Three Photoshoots for a Special Model (and her harp)

NSFW

My goal when photographing people is to capture their personality in still photos.  Often, it takes more than one image.  Sometimes I do more than one photoshoot, but it's not often that I do three photoshoots with the same model within a few months.  In this case, the model was something special and it took three shoots for me to feel like I had captured her complex personality.  Even then, there was something missing, which gave me a push to expand my limited video skills.  So this blog post is the first one that includes a short video clip.  After you view it, please leave a comment and tell me if you feel it added to the overall experience.

Her model name is elflilly and I found her on a well known website where photographers and models meet.  She was just getting into modeling and wanted some nice photos for her portfolio.   We started with a simple studio photoshoot.  I was immediately impressed with her unusual combination of sophistication, womanly curves and a sharp intellect.  Definitely not the norm for models in her age range!

Here are some photos from our first shoot.  I used my typical studio setup of four Alien Bees.  These two images were captured with my trusty Canon 85mm F/1.8 on the 5D3.

As regular readers know, I love to do urban outdoor shoots in downtown Portland, so it was an easy choice for the next shoot with Elflilly.  The exact spots where I shoot vary with the weather and the time of day.  I prefer to use the natural light and that means timing is critical.  The first photos were taken on the East bank of the Willamette River.  This one shows the Hawthorne bridge in the background.  I have been experimenting with HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography and this seemed like a good spot for it.  That's why the colors and tones have a somewhat impressionistic look. 

The cloudy morning skies were slowly clearing, which meant that I'd need to keep the sky out of the photos to avoid the ugly white sky look.  This stairway made a great stage for several shots.  I used the 85mm lens at F/2 in order to blur the background.  The white sky acted like a gigantic softbox as long as the model was facing South as she is in the first image.  In the second, she is facing North and you can see that her face is not as well lit.

At this point the sun was starting to come out and the harsh light drove us into the shadows.  The following image shows how you sometimes find white reflectors in the environment that supplement the overhead light.

Searching for more shaded areas, I decided to make use of this ancient bridge support, which gives a bit of a grungy, industrial look.

After getting to know Elflilly during the first two photoshoots, I realized that her harp is a big part of her life.  She wanted to get some photos of herself looking sexy with her harp, so a third shoot was scheduled in my studio.  I started with the white background for a high key look.  I haven't photographed a harpist before and had fun figuring out the best poses and lighting.  You have to watch out for the shadow cast by the harp on the model's body.

After several poses on the white background, it was time to change the mood and go for the black.

By this time, Elflilly had actually played short pieces on the harp several times, enough for me to discover that she really is quite talented.  Music is something that still photos can't capture, so we agreed to shoot some video.  I'm a still photographer, not a videographer, so please excuse the amateur quality.  I shot this with my Canon 7D, which is my backup camera, using the internal microphone and a big softbox with compact fluorescent bulbs for lighting.  The 5D3 is technically a better video camera, but since the clip was only intended to be posted on the net, I didn't think the extra image quality would be visible.

After this shoot, I have promised myself that I will work hard to improve my video skills.  Perhaps you will be seeing more videos in this blog!

High Dynamic Range for Portraiture

High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography involves the use of more than one image of the same subject that are created with different exposures. These images are combined during post-processing using special HDR software.  The primary purpose of HDR photography is to record scenes that have a very large range of brightness,  too large to be recorded by current digital camera sensors...  like this photo of Diablo Dam.  On the day I was there, the light was horrible for photography - harsh and glaring.  By using HDR, I was able to control the tonal range in a way that resulted in a pretty, rather artistic photo, that looked more like the way the human eye would remember the scene.

There are several HDR programs on the market.  The one I'm currently using is Photomatix Pro.  Some of the latest cameras have a built-in HDR function that will do the work for you, but of course with less control.

