Get Started in Digital Glamour Photography (Lingerie Edition)
By Duncan Evans
2.5/5
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About this ebook
Want to shoot glamour photography with your digital camera but don't know where to start? Then this is the book for you, aimed at the photographer who knows their camera, but nothing about the world of glamour photography. It kicks off with a discussion on the hardware you do and don't need, whether filters are any use in a digital age, and what are truly essential accessories. A quick word on RAW versus JPEG then it's on to mastering lighting and the key to successful glamour shots. The impact and significance of early morning, direct overhead, diffused light are discussed, along with shooting into the sun and artificial light sources. There are two chapters on the practicalities of shooting: on location and in the studio. At all times, there's advice for the beginner to explain what you need to know now and what you'll need to consider when you have more experience. Composition is an essential element but there's none more so that dealing with models. This has a whole chapter to itself. Discover how to approach a shoot, put the model at their ease, get through the technical challenges while keeping in control of the shoot. It's all here with clear advice and anecdotes from actual shoots to back it up. The book rounds things off with a chapter on digital post-production, Photoshop work and presenting and selling your work.
Here’s the chapter list:
1. INTRODUCTION
2. GEAR GUIDE
3. ESSENTIAL ACCESSORIES
4. THE MODEL
5. COMPOSING THE PHOTO
6. MASTERING LIGHTING
7. SHOOTING IN A STUDIO
8. SHOOTING ON LOCATION
9. DIGITAL DARKROOM
Duncan Evans
Duncan Evans LRPS is a member of the Royal Photographic Society and the published author of 12 photography books. He is a journalist, photographer and author, working in photography and hi-tech fields. Duncan first got involved with digital photography in 1999 and was the Editor of Digital Photo User, one of the first magazines covering the rise of the format from overpriced novelty to essential photography tool. The digital books on sale here are the result of 12 years experience, reviewing, writing and authoring in this field.
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Get Started in Digital Glamour Photography (Lingerie Edition) - Duncan Evans
1. INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS GLAMOUR?
That may seem an obvious question to ask to start with, but your answer dictates what and how you shoot it. Glamour covers a huge range of styles, from high end couture fashion at one end, to porn at the other. In between is a happy range of images where the aim is to make the subject look as good, attractive, sexy and appealing as possible. Glamour is normally the province of the fairer sex, but there’s nothing stopping you from shooting some beefcake. A charity calendar of bare-chested firemen is just as much glamour as a pouting page three nymph. However, the main diet for your camera is assumed to be the female form so we’ll leave the guys to a chapter of their own. Glamour can involve expensive clothes and props, it can simply involve lingerie or no clothes at all. What is important is that when you know what kind of imagery you are aiming for you research the best in that field. Whether that’s in photography books, fashion magazines, lads mags or websites.
CHOOSING A THEME
The first rule of glamour photography is do not touch the camera until you know precisely what you want to achieve. Now, that’s easy enough said, but when you are a beginner, how the hell do you know what you want to achieve? Just getting the shot in focus when faced with acres of bare flesh for the first time is challenge enough. However, get all that out of your system. Do your first couple of shoots until you are confident with your equipment and shooting someone who is trying to look sultry, seductive and gorgeous. Then start to think about the type of image and set of images you want to create. This can be dictated by props, locations – indoor, outdoor or the studio, or even the model herself. If you have a collection of nautical artefacts like wheels, lamps, rigging, lifebelts etc, then a nautical, even a historical, nautical concept is worth developing. The old stand by – bales of hay, can be used to create a cliched farm girl tableaux, while on location at a waterfall leads to lots of splashing and action photos, with shiny, wet skin. Even coming across a willing model can lead the train of thought. Find a local model who is six foot and very well toned? Amazonian fantasies, or locker room antics spring to mind immediately. The over riding point is that you should develop and think through an idea, no matter how clichéd or trite, and take it from there. If it is clichéd and trite though, you’ll need to put extra thought into composition and lighting to give it a fresh look.
