Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Are you new to glamour photography? Here are a few tips that should serve you well for posing subjects for intimate portraiture, boudoir or glamour photography. Because this kind of subject is a different type of client than one who needs a business portrait, headshot or family photograph the entire process might also be a little different than what you’re used to—or maybe not.
It starts by developing a good working relationship with your subject from the first moment you meet them but nowhere will your personality, working style, and communication skills be more helpful than when you have that subject in front of your camera.
When doing this kind of portrait, you should start by respecting a model’s privacy. Be sure to give her a private place to change and do her makeup. Next door to my in-home studio is a full bathroom that’s dedicated to a model’s use. It includes a vanity style lighting fixture that’s ideal for make-up purposes.
Before actually starting the session, talk to the subject about the kind of photographs you or she may have in mind and how you will go about executing them. Explain the kind of image you are looking to produce, tell her the type of attitude you want her to express and share any other information that will help her relax and let you both create an image that will be mutually satisfactory.
If she’s nervous, give her additional time to warm up by shooting a few test shots and use that time to refine your lighting. This might be a new experience for her and she may be a bit awkward at first. I use the warm-up time to shoot test shots for obtaining the best exposure and I’ll show the subject what they look like to help her relax by showing her how great she looks! Don’t worry about the poses you create during this time but you might be surprised how good a pose you might find by accident, while helping her relax at the same time. Talk her through the steps refining the pose as you’re shooting, and once she gets the idea of what you want, you can easily repeat the series.
After that, as the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy suggests, “just keep banging those rocks together” or in this case making some images while exploring different poses. You might want to try my technique of “Shooting through a Pose” where you keep making variations of a pose until you get it “right” but then keep going clicking that shutter. Check out my post of the same name for additional information.
When all is said and done the real secret, if there is any, is to keep it fun, relax and so will your subject. The result? Better photographs and happy clients.
How I Made this Portrait: If you are familiar with my work, then you know this is the least “Joe Farace style” portrait that I’ve ever published. The model is Toni and I was lucky to photograph her two other times although the image files from one of those shoots—an extremely sexy one—seems to have been lost. I’m sure it’s on a hard drive that I still have and it’s been in the back of my mind for some time to search out those lost images. When I do, I’ll post one of them here that won’t set the nanny software’s hair on fire.
This portrait was made during a group model shoot in Loveland. Colorado but Toni was the only model that brought the kind of clothing that really works with the background producing a kind of Renaissance image that’s not usually my style but I love her look, pose and attitude. Lighting was a single continuous light source; the model of which I don’t remember. The camera I used was a Canon EOS 50D with my former go-to portrait lens the EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II lens at 45mm with an exposure of 1/6 sec at f/4 and ISO 800.
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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 $34.17, as I write this. Used copies are starting at the hard-to-beat price price around nine bucks and the Kindle version is $19.99 for those who prefer a digital format.