In the simple version of HDR, you take three images as fast as possible, using variations in shutter speed to provide the different exposures you need for HDR.  The camera must be on a tripod to keep the multiple photos exactly aligned.  As you might guess, moving subjects are a problem, so HDR has traditionally been thought of as something used for landscape and still life photography.  Photos of people were not considered a good use of the HDR technique.  If the person moved slightly between exposures, the resulting photo would have annoying ghost images. 

I have always loved taking waterfall photos.  One thing a waterfall photographer quickly learns is that you don't photograph them on sunny days.  The contrast between the white water and the dark surrounding terrain is just too much for either film or digital cameras to record.  A few years ago, when I first heard about HDR, I eagerly tried an early version of Photomatix to process some waterfall photos.   Due to the moving water and waving tree limbs, my HDR images looked pretty bad.  I gave up on HDR for a few years.   Just recently I tried again and found that I could create a usable waterfall image by combining three photos in Photomatix Pro.  The software has become much smarter, especially when it comes to "de-ghosting" the images.   Not only that, but it is so good at aligning the images, you no longer need to use a tripod!  I put this to the test several weeks ago by shooting a three shot HDR series of Rainbow Falls in the North Cascades of Washington.  No tripod used.

I was quite impressed at what Photomatix Pro could do with my hand held images.  There is no way I could have created a usable photo of Rainbow Falls with normal photography at the time I was there.   This photo was processed to give a natural appearance, but HDR has a reputation for creating wild, artistic effects that make photos look like paintings, as you will see in the next photo.

When I realized how much HDR software had improved, I decided immediately to find a use for HDR photography in my business of photographing people.  My first attempt involved an outdoor shoot with a gentleman who wanted a portrait of himself and his car.  I wanted to make use of a classic HDR effect -  dramatic, stormy skies.  We picked a spot that had a sentimental value for him and positioned the car so we could get plenty of sky in the picture.  It was June in Portland, so the skies had some pretty nice clouds already.  They were just too bright to capture in the same image with the subject and his car using normal photography.   I used a tripod to help line up the shot precisely.

My client loved his photo, so I started using HDR for other outdoor portraits where I had a good view of the sky and some clouds to work with.  The following image uses a more realistic HDR processing mode.  Instead of the surreal style above, this one looks more like a regular photo.  The main effect of the HDR is to give us a dark blue sky with wispy white clouds, while properly exposing the subjects on their motorcycle.  Without HDR, the sky would have been a boring white.  I think this shot looks a bit like an old Kodachrome photo as seen on postcards a few decades ago.

My next chance to use HDR was a shoot I did for a group of five "curvalicious" women who wanted to celebrate together at a local nude beach.  For this shoot I left the tripod at home and truly put Photomatix Pro to the test. 

I did an entire photoshoot handheld including several HDR images.  I found that I could choose various processing options to create a fantasy look.  More images from this shoot will appear in a future post.

This post may be updated as I find more uses for HDR photography in my work.

Hiding the Face in Erotic Photos

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One of the most frequent requests I hear is to keep a client's face unrecognizable in her photos.  There are now many places on the internet where a woman might want to post sexy photos without exposing her true identity, so naughty photographers need to understand how to do this well.

It can be a real challenge to make a client look sexy without showing her face, since the face is what shows the personality and gives the viewer a sense of connection.  If possible, I always like to include eye contact with the camera in my boudoir and erotic images.  I feel they are much more powerful that way.  But sometimes with a paying client you must be able to hide the face while still creating sexy photos.  

Here's my pet peeve:  The worst possible way is to use an editing program to blur out the face or put a black spot over it, just like the old fashioned censors used to do with body parts that would be too shocking for public view.   I hate that!  And it is certainly very poor advertising for the woman in the photo.   I'm not even going to post an example, you've seen hundreds of those on the net.  Ugh!

