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Fashion Boudoir

Lesson 8 from: Fashion Flair for Photographers

Lindsay Adler

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Lesson Info

8. Fashion Boudoir

Next Lesson: Photographing Men

Lesson Info

Fashion Boudoir

The last shot that we're going to do for right now is going to be a vintage boudoir shoot, so I'm actually taking it completely out of the realm of boudoir and doing fashion with a boudoir shoot so most of time I love you, I don't do what you are, but I see pictures where you know it's the girls on the bed and the narrow really shallow depth of field and you see kind of heels in the background and all that stuff I don't shoot that I think it's beautiful, but this is how I would shoot something a little different it's not going to be all sexy. I also find it easier for me because I think I should put these photos on facebook. I can use it for social marketing, so maybe I would shoo if I revert to our photographer, maybe you do a shot like this and then kind of switch over and do more disproved something like this. So this right here is how I would do a kind of a fashion boudoir vs a typical way to our session there's requires styling, so we brought inspiration for when you put the shoot...

together I went online and I searched vintage hair and I brought up a whole bunch of different pictures and I printed it out and said to my hair stylist, I want vintage hair and then I said I don't know what vintage makeup is but I bet you do so I'm gonna trust you to do that and then I went and looked for vintage lingerie um and so this was rented from a vintage shop borrowed from a vintage shop and so you're just piecing together a shoot points the other personally I'd love to shoot this on location someplace is there someplace that's just has that vintage feel because then you can do ah lot of natural light and hands imposing cute in car whatever it may be but we're going to do in the studio because like I said, I live in new york so half the time yes studio I think if I had a choice I might even shoot it maybe I'm kind of a peachy background something kind of peach because then it would be that nice tone right now I think I'm going to shoot it on gray we don't have grace I'm just going to talk about kind of how I would do that um so any questions should address the forget started? You guys look good okay, so what? I'm going to dio as I'm just going to get started basically, um and what I'm remembering or what I think is vintage boudoir has lots of curves and lots of sass to it s so that's what I want too and she's she's great at that I love her hair as well. So so cool it's really cool sort of lift those on that'll be perfect I am not going to let the background yet I'm going to show a couple of differences so I'm gonna bring you up here and I'm just going to show you what it looks like give me papa that hip perfect see? Okay, so yes, she knows what she's doing, but what I would normally do is I would bring pictures of pinup pinup shoots put them out and say I like this pose let's try to get this on I would pay attention to the hips and just analyzing saying so could switch your weight and see which way does this make the hit pop out better or does this okay put your hand of a little higher test things out it's okay, the more that I practice, the better. So I'm just going to show you what this background looks like. It's just this. Okay. All right, so I'm at I so one hundred one one twenty fifth of a second and I'm going to test what actually need to have this at for an exposure perfect hopes not perfect let's fix that again shed again okay, great, so so if you look at this background which is white when it pops up there it is not white um it is kind of this kind of a great tone I like um a tone like that because I actually might change it in photo shop like I said if I could I'd probably go with a little bit of a color kind of like the outfit she has on or something peachy cause I feel like that would kind of bring out her skin tones um a couple of things that I'm looking at this shot notice how this feels kind of organic you know what I'm saying it feels like a little more natural if I wanted to be more pinup what you do is you can add some more highlights so I can add a highlight from the background on either side so things that I look at that I don't like I don't like the highlight arming the shadow that I see in the bottom of the frame um so okay, the question is how do you get rid of that? So one thing that you have is you can move it kind of off access so the shadows cast out of the frame so instead of having a kind of down and straight back where I see the shadow I could bring the light lower or left and right so we're going to give that a try you look very lovely okay? So I'm gonna have you just bring it uh may be over that way a little um one of the things I'll tell the subjects to when I'm posing somebody is people don't know and so if you get them excited and you finally get them to pose which sometimes happens sometimes you get your subject suppose what does have to do is start posing and forgetting what they don't know where the light is so I always tell people okay, what I want you to do if I'm getting them into and getting excited as it always keep your head this direction because that's where the light looks good on your face and then I'll also say like you guys ever do the jumping shots I'll tell them ok when you jump I want you to land in this area because otherwise you get people excited might have been the perfect