Today’s Post by Blue Moon Staff
Creating an personalized intimate portrait on location, especially in your or your subject’s home, has many advantages. over shooting in our studio.
An in-home shoot means that the model has the ultimate in privacy while the photographer has the ability to work under a wide range of different kinds of lighting conditions. You and your subject can go room to room and take advantage of posing opportunities presented by the real world, not an empty studio and seamless paper.
The model will also have access to the their closets and make-up to create just the look both you and she want to create. And they don’t have to worry about forgetting her favorite make-up brush because it’s just a few steps away.
Wardrobe decisions are simpler and you don’t have to think about what to bring. A complete wardrobe is just around the corner. Posing is easier because you have physical objects to interact with,
The way that I like to work during a home session is by watching what the model does naturally and then have them interact with the background in a way that’s comfortable. And lastly there’s nudity considerations: When you want to be nude, chances are they’re going to more comfortable in a state of undress in their own home, rather than in a studio.
How I made this shot: I photographed Pam using window light from the Southeast-facing window in a guest bedroom. This was not the first shot that I made of this pose but was actually the sixth shot of multi-shoot sequence. The final image was cropped ever-so-slightly but used the original image file’s aspect ratio. I avoided cropping images for years but now find myself cropping portraits a little tighter than before to increase immediacy and impact. The JPEG image file was lightly retouched with a touch of Color Efex’s Glamour Glow to add a bit of soft focus.
The camera used here was the entry-level Olympus E-M10 Mark I with an Olympus M.45mm f/1.8 lend, proving you don’t need expensive equipment for glamour or boudoir photography. The exposure was 1/80 sec at f/2.5 and ISO 800 with a plus two-thirds stop exposure compensation. In the not-so-distant past, you could purchase refurbished Olympus cameras direct from the company at really good prices and I have. OM Systems still offers “refurbs” but appears to have raised prices on them and their new cameras too! I hope this strategy works for them but I don’t expect to be able to afford any more of Oly’s camera unless I can get one used at a really good price.
