Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“I don’t mind being burdened with being glamorous and sexual. Beauty and femininity are ageless and can’t be contrived…”—
Boudoir photography, or Intimate Portraiture as I prefer to call the genre, is typically shot using a moody interior or studio setting but there’s no reason you can’t shoot this kind of portrait outdoors.
In the Great Outdoors
Shooting glamour photographs outdoors gives a photographer the opportunity to be creative about where and when they shoot but the best results will be achieved by selecting a location where the model is physically comfortable. That’s one reason you should look for places that not only accommodate you photographically but have the model’s comfort in mind as well.
One of the positive aspects of making outdoor glamour portraits, such the one of Angela at right, is there’s almost always something for the subject to interact with. In this case, it’s a dilapidated hitching post the fits with the “Old West” environment.
The right locations provide a natural-looking place where the subject can pose and be comfy at the same time.The point of any pose, especially in glamour photography, it to start with a concept, make a suggestion to the subject, then watch what happens and finally provide some instructions that will improve on what pose she ultimately gives the photographer. This method is something I call Shooting Through a Pose and the linked post contains my detailed thoughts about this concept and how to put it to work for your next model shoot.
Turn on your speedlight
When shooting portraits outdoors, be sure to use flash. Without it, depending on the time of day and lighting conditions, the image may be underexpose. otherwise, especially in backlighting conditions where she may appear as a silhouette. In order to get an mage you can live with, you may also have to open the lens a stop or two over the metered exposure or use the camera’s exposure compensation control. If you plan to shoot full length portraits instead of close-ups, a more powerful speedlight will be more effective than the weaker pop-up flashes found on most entry-level digital SLRs or mirrorless cameras.
How I Made this Portrait: Over the years I have been blessed to photograph some amazingly wonderful and beautiful models, such as Angela who I photographed at a group model shoot on a movie set in Phoenix, Arizona. For this image, I’m using my basic fill flash technique, although the effect here is more subtle. The exposure with a Canon EOS 10D and EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 lens at 73mm with 420EX speedlight with a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce diffuser used for fill was 1/200 sec at f/10 and ISO 200. The maximum flash sync speed for the Canon EOS 10D is 1/200 sec.
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Several photographs of Tomiko appear in my book Available Light Glamour Photography that’s available from Amazon with used copies of the book for $49.84, as I write this. The Kindle version is $27.36 for those preferring a digital format.