Today’s Post by Joe Farace
These days I have an in-home studio but in the not-so-distant past, I shot all of my glamour images in my home, working mostly with window light in the kitchen, dining room and a loft area outside my home office. And while I now have access to an 11×15 home studio, sometimes I want to give a particular portrait a different, on-location look I still shoot around my house, especially for some of my glamour photographs.
When working outside the studio, I don’t get fussy about posing subjects. I just watch what they do naturally and try to have them interact with their environment in a way that’s physically comfortable for them. To show them how I want her to stand or sit, I’ll often put myself in the pose but allow them to give me their interpretation of that pose and more often than not it’s better than my original idea.
Once she’s in a pose, I select camera angles that showcase her good features minimizing anything she may be self-conscious about, even if I believe that she may be wrong about it. In this case the model wanted to show off her legs.
One way that I use to increase communications between myself and a subject is to show them some of the images on my DSLR or mirrorless camera’s LCD screen during the shoot. I don’t show every shot, just ones that I like.
Most subjects respond positively to this but with some it totally breaks their concentration and you have to start all over again. If this happens to you; don’t show them any photos until you’re finished with a specific pose or clothing change. When it does work—and that’s most of the time—seeing how great she looks gives her confidence in your abilities and makes the session progress smoother. But ’ya know the best pose is one that looks good to you and the subject.
How I made this shot: This portrait of Misa Lynn was shot in the foyer of my home, on the steps leading up to the second floor. Lighting was a combination of the ambient daylight acting as fill with the main light provided by a Rotolight Anova, which I no longer own, that was placed as you can see in the above setup shot. Camera used was a Nikon D600 with Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR lens (at 80mm.) Exposure was 1/80 sec at f/4.5 and ISO 800.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat me to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), please click here. And if you do, thanks so much.
Interested in learning more about posing? My book Posing for Portrait & Glamour Photography has 160 pages where you can learn all of my posing techniques. For some reason Amazon sometimes displays the preliminary cover photograph, instead of the final one seen at right. New copies of the book are available from Amazon.com for just $17.94, as I write this. The Kindle version is $17.04 for those preferring a digital format.