Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Edgy Boudoir

What a fun day we've had already, right? Light, light and airy shoot first, a little art, so now we're going to jump right in and do some super sexy. Thanks for this particular shoot. We're going to start over here in this corner and you're probably thinking where in the corner we're going to start, but I picture very graphic. Angular place to work the girl. The model is going to be wearing a seatbelt dress straps everywhere. Automatic edge, right. So for an automatic edge on harder edge makeup, we need glamour, victoria's, secret style hair, great shoes hose and dramatic poses. So what I'm going to do here is a four lights set up. I have the beauty to shut here with my boeing sliding on all of this set up on all four lights on the front light. We hear what we have here. I have the power set down at the lowest setting at one. The light is going to be transferring through this beauty dish with the grid to give me hot spot. How halo? Right on her face and chest area. And you can kind of ...

see it here on the on the background so she standing here. It seemed about here she's good bit taller than me, and we're gonna position that on her face first and split lighting here on the side to eliminate the sides of her body. The idea is we see, wow, look at her body well, look at her legs but not while look at that light, so I've got it starting at that position, since we don't know how white or dark her scan is that's going to show through on the dress, I want to do a test shot, washes here and make that decision there's a hair light behind her scent on his own separate power pack and I have the power set double what the frontline is, it may or may not be enough there's, a grid spot placed in the reflector to help us narrow down the scope of where that light is spreading too it's hard light coming straight out of the er flash tube into the reflector and through that grid so you're basically going to see a spotlight on the back of her head with were soft edges, it'll make everything kind of push forward on the back of her head if she turned sideways it's going to touch your face, you're going to see a little bit of it, so you want to make sure while you're shooting that you're acutely aware that she moves and stays in her spotlight I would use in previous time shooting for play way we'd use focus herbal spotlights and my assistant would actually follow the subject with the spotlight. When I'm shooting by myself, I just have to slow down a little bit and used the grids and just make sure that they're in there. Keep looking keep looking at your images, shoot three or four shots always stop look at your pictures, keep going that way you don't end up with thirty pictures and the models in shade, so one shot check two shots check. See what your poses khun b like how far your limitations are in the move forward. We have a fan from bo and sitting down here on the front because with the drama I thought it would be really cool if her hair like flying in the air. So over here in the corner, we have two places that she could easily work on to get really graphic poses, graphic close graphic light hair and makeup of course, what graphic poses so we talked about earlier about poses you shouldn't do or camera angles you shouldn't do legs khun b apart, only one standing someone's lying flat down on the floor there likes could be apart, but I don't know if that would be the best a strong pose khun b with the feet apart or shifting like this never seated you can sit with the loonies together feet apart I'll work you through some of that so you can see that in action and how you might pose the body the dress is just gonna be really severe and fun so what I'm going for here we could probably find our way through about eight for a stop that we'd like to work with that we would see all the detail in hair normally I would possibly jail the background just a little bit but I'm going to keep it clean and white today so you can just really see that if you want to tone it blue like kind of like I've done with the image in the back there you can make that choice or mormon up a little bit or impossibly black and white I don't know if you guys are doing a lot of black and white, but the graphic ones and the graphic close blacks plastic it's really great done in black and white one of the things I thought would be kind of fun if I wasn't sure I couldn't remember exactly how big the area was there for the stairs in the rail I thought maybe we could take these rim ends and put the ribbons here as something for her toe pot's on it's two dollars prop three dollars prop right and you could even put it across to one side or the other tie it off and have her work on that gives her things to pose in flex her body so when you're doing something like this, this is actually a very cool in expensive option so we're going when she comes out, I'll show you all about that so I have right now I'm using the eighty five but I'm probably going to switch over to the twenty four to one of five and shoot down on the ground to get a little bit more exotic angle there is no ambient light on the sete it'll be just all terrific and pointed right straight into that corner all right, wonderful. Paul