Saving the World One Pixel at a Time

The ingredients for making great portraits are easy to find: You need a subject, a camera, and some light but like any good chef it’s how they’re prepared that goes into cooking up a delicious portrait. When talking about portraiture with amateur or aspiring pro photographers, they often tell me they want to do a better job but don’t have studios or expensive lighting equipment. Let’s not worry about where to make portraits because we all have access to the great outdoors and a better-than-average chance at creating great indoor portraits if we take the time to look.

One of my favorite techniques for outdoor portraiture is backlighting that can produce beautiful highlights on the subject’s hair. The next time you plan to photograph somebody outdoors, place them in a position that you might normally use with the sun on his or her face and then turn him or her around! Right away the subject is more relaxed because the sun is behind her and she won’t have to squint! Next turn on your flash. Be sure to use it, otherwise the subject will appear to be a silhouette.

In order to get a final image that you can live with, you may have to open the lens a few stops over the metered exposure just as you might with any backlit subject. If you plan to shoot full length portraits instead of close-up, a more powerful speedlight will be more effective than the weaker pop-up flashes found on entry-level digital SLRs.

The above portrait was created using an Olympus E-1 with 14-54mm f/3.5 and an Olympus FL-50 speedlight used as fill and an exposure of 1/160 sec at f/8 at ISO 200.

Many photographers are intrigued at the prospect of creating glamour photographs but may feel that not having the “proper” equipment makes this goal unattainable. Nothing is farther from the truth. My No Frills approach to glamour photography doesn’t require a studio and, as Wilford Brimley might have said, “You don’t even need any fancy studio lighting equipment.” All that’s really necessary to produce professional quality glamour images is a camera with interchangeable lenses, a few simple photographic accessories, such as reflector and speedlight, and models that are willing to pose for you.

Before

Here’s a few simple tips that will help make your first glamour photographs a little bit better. For the before and after examples shown here, the lighting, camera, lens and background are exactly the same. In the after example, with make-up and some retouching, many of the above tips were applied.

1. Avoid flashy jewelry. Make your model’s face, especially her eyes, the focus of the photograph.

2. Have her wear solid colors. Nothing detracts more than clothes covered with busy patterns and prints.

3. Make sure her clothing fits. If a model’s clothes don’t fit, use clips or the old stand-by spring-loaded clothespins (out of camera range) to snug them up. And this happens more often than you might think.

After

4. Change Hairstyles. Ask the model to style their hair differently for each change of clothing to add variety to the session and the photos that she can have in her portfolio.

5. Expression. Some models look great with a smile, others look better without one. Shoot a few test shots each way and make a determination what looks best for her. It will be obvious, right there on your camera’s LCD screen.

6. Make-up. When changing hairstyles or outfits, ask the model to changes her make up style and color too. It doesn’t have to be drastic, maybe a different lipstick color or darker eye shadow. Red lipstick rocks. Ask her to try it.

7. The Right Footwear. For a more a statuesque posture, ask the model to wear her highest heels. No high heels? Ask her to stand on her toes for s few shots.

8. Just Relax. A glamour shoot is a team effort. Model and photographer must work together to achieve the best possible images.

Joe is the author of  “Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography” thats available on Amazon and your favorite book or camera store.

When it comes to photographing people it’s not just about the equipment, it is mostly about the interaction with your subjects. So many times I’ve seen photographers shooting portrait subjects and expecting them to do all the work. That may be true when you’re photographing experienced models but that may not be possible with new models or portrait subjects. Why? There are two basic types of photo subjects:

Lighting set-up in my home studio

Inner directed people are the Energizer bunnies of photo subjects. You tell them to stand “over there,” point the camera at them, and they will change poses as fast as you can click the shutter. You will get lots of good poses, some great ones, and a few that are not so good because the model is not getting any feedback, except from themselves. The other downside is that you will also shoot more photos, which in turn takes more editing time which, in turns, require bigger (or more) memory cards. The upside is that experienced models make you look like a better photographer than you really are but it’s still you’re job to get the lighting right. Unfortunately, this type of subject represents 20% of the models or subjects that the average shooter ever gets to photograph.

Outer directed subjects represent the other 80% of photo subjects or models and they expect you to tell them what to do. Shooting this type of subject takes more time, patience, and maybe smaller memory cards too but if you take the time to communicate what you want the subject to do it will pay off. The best ones will respond better if you show them what the photograph looks like on the LCD screen and big screens really help with this. The bottom line is that it’s up to you to tell the subject how to pose and in order to do that, you need to know what you want.

