My Sunday series about making outdoor portraits continues today with a portrait of Tasha, who I photographed in my former home and later at a group model shoot in Phoenix. Arizona. You might have seen her in my post about Proper Exposure for Outdoor Glamour Photography and many people on my Instagram account there really liked her portrait. I also photographed Tasha for some equipment reviews that appeared in the former print edition of Shutterbug magazine and also, I think, in PHOTOgraphic.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Beauty and femininity are ageless and can’t be contrived, and glamour, although the manufacturers won’t like this, cannot be manufactured. Not real glamour; it’s based on femininity. —Marilyn Monroe
There are lots of advantages to shooting glamour portraits in a studio, even if it’s just a temporary set-up in your basement or garage. The biggest advantage being that you have total control over the environment or as I like to paraphrase the Outer Limits voice, you can control the lighting, the background and the subject.
In the studio, you don’t have to worry about wind or changeable weather conditions. But there is something about a location shoot that can’t be easily duplicated in the studio and that’s the location itself.
ON LOcation
Shooting in Cancun may be too expensive for many of us but shooting in local parks is free and entry to state parks costs a few bucks a day in Colorado. Maybe your state is less greedy. A few parks, such as Barr Lake State Park, even have beaches as hard as it may be for you to believe considering I live in Colorado. If you find shooting in a park, especially during less crowded weekdays, works for you, I suggest you get an annual pass. Many state parks have less expensive annual passes that cover all parks statewide and offer price breaks for seniors.
When you take the time to look around, attractive and dramatic locations are all over the place. The search begins by looking for places that will accommodate to the requirements of glamour photography and the client’s comfort as well.
How I Made this Shot: I photographed Tasha during a group model shoot that was held at a movie studio in Phoenix, Arizona. The old building she’s standing in front of could just as well have been the farmhouse at Hidden Mesa Open Space that’s just a few miles from Daisy Hill and where I photographed Maria Cedar. The camera used was a Canon EOS 10D with my old favorite, the EF135mm f/2.8 SF lens with the soft focus set at zero. The available light exposure was 1/400 sec at f/5 and ISO 200. No reflectors or flash was used for fill.
This is the same lens mentioned in my first Stupid Photographer Tricks post but not the exact lens but it’s replacement! While no longer available, I’ve seen used copies of this amazing lens on all of the usual used camera sources for around two hundred bucks.
The original image was a JPEG file made before my current RAW+JPEG regimen was only lightly retouched; Tasha has great skin. I did some burning and dodging to the left and right sides of the photograph as well the top of the frame using PhotoKit. The file was then layered with the Glamour Glow filter that’s part of Color Efex Pro.
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, thank so very much.
My book Available Light Glamour Photography that is available from Amazon with new copies selling for $29.95 and used copies starting around twenty-six bucks as I write this. Kindle copies are $28.45 for those preferring a digital format.