Oscar Wilde visited North America in 1882 for a lecture tour. Shortly after arriving in New York he had a series of portraits made that you can see on Oscar Wilde in America. I once stayed in the Cadogan Hotel in London down the hall from room 118 where he famously held his pied-à-terre. The hotel was also the site of his infamous arrest and is immortalized in John Betjeman’s poem 1937 poem “The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel.” What has all this to do with today’s portrait? Nothing. It’s just part of why my (late) friend Bob Watson called me a “walking encyclopedia of useless information.”
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.—Oscar Wilde
Boudoir and Glamour Outdoors
The classic glamour or boudoir portrait is usually thought of as a low light, moody photograph, sometimes shot in black & white…” but that’s not everybody’s style, particularly for an outdoor portrait. This is especially true in Colorado when many people embrace the outdoor lifestyle.
Sometime the location and the subject’s clothing—or lack thereof—dictates a pose but the right location can provide a natural-looking place where the subject can pose and be comfortable at the same time. But shooting images outdoors mean that you’re going to have to be creative about where and when you shoot, especially when it comes to intimate portraiture. That’s why private locations are best. In the case of this featured image, it was made on a movie set that the group model shoot organizer had rented to the day, so privacy was ensured. Out in the real world, that may not always be the case.
How I Made this portrait: This portrait of the always amazing Anna Lieb was made with a Canon EOS 10D and EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM lens (at 58mm.) The exposure was 1/80 sec at f/4.5 and ISO 200 with a plus two-third stop exposure compensation An EX420 speedlite with a Sto-fen Omni Bonce was used to soften the light. The image was slightly underexposed and I used a technique that’s described in “Correcting Underexposed Portraits” along with PhotoKit’s dodging tools to correct it to what you see here. Anna herself needs little if any retouching.
One of the positive aspects of outdoor portraiture, including intimate portraits such as this one, is that there’s always something for the subject to interact with. At this location in Arizona—a state with its own vibrant outdoor lifestyle—there was a white picket fence for Anna to lean against, the rest of the pose was her interpretation. For the way I work, especially in intimate portraiture, the point of any pose is to start with an idea, give an instruction to the model and then watch what happens. To improve the pose, I refine it using a technique that I call shooting through a pose.
This is the main reason why during any model shoot I let the models see what (some of) the images look like so they understand the kind on images I’m trying to create. If the model doesn’t like what they see—hey, it happens—we’ll try something else. If they do like what they see, we work on improving the portrait until it’s the best it can be and the subject appears at their most beautiful.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), click here. And the tip of the old Farace chapeau to James Cagle for his donation for “Donut and Tea” Thanks so much, James
If you’re interested in learning how I use cameras, lenses and lighting in my in-home studio and on location, please pick up a copy of Studio Lighting Anywhere which is available new from Amazon.com for $34.95 or used for around thirty-one bucks, as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.