There are many methods to capture a good erotic photo without showing the face and I will demonstrate a few of my favorites.  The simplest is just to crop below the face.  This works great if you have a shapely body and some nice exposed skin, like these three images:

Beyond Boudoir Photo Portland - feel the texture of purple

Nude Without a Face

Booty and HeelsBooty and Heels by a Portland Boudoir Photographer

You can use the hair to hide the face, if it's long enough.   It's up to the client to decide how much of her face must be obscured, so I always discuss this with her in advance, then try to provide several variations for her to choose from.  If the client has very long hair, it is tempting to just let it hang down in front of the face, like this example:

Using the Hair

My problem with this pose it that there is too much hair in a rather featureless mass.  It reminds me of "Cousin It" from the Addams Family.  See what I mean?

I think the photo below is a somewhat better example of hiding the face with the hair.  The black hair with reflected highlights forms a more three dimensional, sculpted head of hair. 

Beautiful Hair

Another way to avoid the Cousin It look is to break up the mass of hair with an arm or other object, so that the hair doesn't overwhelm the other elements of the composition, which are the various curves of the body.

Using the Hair to Hide the Face

I like the example below, because the hair is a good size in relation to the other elements, the hair has a nice three dimensional look and there are other sexy details to catch the eye. 

Portland vacation rentalI love shooting in vacation rental homes.

My favorite method for hiding the face with the hair is to allow an eye, a mouth or a nose to show as you can see in the photo below.  This can be tricky, because everyone has their own thoughts about how much of the face has to be hidden to protect someone's identity.   I always discuss this with my client in advance to avoid creating photos she can't use.

Head over Heels

If you have a shapely back and/or derriere to work with, you can simply have the model face away from the camera.  But remember, the camera adds weight, so this works better for thinner and more toned subjects.

A Shapely Back

One of the easiest ways to avoid showing the face is to shoot close ups of the body parts that are traditionally considered erotic.  Here is a rather tame example.  FYI, most of my clients prefer something more graphic.

Derriere

There are many other ways to hide the face during an erotic photoshoot.   The subject can wear a mask, hold a scarf in front of her face or wear a wide brimmed hat tilted down.

Masked Kinksters

The hardest situation to work with is when the client says she wants to look really sexy, but does not want to show her face or body.  Yes, I've actually been asked to do that several times.   It is possible to zoom in on a pair of feet in high heeled shoes, a pretty piece of jewelry or simply the subject's hands and make them look interesting, even elegant, but sexy?  My guess is that many women would say yes, but most men would say no, so it depends on your target audience.

And one last thought about hiding the client's identity.  It all depends on who she is hiding it from.  If you are just trying to avoid the face-recognition software on social media sites, simply hiding most of the face is probably enough.  But if you are trying to hide from an ex-lover, don't forget those pesky tattoos!  

Photoshoot With an Older Model

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I receive many inquiries from women who are older than the typical models one sees in the media.  They want to know if I do nude photoshoots for women over a certain age.   My answer is always yes, but I write back with a few questions that will help me create the kind of images they are imagining.

The first question I ask is if there are certain parts of the body they want to show off or hide.  The answers I get back vary a lot.  Some moms want to hide their stretch marks or scars.  Others want to show them off as proud battle scars.   If a woman is into physical fitness, she might want to show off her toned muscles.  Sometimes they have a great smile, attractive breasts or pretty feet.   Sometimes she has a very attractive feature that she is not aware of and I have the fun of discovering it during her photoshoot.

I recently worked with a thirty-something model who helped me illustrate some concepts that you might find interesting.  The image below illustrates the importance of the face in determining both a person's age and their personality.  As you can see, this model has age signs around her eyes.  Some clients want me to remove these with Photoshop, which I can certainly do as you can see in this example of facial retouching with Photoshop.   But personally, I like to leave these age signs more or less as they are.  Maybe it's because I'm an old guy now myself.  I think it makes a woman seem more interesting, experienced and intelligent.

Jenna with the Sigma 50 Classic

If I back up a little, the age signs are less noticeable and there are other pretty things to attract the viewer.

