibe and this shows in the outfits they wear and the poses they come up with, while others have their own style and that’s what shows in those kinds of photographs. Like my portrait of Amber wearing a corset I think this one would also be rated PG-13.
I made this portrait of Courtney made during a session when I was testing Smith Victor’s FL700K Strobe Light Kit. I placed a FLC300 monolight with 24×24-inch softbox at camera left. Fill was provided by the other FLC300 located at the back of the camera room and at camera right with the 45-inch umbrella mounted. A Smith Victor 110i monolight with 24×24-inch softbox was used as a hair light. Background was an inexpensive 10 x 24-foot muslin from Adorama. Exposure with Canon EOS 5D Mark I and EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens (at 50mm) was 1/60 sec at f/14 and ISO 125.
Special Note: If possible, I would like to keep this #corsetmonday series alive through 2023. To do that I’m searching for women who would be interested in posing in corsets for photographs to be used on this series. After signing a simple model release, they will receive a choice of a CD or flash drive containing all the approx 200 photographs that we’ll make during a session to take home the day of the shoot. The model will also receive full rights to use the images however they like. If you’re interested, click CONTACT and let’s talk.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat me to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($3.50), 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 books are available from Amazon for $23.40 with used copies, for some reason, starting around twenty-three bucks as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.