Today is #anythingcanhappenday on this Blog and and it’s also National Clerihew Day for all the poets out there, such as Mr, Shaw who is quoted below. In addition to my Sunday Series on Outdoor Portraiture, I’ve increased the the number or glamour and portrait-related posts appearing here and based on the number of page views, people seem to be enjoying them. This is a genre I’m passionate about and was the subject of my most recent books and Thursdays seems to be a perfect place to talk about my passion.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“She wore red. The kind of red that makes you believe in love at first sight.” ― I Took a Plane to Die in Denver
In every genre of portrait photography, including glamour, it’s all too easy to tell a subject to sit on a posing stool and place them in “Pose A,” then move them into “Pose B.” This is the kind of dogmatic approach to portrait photography and posing that I described in a recent Sunday Series post, Portrait Posing is As Simple or Hard As You Want to Make It. When you have time, please check it out.
The way some photographers, like the instructor mentioned in the aforementioned post, approach the subject of portrait posing can make the whole process seem so mechanical that even R2D2 could make that kind of portrait.
I like to think the goal of any pose is not just to look natural, although that’s one objective. but perhaps to tell a story and there are many ways you can pursue that goal. That’s why I like to take a pose and keep refining it using a technique I call Shooting Through a Pose. Some photographers like to keep their posing subtle, which is my preferred way of working, while others are not so restrained but what you can accomplish will ultimately be determined by the kind of subject you’re photographing. No matter how you achieve the pose, it all starts with observation, experience and communication with the subject.
Using Just One Light?
What your clients wants is a portrait of themselves, or a loved one, that looks different from the last portrait you made for another customer and one that captures that subject’s individuality.
Lighting for that kind of portrait doesn’t have to be complicated because the focus is on the subject. Sometimes you can get by with just a single light as the (above) lighting set-up demonstrates although some might say that the reflector used is another light because it is also becomes a light source. I don’t necessarily agree with that viewpoint because you can see that only one light was being used to make this portrait.
How I made this portrait: I photographed the six-feet tall (in her bare feet) Danielle Nicole in my home studio using a single Fotodiox Pro LED light that was placed at camera right with a 24 x 36-inch Glow Series III Medium Rectangular Softbox attached. For fill I placed a A 4 x 6-foot Westcott Scrim Jim Cine reflector at camera left as you can see in the (above right) setup image. The background is a 5 x 7-foot Photo Grey Savage Infinity vinyl backdrop that was attached to my JTL background stands.
The camera used was my Canon EOS 60D that for a long time was my workhorse camera for portraits. (This camera/lens combo is something I am planning to get back to for my next shoot.) with EF-S15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens (at 50mm) with an exposure of 1/60 sec at f/5.0 at ISO 640.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), click here. And if you do, thank you very much.
The original title of my book Posing for Portrait and Glamour Photography was The ABC’s of Portrait Posing. On this blog there are lots of posts about posing. Use the Search box on 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 starting at $17.47 as I write this. The Kindle version is $28.45 for those who prefer a digital format.