Keep in mind that there is no one perfect way to pose every subject. They come in all sizes, weights, and abilities to understand your directions, so keep it simple and if the subject is comfortable and the pose looks good, it’s a good one.

Image made with EF 135 f/2.5 SF lens at f/3.5 with 1/200th and ISO 200 using natural light using no reflectors.

Models Don’t Have to Look at the Camera: To show a model how I want her to stand, I put myself in the pose but let her give me her interpretation, which is always much better. 

I occasionally get calls and e-mails from models and aspiring models requesting tests shoots but there’s only so much time available. To streamline the process, I e-mail them a Model Data form before an interview or shoot. The form asks their name, address, and what hours and days she’s available for photography sessions. I also ask what kind of modeling styles she’s available for during the test shoot—not later. The following styles are listed on the form: Maxim-style, Fashion, Lingerie, Swimwear, Business, Artistic Nude, Casual, and Glamour. Potential models are requested to check all that apply

I have found the Model Data form to be indispensable but it’s not perfect. If you need a swimsuit model and she isn’t interested in posing for those kinds of images or her availability and your schedule aren’t compatible, you save time and effort by not scheduling an interview or test shoot. It’s a good idea to look for inconsistencies in the answers. One model I interviewed checked Maxim-style but not Lingerie and when I asked her why, she said the magazine she saw didn’t have lingerie shots in it. Maybe she though I meant Popular Mechanics. One model checked ”nude” but during the interview when I asked her how comfortable she was posing for these kinds of images, she said “not today!” I never did find out what day, so it’s important you ask that models answer all questions honestly. Yet only about 60% of the models who call or e-mail ever return the Model Data form.

You can’t rely on forms to do all the work and during an interview I’ll spend time with the model talking with her about the kind of photographs I like to make but more importantly what she kind that she in interested in. When you find an overlap in these interests is when you’ll have the possibility of creating great images together.

Joe is the author of “Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography.”

There are lots of options when it comes to choosing a portrait backdrop. Muslin is a closely woven unbleached or white cloth that is produced from corded cotton yarn but what has endeared it to photographers is that many kinds of dyes can be applied to it and because of it’s light weight is easily compressed into a small space making it ideal for location photography and storage.

One of the advantages of muslin over canvas is that it’s a less expensive material, so there’s no question that muslin provides good value. Muslin backgrounds are also easier to transport and can be stuffed in a bag and tossed in your car’s trunk. For a different style than the last time you used a particular background, a muslin backdrop can be draped to provide a whole new look. But there is a Goldilocks option: Companies such as Silverlake Photo offer wrinkle-free fabric backdrops, called Colorsmacks, that can literally be smacked into place with their sewn-in Velcro fasteners.

Because of their heavier weight canvas backdrops are best suited for permanent locations. They can be expensive but the surface lets the artist produce realistic looking backdrops, although more and more scenic muslin backgrounds are being produced to challenge that assertion. Canvas backgrounds must be kept rolled between uses or when transporting to avoid creasing the material. All these factors combine to create a background that is expensive and more difficult to transport than muslin, yet many companies make canvas backdrops and the selection of available designs is unsurpassed.

The advantages of using a canvas backdrop are highly subjective: Because painting is hand brushed onto the canvas the colors tend to be more intense. Less subjective is the fact that because the background is perfectly flat a canvas backdrop is consistent from one photograph to the next. This is especially important to those shooters photographing corporate employees over time so the background always looks the same, no matter when it was made. Photographers committed to a traditional portraiture style feel canvas gives a more formal look but you can’t always tell by looking. The image at right uses a hand-painted Carbonite muslin background from Silverlake Photo.

A well-painted canvas drop will last many years if well cared for and while today, I use muslin and Colorsmack backdrops for many years I schlepped canvas backdrops and set them up in locations as diverse as a client’s living room or at convention centers for on-location portraits. I have no doubt that my old canvas backgrounds are still out there somewhere working hard for another photographer.

As with everything else in photography, “you pays yer money and makes yer cherce.” Paper or plastic? Canvas or Muslin or maybe one of the new wrinkle-free portable backdrops? It’s up to you.

Joe is the author of Studio Photography Anywhere from Amherst Media.