so the host had the cool lines on the back like show the back of the hose terrific. So you know, cool things to think about that when I get ho's body stocking things like play up from leg avenue I don't know if you're familiar with that company they do not sell online but they distribute through all different companies but you can even find they have a body stocking that actually kind of even looks like this I bought a fish net lace talking to take with me to italy it was ten dollars so you don't you can get some really killer impact without spending a lot of money I believe this outfit came from fredericks well in those lines are gonna be right back in the corner I'm gonna be right here in this corner to start and I was talking about really graphic poses with them let me adjust my light here for your face so your expressions are going to be really strong, severe and have squinty eyes when she just couldn't work in that corner to start with and don't even worry about the rail so much stay right and keep your back right in the dead center there and then really curve your legs over keep your feet together and do your cross one day in front of the other roll it over like that beautiful country foot out a little bit more lean your hips back into the corner everybody out that's great all right so I'm making some little adjustments here to get the sidelight right where we'd like it beautiful not quite touching her face eliminating the light on the background pull it forward get it off the wall can you straighten that out for me? Just don't let it tip pastor shoulder all right, clear me there. All right. Awesome. So trying to let your fingers curve around the edge of the wall and you want to come over and run the fan for me one if you want to come down around the fan beautiful so there's a hair light behind her and what I usually do to help baffle or flag that light from hitting me strain and the lens is I moved back and let my beauty dish flag it for me so I'm going to start with just from the knee app, right? Beautiful so our readings here s o one sixty good work it sixty of the second should be somewhere around five six c one test starts to play beautiful face you have you taken a reading this game so far beautiful so I'm gonna go ahead and just shoot just a little bit so for me I think we're kind of sitting pretty here we have nice texture and on the side of the dress weaken see smooth skin on her legs on both sides the shadow that we see following on the front of her legs that's what's helping give her legs mohr fitness and shape and form I still think the spotlight looks like it's landing right on her chest so I'm going to tweet that up too right here. In some cases, if I was shooting somebody that was a larger scale subject, I might use a different beauty to a smaller reflector with a smaller grid so that spot like just lands right here and doesn't scale so far down the body that's perfect you guys, if you can completely close that off, that'd be great slide it down just a little bit a couple more inches this way so when I'm talking about when I have somebody helping me and I'm giving directions on the set this's something you might not know from a professional standpoint that you say into the set or out of the set on set center to set camera left camera right if you want to speak with directions to the rest of your crew but the subject I turned everything around just for them because they may or may not be used to being on a set like this so I speak completely directed um straight as what I'm looking for here I'm gonna move this up just one spot there we get and I think I might pop the light up a little bit can you not get up maybe a tenth or two to stop beautiful alright so great fun great keep your head right around toward the camera keep your eyes very squinted beautiful what you lean toward me really at the hip beautiful keep your mouth closed for me beautiful awesome don't you lean over into this rail maybe put your arm around this rail here this one on the left on your right that's nice really kick your hip out a little further that's great maybe put your hand flat lay on your hip your fingers pointing down that's beautiful holding again beautiful awesome tune your chest around toward me like a barbie doll at the waist beautiful awesome take on let's see what we have there beautiful. All right, so the neat thing about this is she couldn't stay steady so very easily now that the hair light is here, so turn your back to the wall now. Beautiful. Awesome! All right, nicole, would you mind making sure the spotlights right on her face for me? I would keep it flat along the wall. Beautiful. Also. It's beautiful. All right, now stand straight onto the camera with your feet very strong that apart. Great. Shift your hips like this to the wall. Exaggerated a little bit more. More, more, more between heads. Trade into the spotlight straight above eyes at me. Beautiful, awesome. And the lovely thing about working with this open set like this so you have to do if you want to shoot a beauty shot is just jump straight in there's no limitations turn that fan on. So it's actually doing something really blow it hard. Roll your shoulders forward that was actually beautiful. Not too far. Drop your forehead