job for the perfect expression but it's not the right light yes so you can do a couple things um if you think the highlights on the chest um a couple of things you can do is right now that is pointed straight at her chest you could do a little bit of an angling so it's not the straight reflection back and forth you can use a gobo which means you can take could take a piece of black fabric actually make things called flags that you can put in and out they kind of look like for me I think they look like black stockings stretched over a frame and you could do it with black shocking such over a frame on the other thing, too, is the picture is a little bit hot. Um in general, so if I don't kind of bump it down a little bit closed down, it'll be a little bit darker. All right? So we're gonna try that first and anybody that way, and I'm going to switch my lens to a longer lens just because I want to find out, give her a little space right now, I feel like I'm a little close. I mean, if somebody's in laundry, you don't want to be too close is, in my opinion, so I try to give them a little bit of space, all right? Perfect. Awesome. And was going back up here. Good, right? So one of the things that I like to d'oh okay, I'll show you something. How she's posed here. Um, people tend will often times kind of stand with their legs, like kind of spread open or just together. And for me, that looks really wide open or together. So I all the time have people cross their legs so that once in front of the other, and what it does is it does kind of curve and then brings it to a point. So a lot of times if I have somebody kind of cross your legs one in front the other I'll cut it off at the knees because that's what it does it does this shape for me and the cuts it off so it just kind of flows my eye through the picture and then I don't want it I'll cut it off there is you know it was cut off at the knees member in traditional portrait I don't really care because for me it's a nice exit point because I don't want to see the legs all the way down when it's one in front of the other because it looks just kind of like a stop it was like a straight leg s o do something like that so I'm going tohave you give me a little bit more curve kind of pop your butt out just a little more good perfect that's that good and I want to put your weight on your back foot instead and just kind of be comfortable good and put your hand like you're looking and put your hands out of opens the light kind of down like that good perfect and so all of the poses she's doing all of these kind of poses that she hasn't gonna switch the light in a sec uh I'm having her do curves and again I'm trying to avoid like even legs kind of even wait on the feet um, I'm trying to have a pop things out. I'm trying to maybe tell a little bit of a story like maybe she's looking for something. So when have you do do this for a second kind of pop hip way out on dh? Okay, so if you're a dude, maybe you don't want to do that, but you can like I direct him all about directing, but that's, why I bring I bring shots good just like that. Good. All right, so I'm gonna switch the light up a little bit. Um, so in this instance, you'll see kind of doing a little bit of storytelling. Um, I'm going to add a highlight now, so you can kind of see the difference. So this is the, like organic shot ish. Um, can I have a highlight from the back, right? Yes. And I want to do one more thing for storytelling, so I'm going to go grab a prop. Can I step off stage? We had enough money to do that. That's what? I wanted someone with someone loves me. Lindsay, can I ask you a quick question? Yeah. Marcus anthony would like to know the power on the beauty dish right now, okay, so here's, let me let me address this part of the reason okay so when you're teaching what I can tell you as far as power that actually is applicable to everybody is roughly the f stop it stop it that because if you read the power on the packs every pack will mean something totally different if you look at a photogenic the number on the back means something different than if it on the number lebron color on pro photo it's all different eso right now the pack is powered about half eleven um so if I'm looking at eleven we're going to put this light in the back for me probably around f sixteen something like that maybe a stop over so it's kind of a nice crisp I light so that's kind of what I can tell you as faras exposures in the power's on the path okay um so I bought these on amazon um for thirty dollars in the very cute and so I'm thinking for posing if you give somebody if you have a client something that can interact with it gives them something a little more comfortable than again I was having her pose in front of a background again that's kind of uncomfortable because somebody a prop prop makes it much easier so the big things you're looking for is if I give her this prop soft hands you give people things to hold they like hold onto it for dear life s o I'm always telling people you're barely holding it you're just kind of softly holding it, posing, so get this to thank you. Okay, so when oppose it behind her, I have a light which is going to for me if I'm looking at the shots, going to kind of carve out the curves is going to illuminate the parasol, so I'll give it a try and take a look and see how it works for this shot. Good cross your leg in front of the other again perfect and lean your chest forward this with just a little great perfect just like that and your eyes at me just a little perfect good and so if you