Today’s Post by Joe Farace
The first time you do a thing is always exciting.—Agatha Christie
Developing a good working relationship with a glamour model begins from the first moment you meet her. Maybe it’s at a casting session but in most cases it’s when she rings your doorbell for the first time. Beware first impressions. I remember the first time I met one particular model at the front door of my new home and had no idea of how impressive she would be until I turned on the lights and pointed a camera at her. It was a Jekyll and Hyde transformation of the best possible kind.
But even before that happens, you should let the model know what kind of photographs you have in mind so she understands what’s expected. Explain and even show her some of the kinds of shots you are looking to make, If you let her know the type of attitude you want her to express, it will help her do a good job. If you have done a shot similar to the one you are working on with he email her a link to it before the shoot. But nowhere will your personality, working style and communication skills be more helpful than when you have a model in front of your camera.
How I made this shot: This photograph was not from my first glamour photography session but it was a first time shoot with this model. Leslie was just 19 years old when she contacted me expressing her desire to appear in Playboy. I was honest and told her that the odds against that goal were quite high but if she liked I would help her prepare a submission. PS. Leslie never did appear in Playboy but they did send her a nice letter about her submittal. I was able to get some of her photographs published on several photography magazine covers.
This image was made during our very first session. The first part of the shoot was at nearby park, which was something I did for a long time before I had a studio and any kind of dependable lighting equipment. When we were driving back from the park, she kept looking in the side mirror of my VW GTI. I asked her why and she said she had never worn lipstick before and had borrowed her Mom’s for this shoot!
After the park we moved into my former home’s kitchen that has a North-facing bay window. (My new home lacks this feature.) The camera used was a Canon EOS 10D and was shot with an EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM lens (at105mm.) That lens has been discontinued but you can pick up used copies from Amazon. The available light exposure (no reflectors were used) was 1/80 sec at f4.5 and ISO 400.
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Here’s a few tips for your (and maybe her) first glamour photography session:
- Provide a private place for her to change and do her makeup. Don’t hang around when she’s changing clothes.
- When working with new models give her additional time to warm up. This might be a new experience for her and some beginners may be a little awkward at first. I use the beginning of any portrait or glamour session to shoot a few test (digital) shots to obtain the best exposure. To keep her interest I’ll show the model what these shots look like so she has a sense of what the finished images will look like.
- You can never communicate with a model too much during a shoot. Talk her through the steps as you are shooting, and once she gets the idea of what you want, you can easily repeat the series again with different garments. After several shoots with Leslie, it was if she could read my mind.
- If you are doing a shoot in which the model is wearing lingerie (or less) have a “closed set” environment with only the minimum number of people watching her. Based on too many bad experiences, I prefer that number to be zero.
Work quickly and professionally to minimize the time she spends waiting. If you are fiddling with lights and seem unorganized or clumsy, the model will lose enthusiasm for the shoot and become bored. This boredom will show in the photographs and make the session a wasted one.
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If you’re interested in learning how I shoot available light glamour 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-one bucks, as I write this. For those preferring a digital format, the Kindle version is $28.45