Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“Always seeing something, never seeing nothing, being photographer” ―
Lingerie is a category of women’s clothing that includes undergarments, sleepwear and lightweight robes. The word implies that the garments are alluring and fashionable. Lingerie can be made of lightweight, stretchy, smooth, sheer or decorative fabrics such as silk, satin, Lycra, charmeuse, chiffon, or lace.
See-through clothing is any garment that’s made with lace, mesh or sheer fabric that allows the wearer’s body or undergarments to be seen through its fabric.
See-through or sheer fabric, particularly in skin tone colors, is sometimes called illusion, as in ‘illusion bodice’ due to giving the impression of exposed flesh. This concept is not new. See-through fabrics were fashionable in Europe during the eighteenth century and continue to be available for a wide range of clothing styles. This use of see-through fabrics as a common element in designer clothing resulted in the “sheer fashion trend” that’s been predominant in fashion circles since 2008.
Models: Some of these models appearing in this series have either never appeared on this blog or may be under represented depending on how many shoots that I did with them. The series continues today with a portrait of the amazing Bella Fire, a performer, pinup, as well as a model posing for lucky photographers like myself. Bella worked with me for three shoots and this incredible image was made during our first shoot together
Based on my experience, I believe that there are two types of models: Inner directed and outer directed. You can read my thoughts on these two types of portrait subjects here. What I didn’t know when I wrote that original post is that there are also variations on these types. Bella is inner directed but uses a thoughtful approach where she smoothly moves from pose to pose.
How I Made this photo: I photographed Bella in my 11×15-foot Daisy Hill home studio using a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 Asph/Mega OIS lens at 45mm. Exposure was 1/125 sec at f/7.1 and ISO 200. Lighting was provided by Paul C Buff DigiBee DB 800 with Plume Wafer softbox attached that was placed at camera right and an Alien Bees B800 with 18-inch Omni reflector attached, with diffuser sock in place at camera left and slightly behind Bella. Background was Savage’s Black Infinity vinyl backdrop.
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My book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography with new copies available from Amazon for $33.42, as I write this. Used copies start at the hard-to-beat price price starting around nine bucks with the Kindle version available at $19.99 for those who prefer a digital format.