toward me and chan down good squint your eyes tip your head this way a little bit beautiful. Awesome. So we remember earlier when I showed you the set that had split light on each side with an umbrella closed, if you are a place where you don't have a beauty dish, you can still put a stroke up and put a half open umbrella and at least funnel a little bit of spotlight right onto the face. If that's all you're working with in the beginning and you can at least illuminate just this part of the face and make it come forward. So when I would set this up from scratch, the face usually comes up about three tenths of a stop that's enough to make it chlo and also flatten out all the texture on the face. All right, so, do you want to try some things with this ribbon? Right? So would you mind switching upto twenty four to seventy for me? All right, so what I was thinking about doing here s double it up so you can use it to kind of try to keep your body position here. So you're in the spotlight. Get in a little closer. So beautiful. Keep it close to your body, might even pull it behind that's. Great. Reach up a little closer and pulling in a little tighter. I'm actually going to go all the way down to the ground here. Is that all right with everybody so I can shoot full length of her? Beautiful turn your head right into the big beauty dish spotlight eyes at me beautiful when you head turning up as high as possible so the hair's flying and then watch what you're doing with your beautiful can you stretch out your left foot toward the light a little bit good push your hips all way over to the wall awesome great turn you head right into the light your hand here you need to bend your elbow so it's nice and soft that's great beautiful turn your head into the light a little more eyes at me beautiful it's really pretty you guy's shoulders down long neck elbows out beautiful head straight at me with your shoulders down long neck beautiful head back around this way a little bit awesome isak may chin down for head toward me again beautiful awesome let's turn your chest a little bit of ways this way put your back toward the thatwe alright let's maybe that's pretty what you just did there naturally but let your hand on your chest here like that beautiful kick your hip right against the wall beautiful hold it beautiful so I'm probably gonna hand you this could get out thank you so when I shoot like this and I drop down to the ground like that it's all about putting all the emphasis on her legs you just want to make sure the back stays to the light on the hair but the side light you can see how it's just barely reaming down the edge of her leg like that this your split light here with your exposure set one toe one if you wanted teo make this glow even more you could still come up even a little further and as I'm shooting I might make that decision go back to shoot some more shots until I get that magic picture I'm looking for once in a while I'll add yet another light can we have one more stroke with a reflector and the small grid right out here in the front? So what I'm going to do now is just to show you how you could easily use grids to make beauty shot it's like who would think that we automatically go to these big umbrellas and big soft boxes but when you have that opportunity to bring light back in the face it doesn't need to touch this this looks great, right? So can we see maybe a couple of the shots up on the on the board at once so I can kind of talk about what I was thinking as I was shooting so this one lovely um her face is glowing she's beautiful nice shadows underneath the hip they're her hands are nice and soft and fingers you're relaxed the curves are showing emotion is a straight body because she's exaggerating her shifts a little more than normal um here we have a nice body, but it's not as pretty as it probably could be if she were to exaggerate it to here. So the hip really has to push out to the most in the uncomfortable place to really get it to show on a straighter hit girl. Everybody wants to be curvy, so here and this is all about the elbow. So this flattens out of bed looking at the front of the outfit. So this outfit has all the cool things that I think make a course that have structure in the body, and all those lines also give the illusion of shape and form, which makes it a great outfit, sexy, but doesn't really show too much. The lower the angle, the stronger the light. Here I'm getting a little hit from the hair light so we popped her around more facing the front. So let's, jump in. This is a really pretty angle here, too, as well. Let's, jump in and shoot a few beauty shots. How you doing? Bring it right underneath this one. You let go the ribbon, just sit right here. We're gonna study it in one. Set it at one point. Two. So the cool thing about these heads as you khun, set them in full stops or intensive stops, so as I was saying, maybe just a little pop of life and her face would be nice if I could just tip it up two tenths of stop three tenths of this job if the person's face structure is flat and their eyes are too deep set, you can come up even a third of stop higher than the main line if you can't the kitchen down looking into it that life that it will bring you really put a