As I write this on Monday, I’m preparing for a luncheon meeting with a client I haven;t worked with in a long time. You may have seen some of the images that I shot for him in other places around this blog. Some of my favorite images from these assignments, can’t be shown on this blog because… But what all that has in common with today’s post is the client has a new project that involves on-location shooting of models, which brings me to today’s post.
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“There is something particularly fascinating about seeing places you know in a piece of art – be that in a film, or a photograph, or a painting.” ―
There are lots of advantages to shooting glamour portraits in a studio, even if it’s just a temporary set-up in your basement or garage. The biggest advantage being that you have total control over the environment or as I like to paraphrase the Outer Limits voice, you can control lighting, background and the subject. In the studio, you also don’t have to worry about wind or changeable weather conditions. But there is something about a location shoot that can’t be duplicated in the studio and that’s the location itself.
Shooting in Cancun may be too expensive for most of us but shooting in local parks is free and entry to state parks costs less than a few bucks a day. A few parks even have beaches as hard as it may for you to believe considering I live in Colorado.
If you find that shooting in a park, especially during the less crowded weekdays, works for you, I suggest that you get an annual pass. Many state parks have inexpensive annual passes that cover all parks statewide.
When you take the time to look around, attractive and dramatic locations are all over the place. The search begins by looking for places that will accommodate to the requirements of glamour photography as well as the client’s comfort. When I made the photograph at right, as you will discover below, there is always the possibility of interlopers and how they affect what you shoot.
How I made this portrait: I photographed the legendary Maria Cedar at Hidden Mesa Open Space in Douglas, County, Colorado next to historic structure located there. One of the disadvantages of using any public facility, even on less crowded weed days, is that it’s public. As we began shooting this sequence, a pickup truck pulled into the uncrowded parking lot smack in front of us. Since it was a County truck, I figured he needed to do some work and would be leaving shortly. Wrong! It was that this point, he pulled out his lunch and began having a repast with us being the floor show. That’s why this particular image is less revealing than it might otherwise be.
To photograph Maria I used my trusty Panasonic Lumix GH4 and an image stabilized Lumix G Vario 14-45mm f3.5-5.6 lens (at 37mm.) No reflector was used but I did fire the GH4’s pop-up flash for fill. Yes, unlike many “pro” cameras, the GH4 has a pop-up flash. Exposure was 1/100 sec at f/6.6 and ISO 200 with a plus one-and two-thirds exposure compensation.to compensate for the backlighting.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), click here.
If you’re interested in learning how I shoot available light glamour portraits, please pick up a copy of Available Light Glamour Photography which is available new from Amazon.com for $29.95 with used starting copies starting around fifteen bucks as I write this. The Kindle version is $28.45 for those preferring a digital format.