Once you have a scenario set up, there’s a logical progression within it when it comes to shooting. You work around all the angles, cover all the poses, it starts with clothes and can end up with lingerie, topless or nude shots. The idea is to maximise the potential of what’s there. Not by taking forever, but by using that time well. If you can get a different look and expression and pose in the same scenario then you have two pictures to sell or use instead of one. If you can get four or five it’s a result. Trying simply turning off the odd light to see what difference it can make. If you are shooting a glamour set though, for magazine publication, then the publisher will want a clearly defined set of poses and expressions that lead all the way through to whatever level of nudity you were aiming for. The entire set needs to be logical and follow some kind of narrative. In this case, don’t turn off any lights or change the lighting at all, unless it’s part of the unfolding story.
An alternative to the scenario shoot is the theme shoot. Here, the situation and indeed model, may change from shot to shot, but there is a concept or prop connecting all the pictures. This is the approach to take to something like photographing a calendar. If the calendar is for a specific company, then the products from that company should be used. The most likely candidate for this kind of calendar is a garage company that wants 12 months of racy images. The shoot therefore entails girls fitting tyres or washing cars with soapy water.
However, don’t start scouring model web pages as soon as you’ve had a basic idea. You need to firm it up, add details for what it’s going to involve and what you will need. Then you need to think about lighting and what it’s going to look like. The pro snapper often makes sketches to rough out ideas and this is something you should consider, at least at the planning stage. While this may seem like too much effort for the amateur, it is actually very much worth taking the time to do lighting and positional diagrams. That way you can see before hand where the light will fall and what it will show.
The other way of looking at this if you are just getting started is to have a look at how magazines have shot their images. The online incarnation of mags like FHM (the print magazine died a few years back) will give you good pointers, while women’s fashion magazines like Vogue and Cosmo showcase higher end glamour. If you are aiming at the lower end of the market, click on www.thetopshelf.co.uk for a list of currently available porno mags, which range from girl next door, standard glamour to fetish. The idea is to have a concept to start with, then develop it with lighting. Now, lighting itself is an entire subject and is possibly even harder to be inventive with than the initial scenario so more on that later.
STUDIO OR LOCATION
The first thing to decide is where you want to shoot the pictures. You have the choice of a studio or a location. Your original idea may dictate which you use, but if there is a choice there are certain conditions that should be borne in mind.
The use of a studio allows the photographer to control all the elements. You can vary the quality or intensity of the light and make sure the model does not suffer from goose-pimples by turning up the heating. You can prevent air currents from moving the model’s hair during long exposures and it doesn’t matter what time of day you are shooting. Particularly for glamour, an important facet is that you control the environment and don’t have to work around the public, which is always a consideration when shooting on location. Plus, it’s easier for the model to get ready and sets can be built that precisely suit the requirements of the picture.
In many ways, for the beginner, shooting in a studio is a great way to get started because you can work without being disturbed and gain valuable experience. The down side is that it will cost you. On the other hand, location shooting has merits that may outweigh the relative comfort of a studio; the first and foremost of these is authenticity. Pictures taken by studio light against artificial backgrounds look unnatural. Try building a moonlit Caribbean beach in a studio and photographing the result. Even shooting a picture in the studio against a white background, and then digitally compositing the model onto a pre-shot scene is very difficult to pull off convincingly. However hard you try, the real thing will look better every time. Of course, budgetary limitations are usually the driving factor for beginners and amateurs, so that beach shoot in the Caribbean is really going to take place using Photoshop. For more modest settings, like a barn, you are better trying to find a location. In fact, for the amateur, you should avoid constructing anything in a studio, simply because it isn’t yours and time will be limited. You want to spend your time shooting not building. There are some studios for hire that have scenario sets already to go but be warned, it might seem like a good idea but hundreds of other photographers have also used exactly the same set.
The other advantage to shooting on location is that it’s much easier to come up with flashes of inspiration based on the surroundings than in the white walls of the studio. In other words, it’s easier to be creative outside, just make sure that you don’t use the backgrounds as a crutch and get lazy about it. Nature can throw up endless variety of situations, scenery,