romantic sexy look there, so we're going to take this shot and come in that position I work on that so what ideo and every shoot is I'll try to find the magic picture where their body and their face looks really great love the legs here loved the whole mood of it she's got she's making a statement with the ribbon, the light's nice and even let's put a little kick right in your face and see what happens have that so you don't have to worry about the ribbons but let's put your back flat against the wall. I need the camera please would you like that? I can tell us about this one more like that, you're adding what what you looking do with it? Put life in the eyes remember how I said from the beginning your connection is the eyes if the eyes are dark, which they're not totally dark there even if you put two tenths of a stop in there three times his top up light from the bottom, suddenly the face is going to go. Wow, so just that little tiny bit I was using a site. Call it so like let's get into a really dramatic pose there. Uh, really? Drop your hips out to the side. They're beautiful. All right, beautiful. Look right at me. Good squinted eyes. Beautiful women is remember your forehead toward me and around squinted eyes beautiful. Alright, relax for just two set. Turn the fan back off. So can you guys see the difference in the face there? Alright, let's, can we see that three or four of those in a row now suddenly her eyes have color so I think we should go back here and just shoot a few even look what's happening to the dress there's a little more life in texture in the dress from underneath the bottom of the dress a swell is what's going on in her face so I'm going to continue on it's. Really? Pretty. So I'm going to turn a little bit here so I can flag myself. Beautiful. Good exaggerate everything a little more intention in your eyes beautiful, awesome turn straight around toward me now good really keep your hip out bring your forehead toward me a little more beautiful chin down for head this way great beautiful again chin down a little bit awesome all right you can relax for a moment so basically guess what we just did clam shells with bridge grid on we're going to do the same thing when we pop over here even with the lights so it will be fun for you to see the subtle differences that you can do with just little spots of light so I think that will do it for me so when I was shooting for playboy what we would try to do is find that magic light and then we would start expanding on that I would start out with every day I would shoot on average three to four setups so like we were now on set number three and it would take me about a cz long is what we're doing right now in this environment and I worse we've been here to achieve the four to five shots I would shoot twenty rolls of film of twenty thirty six exposure in one day how many pictures of that so that's a lot every shoot the first role was beauty then it dropped to three quarter fully closed just beautiful photography on the same sets then we would start to lose a strap that we would lose a jacket and I hardly ever shot anyone completely nude just because it's about the invitation in your shooting clamor boudoir, you don't really want to go there until out of that alighting environment, then in tow. Art I save my news for the art stuff, so that being said, that gives you a little somewhere you can go with your thought process, keep it all in that parameter, and even for men, it keeps everything a little safer for you don't have to worry what other people think, that kind of thing. So once I find the magic picture that's when the work would begin and it would take me sometimes thirty minutes just to get anything approved listening to what somebody else's opinions were with the style in the graphics after I shot the head shot three quarter in the full length, then I would have to shoot horizontal, same kind of concept, lying down, lying on the tommy, crawling, lying on the back arched, sitting up, falling off the chair, lying onto the carpet, rolling, then lying down from a high angle usually s o I was up on scalp filling up on a ladder, shooting back down once I would get the light into the sweet spot, so don't make any questions about any of that I was wondering if you ever use your speed lights to trigger studios. If you mix, I have that's a good question. That's. A very good question, it's. Like if I only had three or four lights in the beginning, I might use my speed light to set those off. Yes, and I have, and I've also worked the opposite way and you speed likes to help me light a background if I was in a really dark environment and I needed light way off in the background, sometimes I would choose to shoot somebody standing, and I'd be lying on the floor and then have a hallway or something behind them, and they wouldn't be enough drama in the hallway, so I would create my own with the additional speed, like way down the hall with different jails and things on them like that. So it is a good idea. Toe work back and forth that or at least know how you can, um, if you think that's going to be something, you're going to be into its easier, obviously, to set it up and keep it consistent unless you have you pocket wizards and things like that.