About technique and more.

Three portraits

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During a session (for me) it’s very important to capture something that is “unique” although I know that everything has already been done at least once or twice (probably more) I still try to steer away from the “standard” beauty shot, and don’t get me wrong… there is nothing wrong with a beauty shot but for me… well it’s a bit “boring” to do myself.

 

So how do you approach something like this.
I always try to get something from my model, it can be a very subtle expression or something more.
In the following shot I went for the more relaxed expression.
Just let the model look away and let her think of someone that is coming over the hill, the fun part is that every model will give you a different expression.

Susanna December 20 2013-4-Edit

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Blowing out

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We all know the white backgrounds, but to be honest I think they have had their longest time.
Now a days for example I just love the light grey backgrounds a lot more… we still use a white background for this but we just don’t light it, creating a very nice modern look. However if you still want to play with white why not try the following.

 

Normally we meter the model incident and add 2.5-3 stops to the background (metered reflective) to create a really nice white background without blowing out details like hair.
In the following shots I did something else, and I really like this technique. Instead of using a strobe as main light I just use the strobes on the white background and meter towards the camera (incident) to get a “correct” exposure on the face of the model. The main light source in this case is in fact the whole studio, or in other words all the light that scattered around the studio and reaches the model from the front. This will result in a very blown out background really wrapping around our model as you can see here :

Manon November 22 2013-92-EditNow if the effect is a bit too strong you can always lower the exposure a bit on the the model or move the model further away from the background.

 

This technique also works very nice for portraits, but watch out with models with really light blond hair 🙂

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One background… many options

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During one of the workshops we decided it would be interesting to see what you can actually do with one background.
The only thing we changed was the light and the retouching process.
So the next time you think that you don’t know what to do with your backgrounds anymore… think about this post and start experimenting with the position of light, retouching etc.
I do have to add that we choose the pink background because this is a very strong color and actually much harder to “cover up” than for example gray or white.

Lenaa_-617-Edit

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The glamour pose

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One pose I can’t get enough off is the ones you see in this post.
A lot of people ask me for a glamour shot but often the models are not experienced models so posing can be a bit difficult. With this pose you can really work some magic with inexperienced models, now add a really good model and you have (well at least in my opinion) a great powerful shot.

 

The trick is to shoot this from a low angle and as wide open as possible, you could for example only use the modeling lights from the strobes if you have too much power. I used a very narrow beam of light by using a reflector with grid, but the same pose actually also works really good in hotel rooms (on the bed/floor etc.) with broad natural light.

 

The main thing you have to take care of is the way the “angle” works, find the curves in the body and let the model play with her arms and chin, I like the pose best when there is a lot of tension in the body of the model.

 

So the next time you are asked for a powerful “glamour shot” think about this one.
Good luck.

Marie November 21 2013-130-Edit

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