An almost full body portrait makes those pesky wrinkles inconsequential!  The angle of the lighting helps too.

I shot this sans-face image for another blog post I'm planning, but decided to use it here since it shows how perspective control can change or emphasize the proportions of the body.  It was taken with a 50mm lens which is usually ideal for this type of portrait.   In this case the pose makes body parts closer to the camera appear larger and the parts farther away look smaller.  It's a great way to change the model's proportions if you wish to do so.   This particular model had legs that were naturally a bit large, so I wanted to make them look smaller.

I also softened the skin to hide small blemishes and sun damage.  Most clients appreciate this, but I always ask first.

To illustrate how different lenses change the perspective and therefore the proportions of the model, I took the two shots below.  The first one is with a 135mm lens.  I had to back off about 16 feet from the model to keep her in the frame.  Notice how her hips seem quite large in relation to her shoulders?  This effect can be useful for portraits where you want to reduce the apparent size of someone's nose, but in this case it is not appreciated!   Can you imagine a client saying, "I want you to make my ass look bigger?"

Let's go back to our old friend, the 50mm lens.  As you can see the hips look much smaller now.  You really have to use the right lens at the right time!

Thanks for reading this blog post!  If you are interested in having a photoshoot of your own, please use the contact form to drop me a note.

An Erotic Couple's Photoshoot

NSFW   NSFW   NSFW

One of the most rewarding photoshoot genres for me is the erotic couple's photoshoot.  When a happy couple wants to record their passion, I consider it an honor to apply my artistic talents toward creating images they'll be proud to own many years from now.

Because of my strict privacy policy, it isn't often that I can share images from these very private photoshoots.  In this case two friends who are very public about their sexuality kindly agreed to have their photos posted here on my blog.

Getting Comfortable in Front of the CameraStarting out slowly.  

Doing an intimate photoshoot for a couple is all about comfort.  First, the couple has to be comfortable with the photographer's commitment to protecting their privacy.   Then, there has to be some friendly chemistry between the couple and the photographer.  Maintaining an erotic mood is always a delicate thing - even more so when a third person is invited to watch.  In fact, the photographer needs to do more than watch.  He or she needs to do a certain amount of directing in order to get well composed and illuminated images.   As you can imagine, it's easy to kill the mood if the photographer says or does the wrong thing.  

Lovers Talking

Most photographers would never consider doing this kind of shoot, and with good reasons.  Not many are sufficiently  "sex positive"   (follow the link to Wikepidia if you are unfamiliar with the term)  and of course lots of things can go wrong with a shoot like this.  I've been doing this kind of photography for around two decades, so it feels natural to me now, but it didn't start out that way.  As in all things, there is no substitute for practice.  The photographer needs to be non-judgmental at all times and encouraging at just the right times. 

Rough and Writhing

Each couple has their own concept of how they want their images to look.  It's the photographer's job to understand their vision and try to create images as close as possible to that goal.   A pre-shoot conversation is vital, but can be done partially by phone or email.  There are a few critical issues that must be decided in advance.   For example, you should decide how explicit the images are going to be and, most importantly, you should try to establish the nature of the sexual chemistry between the two subjects.  It is also helpful to find out how the couple feels about their body image, as this will effect how they should be posed and what kind of draping or costuming, if any, will be used to reduce body exposure.

In Control

Most couples have one partner who takes the dominant role, although they may switch places.  Some couples are laughing and playful, some are rough and animalistic, you get the idea!   The photographer needs to be ready to capture all this in a series of still images.  The ultimate goal is to show the personality of the subjects and the spirit of their relationship.

A Happy Outcome

One last note... when people inquire about having me do a shoot like this for them, they often want to know how explicit their images can be.   My more explicit images are password protected to avoid excessive traffic.  If you are considering a photoshoot of this type and want to see my more explicit work, use the contact form to send me a note.  Please tell me approximately where you are located and when you might be interested in scheduling a photoshoot.

