My Sunday series on outdoor portraiture continues today with a portrait of Luciana. She is a talented mature model who I photographed several years ago at a group model shoot in Arizona
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Great passions, my dear, don’t exist: they’re liars fantasies. What do exist are little loves that may last for a short or a longer while.—Anna Magnani*
Like a lot of photographers new to glamour photography, I initially only wanted to photograph models who were 18 to 29 years old. I quickly realized that models who were slightly older—exceptional young models, such as Leslie excepted—were easier and more pleasant to photograph. Over time I began to realize that more experienced, even mature models, were even easier to work with and for some reason seemed downright more fun to photograph. All of which brings me to Luciana…
Photographing Luciana
Luciana was her professional name; her real name, I think, was Lucy Anne. Luciana was a good friend of Dawn Clifford. Dawn is vivacious model and our work together over many years has had an everlasting effect on my glamour photography. I had always wanted to photograph Luciana and finally got my chance at one of the late Dave Hall’s group model shoots that were held in Phoenix, where I made the featured image.
How I Made this portrait: Luciana is a feminine name of Italian origin that celebrates a woman’s glowing soul. Derived from the Latin word lux, this name translates to “light,” which seems like a wonderful name for a glamour model. I felt Luciana brought an Anna Magnani style and intensity to our shoot that occurred on one of the many sets at a movie studio located near Phoenix.
To make this image, I used a Canon EOS 10D and an EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM lens (at 40mm) that’s been discontinued by the manufacturer but you can pick up used copies from many sources, including KEH and MPB. The exposure was 1/60 sec at f/4.5 and ISO 200 with a minus one-third stop exposure compensation. A Canon 420EX speedlite with Sto-Fen Omni Bounce diffuser was used to add fill. The image was made before I embraced RAW+JPEG capture and was captured as a JPEG file. The file was lightly retouched and then tweaked in Vivenza and Color Efex using the Glamour Glow filter.
When photographing some models at group shoots, they will sometimes ask me to create images they can use on their private (pay) websites. I made some of these kinds of photographs of Luciana and if any members of my Patreon would like to see them, I’ll be glad to create a bonus post featuring some of those photographs. If you’re not familiar with some of the benefits of Patreon membership, including access to posts with uncensored images, click here for more information.
A Few Posing Tips
Here are just a few posing techniques that have worked for me over the years and you might want to give them try, keeping in mind that they’re just suggestions.
- Posing models outdoors, as in the featured image, seems to be easier because they are in a much more comfortable environment, even if they may not be familiar with that specific location. Having objects they can grab, hold. lean or sit on, solves one of the perennial posing problems for a model, such as what to do with their hands.
- If the subject is standing have them place their weight on the foot/leg that’s farthest away from the camera. This should put them in a relaxed position. I’ve found that this pose doesn’t always work in a studio environment (but it can.) Outdoors it’s different and much easier for some reason. Maybe it’s me…
- Don’t pose plus-sized subjects square to the camera. This type of pose tends make a person look bigger—unless that’s your goal. On the other hand, you can easily pose more slender subjects square to the camera to add some drama to the pose.
As you get more experience photographing people, you won’t even think about posing, you’ll just shoot.
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The original title of my book Posing for Portrait and Glamour Photography was The ABC’s of Portrait Posing. On this blog there are many posts about posing. Use the Search box in the upper right-hand corner and type “posing” to find appropriate posts. If you want something more lasting, take a look at my book that’s available used from Amazon for $17.47, as I write this, Kindle version is $28.45 for those who prefer a digital format.