It’s “Tricky Tuesday” which is a way for me to share some of the tricks, tips and techniques I’ve used over the years when shooting portraits in the studio, Today’s post features the always amazing Pam Simpson featured in glorious Black and White!
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Light is an interpretive tool in the hands of a photographer—Peter Gowland
Late in their lives. I was lucky enough to get to know Peter and Alice Gowland and my book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is dedicated to them. Even before that, Peter Gowland was one of the strongest influences in my photographic life and it was his books and images that originally got me interested in creating glamour imagery.
You see, I didn’t start out to be a people photographer; When Mary and I owned our studio, she was the portrait photographer and I photographed products and architecture. I only became seriously interested in portraiture and glamour photography after we sold the studio and Mary and I moved off in different career directions. Inspired by the Glamour Models forum created by the late Dave Hall I began my initial explorations of this genre. Then the time spent I writing my mostly business-oriented book, Part-time Glamour Photography – Full-time Income, kicked that interest into high gear.
It’s All Black and White to me
If you’re interested in trying glamour photography but think that it’s difficult and requires lots of expensive equipment, ,the truth is that all you really need is a camera, some inexpensive lighting equipment. even daylight will work, and a subject. As far as glamour subjects are concerned, I’ve covered the topic of “Where to Find Glamour Models” in other posts, including this one and with another follow-up here and based on reader interest, I don’t think I’m done with this subject yet. But what about the gear?
I think there are basically two types of portrait photographers: The first likes to shoot with “available light” by which they really mean is using “every light that’s available.” For some shooters, like my wife Mary, setting up five lights to make a portrait is just getting started. The second group, I’m mostly on this team, prefer to use as few light sources as possible because there’s less gear to fiddle with, which translates into more time spent concentrating on the subject. Isn’t that what making a portrait is all about? Using fewer lights is less expensive, reduces setup time and results in less weight to transport on location. Can you make a portrait with just one light? I think so and have several posts on that subject, including this one.
Maybe that’s why continuous light sources are popular with new and aspiring pros because they let you see the lighting effect produced in real time. In the case of today’s featured airport, lights that one light is a Fotodiox LED-200WA-56 Daylight Studio LED producing output of 7600 Lux/m or 600 foot-candles that the company claims produces the equivalent to a 600-Watt incandescent lightl source.
How I made this shot: This low-key portrait of Pam Simpson demonstrates one of the challenges of one-light portraiture. As nice as the light produced by a 47-inch Grand Soft box maybe, a second light behind Pam would make the subject pop out of the Savage black vinyl Infinity background better but… A quibble perhaps for what is ultimately a salable photograph. The camera used was a Canon EOS 60D with EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM (at 50mm) with an exposure of 1/60 at f/5.6 and ISO 800. Tip: The refurbished version of this lens is available for almost half price!
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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 exposure data for each image. Used books are available from Amazon for $33.43, I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.