Today’s Post by Joe Farace
I’m one of those strange beasts who really likes a corset.—Cate Blanchett
If you’re interested in glamour photography you may want to follow the Instagram feed of Dita Von Teese (@ditavonteese) because she’s always posting interesting images. Each Monday one of her fan sites publishes a series of glamour portraits of her wearing a corset, which was my inspiration for creating and continuing the #corsetmonday series into 2023.
When I became serious about glamour photography I usually asked models I was going to be photographing to wear a corset during our studio and location shoots. I also did this for client assignments, during which today’s featured image was made. When I wrote lighting equipment reviews for the print edition of Shutterbug, I tried to include photographs of models in corset in that coverage as well but my memory is that the magazine never published one of these images. This is a topic I plan on revisiting next month in a future post.
What’s in a name? Some of these models appearing in this series have either never appeared on this blog or may be under represented depending on how many shoots I did with them. I only photographed Kristen twice, once was during a group model shoot—back when those kinds of events were popular— and later during an assignment for a calendar company that was shot in a firetruck factory. (On a Sunday, when they were closed and no workers were present.)
I featured Kristen in a previous Corset Monday post in January and the positive reaction it received, especially on Instagram (follow me there @joefarace) was the second highest of any other model that’s appeared there. Who was the first? That would be Madison.
I think it ‘s Kristen‘s sexy wholesomeness that made her so popular. So she’s back. I photographed Kristen for this calendar photography project that continued over two years but during the same assignment I also photographed Kristin. She is a beautiful woman who was not wearing a corset in any of our sessions together but I plan to feature her in a future See-through post. Around that same time I also photographed another model named Kirsten twice for my available light glamour book (below) where she appears on the cover. plan for her to also appear in a future See-through post as well.
How I made this portrait: This portrait of Kristen was made with her posing next to an emergency vehicle. The camera used was a 6.3-megapixel Canon EOS 10D (I know, it’s old!.) and my favorite EF 135mm f/2.8 SF lens with its soft focus setting at one. This lens has been discontinued by Canon but you can pick up a used one on eBay for around $150, as I write this. Exposure was 1/60 sec at f/4.5 and ISO 400 with a minus one-half stop exposure compensation although that was probably too much. Lighting was provided by a Canon 550EX speedlite with Sto-fen Omni-Bounce diffuser attached.
If you’re interested in learning how I shoot available light glamour and boudoir portraits, please pick up a copy of Available Light Glamour Photography which is available new from Amazon.com for $29.95 or used starting around twenty-two bucks, as I write this. The Kindle version is $28.45 for those preferring a digital format.