I Learned A Lot

Michigan Boudoir Photography by Mary DuPrie

This is a shot of Lorena the second time I worked on my 360 set a few weeks ago.  I shot it for a paying client yesterday and learned a few things.  I’m not able to post any images from the shoot but I’ve written a few notes.  I’ll be shooting the set up again tomorrow with Lorena so I’ll be able to post a few BTS images then.

I learned a lot… This is code for I didn’t know what I was doing.   Well I learned a lot yesterday.  It’s somewhat easy to shoot models.  Not much corrective lighting going on.  To segue into the real portrait/glamor world is a lot more daunting… a whole nother ballgame.

I’ve had a couple of “real” glamour shoots in the past but they still looked like models.  Any old lighting will do for models., they pretty much look good no matter what.

I shot an Adomara 12×8 26 page glamour book yesterday and quickly discovered I should of sold the 10 page instead.  Doing 26 pages is way too many for the average client.  I’m going to have to really use my imagination to stretch the shoot out to get all the pages. I only offered the 26 pages at the time.  Clients also tend to buy what you show.

I think I’m being way too ambitious for the average client.  I’ll have to learn a good work flow for my normal glamour shoots.  I think I will resort to showing images of poses and  build on those images.

It took me quite a while to figure out how to shoot the clients face.  I eventually got it but it was well into the shoot.  I needed her to keep her head up to stretch out the jaw line and to fill in under eye shadows.  It’s always a learning process not matter what.

I have to figure out how to add light to the face when the windows are behind the models back and still be able to move around quickly and efficiently.  I didn’t want to have any lights on set at all, but I had to resort to a bare strobe.    I ended up using a bare strobe bouncing backwards to add more light on set. ( wished I would of thought about using my vagabond to be able to quickly move around)  I placed the strobe up  high to give a good jaw line to the client.  I haven’t started working on how I’m going to do shoots when I need to shoot in shadow… one problem at a time.

I forgot to have the client take off her undergarments while she was in hair and makeup so when she put her lingerie on she had all kinds of lines… grrrr  It’s something I would tell the makeup artist to remind me of.   The client brought several different outfits but I have to say corsets are my favorite.  Corsets are great for detail work and can really stretch out a shoot. If I was advising a client I would suggest a few corsets. The bottoms look best when the legs are cut high to pick up length.

I hung tons of small glass chandeliers around the set.   I shot them as foreground and I found they added lots of interest to the shoot.  I wish I could leave this set up all the time because it’s a lot of work.   It’s when having too much stuff is actually preventing me from shooting.   Every time I set it up I make it bigger and bigger.  The set up doesn’t get faster because I keep adding to it.  I don’t want to go to clients homes or hotel rooms so I’m trying to make it look as glam as possible.  Continuing saga…

Tagged as: Boudoir, Glamour, lingerie, lorena, studio sets

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