look, look at the difference between the highlight and not a highlight so it's a different feel this for me feels a little more produced versus the last one. What I might do is add like a vintage preset to it, so look really kind of maybe like she was like the bleach bypass, I think that comes with light room now I might add, like a bleach bypass kind of feel to it or something, but for here it gives her separation from the background but also emphasizes the curves, and it makes that parasol pot from the background a couple things that I would notice for posing, uh, when I have her arm back like that since there's no separation between her body and her arm it kind of just extends so I would either have her bring it forward a little bit and do the same thing or bring it back where you can actually see separation you make a decision for one of the other so I shoot a couple of frames that and then pass it off to one of you guys that's why yeah yeah that's cute that's cute so what you gonna do right now? Just give me a little bit and touch your hand real soft down here perfect and put the parasol back a little bit because right then it was kind of looked like it was coming off the top of her head when I told it back it's framing her head instead of popping out from over her head persons good right? And now is something I would change is well pop out that elbow on that hand and maybe a little lower let's see? And so what I'm looking for is where that arm looks natural something like that so I'm gonna have you yeah just like that is cute perfect that I got was good, good, good all right and I'm going to shoot a little closer good stuff hand good nice to see both of these shots and I think they look really cute really cool um and again I would probably messed with a color so I think that's really pretty and so again like look how the legs because they haven't crossed one in front of the other versus kind of one more shot where you don't cross them just kind of have your legs even end up with the parasol behind good so if I shoot like this take a look um compared to the shop where her legs were crossed um if you okay facing forward you totally lose all the shape um I'm gonna have you hold one just like that I'm going to shoot a top framed just like that so all right let's pay attention now for every shoot that ideo I get a full length shot a middling shot close up because you never know what people like sometimes you feel like I can't do a close up of my own face they can't do with super close up because have people like that they just can't do really close up to see the difference between the legs crossed and kind of the body turned its the same general frame um but I'm gonna do my close up now just like that perfect and look great me good and when I look at this I already see something I don't like you'll see for lighting a question from hey jude lindsay was who's from ohio why did you ask the model to squint okay, so the thing about asking the model to squint is when I had her looking like this especially this is boudoir I have her looking at me it's okay paid attention to different swing me looking at the camera and squinting like looks like I'm thinking about you know, I've been like that for boudoir you don't want just to be kind of like I'm looking at the camera you want there to be emotion, especially for vintage it's kind of storytelling um I will tell you in general I hate armpits just in general as a heads up so I generally try to avoid armpits so might have you do the same thing but maybe with like a hand down or if you haven't hand up it's kind of down like this like I just can't do with armpits so I'm sure you're interested just lovely um I just I'm just saying, um and and how about when you have to retouch them retouching armpits, socks? Okay, that was cute that's cute and extra kick about just a little bit more perfect, okay, just like that that didn't fire helen looking great. All right, so and look eyes at me right there aren't ford a little more so right now I was looking so I could get a little more curve because again when she brought her arm back it was it went from kind of here when it was ford I can actually see the curve before it was blocking the curve in the back. Um that was kind of in between shots misfired. Who wants tio? Come take a couple shots did you want to shoot? Try a couple. I don't just have a few minutes before for brazier, so I'll just have a shoot that in rapid eye so I shoot all different do you guys mind putting up like a close up or let me do shoot one close up a medium in a fire shot and we put them behind your head for one more good news, human close it just like that. Perfect. Okay, you see here's a close up, see if they can put up a medium close and far and then go ahead. Jennifer, you can come direct away so like, it would be different thing although that's not the one I liked for the shot, but it's okay, I still like angle perfect about can I have you, like, roll your eyes like, whoa, yeah, is this to you but it's, bud's. Whatever you want, though it depends on what you're then purpose of your shooters, ok, and then think says, can I have you? I want your little booty pop they got perfect so she said I will tell you she shoots but you are a lot more than I do so like for me I just bring inspiration but she actually and this is for me for fashion a lot for fashion I daren't bring inspiration anymore I still dio what I've done it a lot I know what a good fashion poses like there's always this hard a couple poses that are so two for me and I tell them kind of how to