Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Sexiness is a state of mind – a comfortable state of being. It’s about loving yourself in your most unlovable moments.—Halle Berry
If you’re interested in glamour photography you might want to follow Dita Von Teese (@ditavonteese) on Instagram because she posts some inspirational images. Every Monday one of her Instagram fan sites publishes a series of glamour portraits of her wearing a corset, so I thought I would try the concept of #CorsetMonday here—at least for another month.
There was a time—it seems like yesterday but wasn’t—when I asked models to bring and wear a corset during our photo sessions together. Around that same time, I tried to include photographs of models wearing corsets as part of the lighting equipment reviews I wrote for the former print edition of Shutterbug. Unfortunately, although I submitted many of these kinds of images for publication, the magazine never published any of these images to the best of my knowledge. Since they wouldn’t let you see the images, I’m going to contine to publish a few of them on these Corset Monday posts until the series ends in the coming months.
Some of the models appearing 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. Vivian, for example, was an aspiring model who was referred to me by Greeley Colorado’s Diana Lareé, a wonderfully talented make-up artist, who also did the model’s make-up for this shoot. During this time, Diana referred several models to me but, like Vivian, they were women I only had the opportunity to photograph one time. I’m pretty sure some on the non-corset images from these sessions were published in a print edition of Shutterbug for either a camera or lighting equipment review.
How I made this portrait:This portrait of Vivian was made in a crowded 8×9-foot space in the unfinished basement of my former home. Lighting was provided by three inexpensive Adorama monolights. Background was an inexpensive muslin background hanging on JTL background stands. The only amenities in this makeshift basement studio was a 4×5 foot rug that I bought Target and a stool that I also used for my model train layout. This set-up wasn’t fancy but it worked well enough.
The camera used was a Nikon D90 with AF-S DX Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens (at 105mm) with an exposure of 1/60 sec at f/14 and ISO 200. The D90 set in Auto white balance mode producing image files that were slightly warm—to may taste anyway.
Special Note: I would like to keep the #corsetmonday series alive as long as possible. So I’m looking for women interested in posing in corsets for photographs that will 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 buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), 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 with new copies available from Amazon for $33.56, as I write this. Used copies start at the hard-to-beat price price starting at twenty-three bucks and the Kindle version is $19.99 for those who prefer a digital format.