“Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies.”— Diane Arbus
I haven’t had an Oreo in a while but any photographer who’s ever made a glamour or boudoir portrait knows what the late Ms. Arbus was talking about.
All that stands between the photographer and a good portrait is their imagination and a client who’s interesting in working together to create the best possible image, even though they maybe initially shy. Because usually there’s nothing for the client to interact with in a studio, the photographer’s posing directions are going to have to be more precise than normal.
Photographing a portrait subject against a seamless paper background is the ultimate test of one’s ability to make something from nothing; you’re shooting without a net—naked, even if your subject is wearing clothes…or not.
This pose was a combination of two of my favorite concepts: I asked her bend at the waist and unzip her dress. For clients who want to try posing nude but are unsure about how to do it having a dress that can be unbuttoned or unzipped is a good way to ease into what here is a semi-nude portrait of a strong confident woman.
How I Made this Portrait
To make this portrait of Pam, I used a Canon EOS 60D and EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens (at 40mm) with an exposure of 1/125 sec at f/11 and ISO 200.
Lighting was provided by Elinchrom’s D-Lite RX One/One Softbox To Go Kit. I placed one Elinchrom monolights with a 26-inch square umbrella mounted approximately 45 degrees to the subject. When I originally made this portrait of the indomitable Ms. Simpson, the Elinchrom kit included two 26×26-inch square softboxes; it now includes one 26×26-inch softbox and one 22-inch Octa softbox. Output from the monolight was adjusted to be at approximately one-quarter power, providing almost instantaneous recycle no matter how fast this subject changed poses. The background was my studio’s white-painted wall.