A Fast and Furious Two Hour Photoshoot

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Potential clients often ask me how much we can accomplish during their photoshoot.  It's easy to attempt too many poses or outfits, so some photographers limit their photoshoots to a certain number of "looks," ie: costume changes.  My preference is to limit my standard photoshoots to two hours of shooting time.

So what can I accomplish in two hours?  Well of course it varies a lot depending on who is posing and what our goals are.  If you plan well, you can get a surprising amount of good photos.  I'm posting images from this shoot, because I feel it represents the maximum number of different looks and backgrounds that I've ever managed to include in a two hour shoot.

Due to my strict privacy policy, photos I shoot for paying clients are not available for use in in my online portfolio.  Unlike traditional portrait or wedding photographers, that means that I have to do photoshoots strictly for the purpose of creating images for my portfolio.

You might say I cheated by hiring a professional model and you'd be right.  A pro model has two advantages over an ordinary subject.  Number one:  she has nearly a perfect body so you don't have to work very hard to guide her into flattering poses.   Number two:  she can pose herself and change her facial expressions between shots without needing much direction.

Some of my photographer friends refuse to pay models to pose for them.  I think this is being penny-wise and pound-foolish.  When I pay a professional model to pose for me, I get far more usable images than when I'm doing a trade shoot with a non-model friend or a newbie model who is just starting out.   All photographers want beautiful images for their portfolio or web site, the question is: how much is your time worth?  I consider my time to be pretty valuable, so paying a model to help me create a lot of great images in a short time makes sense.

One other thing I like about working with pro models.  Since I'm paying them out of my own pocket, the clock is ticking in my head and I'm always moving quickly to get a great shot and move on.   This is good practice for working productively with paying clients.  They want their money to produce as many flattering images as possible and I'm comfortable working fast, because I've practiced doing it.

The model is Amelia Simone, MM# 2277933.  The shoot was done earlier today.  We started out in the studio...

Amelia in the Studio

None of these images are photoshopped.  All I did was adjust the tones in Lightroom. 

Amelia in the Studio

I'm using my usual studio lighting setup which consists of four Alien Bees, one at each corner of the shooting space.  The two in front of the model are equipped with large umbrellas which have white fabric over the opening creating large soft boxes, or brolly boxes as the Brits call them.  The two ABs in the rear are using the standard reflector with a 20 or 30 degree grid to act as hair lights.

Amelia in the Studio on red silk

A man's dress shirt make a wonderful costume for glamour and boudoir shoots.  Choosing the color can be fun, but in this case I went with a neutral gray.

Amelia in the studio, wearing man's shirt

My studio is set up so that I can switch between low key and high key images in about five minutes if I hurry and don't get distracted.

Amelia in the Studio on Pink Satin

To make the switch to high key lighting, I just take the grids off the two rear lights and aim them at the white fabric backdrop.  Then I turn up the power until the background is pretty close to perfectly white.   I try to avoid more light than necessary, since the spill from the backdrop can start to affect the details of the model.  Notice how one of her black shoes is starting to look a little washed out in this shot.

Amelia in the studio on green satin

After about an hour and a half in the studio, it was time to go outside for some fresh air.  This is Portland in May, so the rhododendrons were in bloom.

Amelia and Purple Rhododendron

You don't need to go to S. E. Asia to find bamboo!  And the cloudy Portland skies create a nice soft light for photography.

Amelia in the bamboo

After the shoot, Amelia socializes with the famous author Jack Quaiz, author of the underground adult classic, Submission in Seattle.

Amelia with author Jack Quaiz

This shoot produced over 900 images.  The ones you see here were selected quickly after the shoot. There are roughly two hundred that would be worth considering for display in my portfolio.  Of course I only want to show a handful, so now comes the hardest part, choosing the best ones and rejecting the rest.

Thanks for reading my blog!  If you or someone you care about needs an adventurous Boudoir photographer, please use the contact page to drop me a note.