It’s #anythingcanhappenday and today’s post features the incredible model and actress Tia Stoneman who was my first official muse and worked with me for three years and during that time, we had many shoots together, including this one.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.–William Shakespeare
In a previous post I wrote about the challenges of making full-length portraits in limited spaces. That’s because shooting glamour in small, makeshift studio instead of in a full-blown professional studio can be a challenge. For example, both of today’s images were made in a working space of less than 7×8-feet in the unfinished basement of my former home that, at the time, I called “my studio.” My camera position was five feet from a stack of boxes and close by a hot water heater.
Keeping it Simple
The subtitle of this post might be called “Getting started in Glamour Photography” because when I originally made these portraits I was just started working in this genre. If you’ve ever wanted to try glamour photography this post’s suggestions can be your inspiration to give it a try.
The model for these images was my original muse Tia Stoneman, and in this series of photographs she enjoyed working under continuous lighting from the (no longer available) Westcott Spiderlite system that used FLD lamps. That system was eventually replaced by the company’s uLite LED 2-Light Collapsible Softbox Kit that I do not currently own. When working under this continuous lighting system,Tia appreciated the lack of the distracting “POP” that’s produced by electronic flash and I liked being able to shoot as fast as the camera would let me without having to worry about recycle times. There’s also no math required when shooting with continuous lighting. I didn’t have to worry about lighting ratios; Whatever looked good to me and the model was good enough.
How I made this portrait: For both of these portraits, the main Spiderlite was placed at camera right with a 36 x 48-inch Westcott soft box attached. A 30-inch Westcott Basics 5-in-1 reflector was placed on camera left. The above right “before” image was made just as Tia walked in the door wearing no makeup and that image was not retouched. Tia’s makeup for the final portrait at left was done by the talented makeup artist Diana Lareé.
The camera used was a Canon EOS 5D Mark I with my workhorse EF 85mm f/1.8 lens. Exposure for this particular sequence of images was 1/60 sec at f/5 and ISO 640. The camera was set in Av mode and during the session whenever the light was slightly moved, I used the camera’s Exposure Compensation feature increasing or decreasing the exposure in one-third stop increments to keep Tia’s ivory colored corset properly exposed.
As far as posing is concerned, in those days I seldom asked the model to move into preset positions, preferring to let her be herself instead of using “official” poses the model might not find herself. That why, even today, I almost never use a tripod during glamour sessions because using a handheld camera provides me with the freedom to move around and lets me put myself into whatever position that’s necessary to get the picture i want to make.
The final portrait of Tia is truly a No-Frills glamour image with, I think anyway, contains echoes of classic Hollywood glamour photography. The lighting equipment I used is simple to use and packs into a transportable case. The JTL background stand fits in its own slim case and all my Canon camera gear neatly stows into two Joe Farace Reporter backpacks. All of which easily fits into most car’s trunks for transport. Does setting up and packing all this gear–although it’s not all that much–take time? Yes. But when you don’t have a dedicated studio, you do what you have to do.
* I’m currently looking for a new muse. No experience is necessary. If you’re interested in working with me to create the kind of images you see on this blog, click CONTACT and let’s talk.
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 complete exposure data for each image. New copies are $34.81 with used copies start around thirty bucks.as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital forma