Michael J Huxley Photography

Lieza - Boudoir Session - West Monroe, NY

I recently attended a Mentoring Session held by East Coast Artists, a group I’ve become involved with. While I’m not specifically interested in Boudoir photography, I felt that I still had a lot to learn from this session given that I shoot tattoos and often times people are in various states of undress during the shoot (I never shoot nudes, though). Well, I have to say, it was a great experience. I met several other photographers, a make-up artist/photographer/model (woah!) and a model. We all spent a good portion of the evening just chatting it up, talking shop. It’s very rare for me to get my geek on with other photographers, so this was a very special treat. I mean, when you hear phrases like “Have you seen the new Parabolic from Paul C. Buff?” and you actually know what that person is talking about, and can drool right along with them, that’s something very special.

Thought Process

And on to the images. The evening started out with everyone a bit jittery – we all snapped off a few frames and then quickly sat back down. As the evening progressed, though, you could tell we started to loosen up, as we all started taking more and more frames. I was really feeling in the groove when I took this shot and what I wanted was to try out Clamshell lighting. For an in-depth look at Clamshell lighting, as well as some setup shots, check out this Lighting Essentials post. A quickie run-down: you take one light in an umbrella and put it on camera axis above models eye level. Then you take a second light in an umbrella and put it below the models eye level. You (the photographer) shoot through a tiny hole in between the two umbrellas. This type of light fills in a lot of the hard shadows that you tend to get when only using one light source, and creates just a beautiful type of light. I particularly like the double catch-light in the eyes. This is another type of light that is just really difficult to describe well; there’s just something about it. I think it has to do with the way it sculpts the models jaw. It’s beautiful without drawing attention to itself. The fedora (so cool – I need one of those as a prop) and the pose were entirely the models idea. I’ll be honest: I don’t know what the exact aesthetic is for boudoir images. Are head shots cool? Or should they be more bust length, 3/4, full length shots? I don’t care. To me it’s about making the person in front of the camera look, yes, but also *feel* good about themselves. I’ve asked a lot of people how to pull this off and I get the same answer every time: talk talk talk. Tell them they’re doing awesome, even (and especially!) when they’re not. Compliments are good, but go easy and be careful. “Your eyes are beautiful.” = creepy. “The way you’re holding your arm looks great!” is better.

Technical Stuff

I was using my Nikon d300s with a 50mm lens (this is one situation that I would have loved to have an 85mm – I was really up in this models grill for this shot). I shot it at 1/250th at f/6.3; ISO 100. We had the good fortune, thanks to Kelly, the studio owner and founder of East Coast Artists, to be using her Alien Bee 800′s and I believe we were shooting at around 1/8th or 1/16th power.

Post Processing

Just the basics here: applied a Soft Light Blending Layer, cleaned up some blemishes, and used the Surface Blur filter to soften the skin. On the post processing: I hate post on these types of images. It’s expected that you do a lot of post in images like these to really make them “beautiful”: no hair out of place, no pores showing, skin is clean and glowing, etc. In other words, more fake than the average photo (maybe I’ll write another post on my personal photographic ethics – no image is “pure” but glamour and fashion take the post processing a little too far, in my opinion. The person should still look like themselves when I’m done). And I just don’t feel right getting rid of scars, changing the hair color so it shines more, going all “Barbie Doll” on the skin. It kinda gives me the creeps doing that stuff.

A few more from this shoot:

Lieza - Zebra Chair - Boudoir Mentoring Shoot - West Monroe NY

Lieza - Boudoir Mentoring Session - West Monroe, NY

In case it wasn’t apparent, I really dig when I can get models to look off camera and go to their own little happy place in their heads. I just enjoy those types of images. It (to me) feels a little more intimate as it almost seems as if you’re looking in on a moment and the model doesn’t know you’re there. But that’s just me.