It’s “Tricky Tuesday,” a way for me to share some of the tricks, tips and techniques I’ve used over the years when shooting portraits in the studio or, in this case, on-location with the always wonderful Pam Simpson.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your soul. -Alice Walker
I think that you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on camera equipment to make really good glamour photographs. Although it may be true that many professional photographers shoot with top-of-the-line DSLR’s or mirrorless cameras, you don’t have to do the same thing. Especially if you can’t afford it.
How I Made this Portrait: The above no frills boudoir portrait of Pam Simpson was made in my family room (just outside my home studio) with an Olympus E-M10 Mark I and their M. Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 lens. The lighting was provided by a single Paul C Buff AlienBee 800 monolight with 16 x 30-inch Westcott Apollo Strip soft box mounted that was placed at camera right producing an exposure of 1/30 sec at f/7.1 and ISO 400. The image was retouched and then converted to monochrome using Silver Efex with a little burning and dodging from PhotoKit.
Here’s Some Options
There are plenty of reasonably priced DSLRs or mirrorless cameras available from the Big Two as well as Panasonic, Pentax, Olympus, Fuji and Sony, all of which offer sophisticated electronics and superb optics. That’s why I think it’s a good idea to check out some of these company’s lower and mid-priced models. And while you’re shopping don’t forget refurbs and used cameras. As I write this, you can purchase a used Olympus E-M10 Mark III body with for around $300 or the newer, improved Mark IV for less than $400.
As a beginning glamour or boudoir photographer, you may discover that it’s more practical to invest your money in a $600 (or less) DSLR or mirrorless camera along with a couple of lenses, instead of owning a $2,000 camera and a single lens. I recently recommended the Panasonic Lumix G7 with it 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II ASPH Mega OIS kit lens to a young photographer as something that would fit their needs. At under $300, a used APS-C Sony Alpha A5000 with E16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 lens should be a good deal too.
Other options. These days most of my contemporary glamour images are made using my workhouse Panasonic Lumix GH4 mirrorless camera. For a short time I had a new Lumix G9. I liked its image quality but couldn’t get over its ergonomics and ended up selling it. Both of these cameras are part of the Micro Four-thirds format and truth be told, if I could afford it, I would have jumped on the improved Lumix G9 Mark II. As I write this, I really don’t know what will be my first choice for glamour photography will be going forward.
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