do it and where to put their head but I don't shoot but you are a lot so it's one of the things the more you do it the more you become from with good starting poses and then you work with the subject can I have you dropped the carousel and then turned towards the light and then hand back like this and go yeah talking head towards light yeah and you might have to use faras the backgrounds for shooting like this and it's not a sweep you have to back up and get lower in order to not get the background in the shot like straight more steak fingers so for her it's clear that what she is going for is a lot more personality kind of pin up versace for me I was going just for a little more like and what I think it unplugged one sorry I'm not used to shooting tether no it's cool so we're just going toe is gonna make sure it doesn't. Okay, you have two there, okay? So just make sure doesn't pop out um, but for me, like, if you look okay let's answer opposing you keep shooting um, a fashion posing question if you look at a lot of my fashion shots, they're like, um I'm just going to answer why? Because I always get that question is going to preempt it. The reason I have a lot of those shots she's capturing in these shots, personality and emotion, that's the opposite of what I'm trying to do when it's fashion I don't want you to connect with those people as individuals I want them to be ah hanger for the clothes or a vessel for communicating a mood as soon as you see them like that and I think that's really, really cute as soon as you see them like that as a person, you're wondering what are they thinking? Who are that? You were asking questions? I don't want you to care about that person at all. I wanted to be all about the clothing. Yeah, so for me, it's a lot different here, it's a lot more about her personality and take a look, ok, so I want a foot through real quick and just say, like, I like this last one to see that pops up and I think those kind of poses are really good for a majority of these slipping through my critique if I'm looking like that last one I like that highlight on her job there um I think that's very feminine I like the highlight kind of on the hip I still would have turned her body a little bit more to her right to pop up the hip you emphasize that curve in the back a little bit more but again if you're shooting a lot for personality you could capture that but flipping back through um a majority of what I would say when she didn't shoot that much e shoot a lot um a majority what I would say it's still just kind of watching out for a few mergers there were a couple murders but there's more about personality let me get one more personality shot so like get this and then legs cross in front of me she won without that on do it again with you the difference guys on cross your legs tell you were before okay ready cannot cross again and then pop your hip out pop you butt out good okay, so the difference between the two um and then I can take question and wrap that if you want let's see the difference between these two so you'll see again how it affects the curves so for me, a lot of times, it's literally putting one leg in front, the other so it takes it so it's the hips leading to the lines and then, you know, kind of popping up. But this is kind of I never should shoot that much personality unless it's a portrait if it's fashion she's standing there like this kind of maybe squinting your eyes a little so I approach it differently, so all right. Uh, one quick question. Any in the audience answer like that commercial, ellen, when she's like quiting models always look so mad. Yes, yes, exactly why tomatoes always look so mad. Why is that your, um, your your style when you say you don't shoot and show personality, is that part of your style, then? Because, I mean yeah, for me that's more style a person that I introduced jennifer to that I think you guys would love if you love pinup and personality, check out ellen von on worth, which is like, yes, just fun on earth. We'll link it. Yes, way pride people linked to that somewhere. Okay, well, I will give them a link. And so that could be up tomorrow or be up on the same page. Oh, she is a very high end fashion photographer I love her work a ton of vintage ton of nineteen fifties style shoots in an earlier and it's all about personality and fun and it's like it plays on sexuality without being too sexually she's awesome and amazing and I don't do anything like her and still fashion s o the term of what his fashion is really, really broad on dso for me, probably for most of you, when you're shooting, you'd probably want to include personality if you can't it's going to help sell better, that picture is so sarah that I mean, that is what sierra's like that's her name, by the way, so that you know that is so exactly what she's like. Whereas you know, for me I would probably do another like I do something really soft and a really tight close up for me that would be maybe selling the hairstyle or I'm kind of introducing lingerie and the next shot you don't see her face it's all about the curves it's all about for me, it's totally different than what it used to be. Well, I do fashion flare sessions before my models are always serious and sad and pissed off a lot of times they're happy and they're laughing and they're interacting so it's it's the end goal that you're trying to achieve

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Fashion Flair Slides.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

John Yee
 

I have watched at least half a dozen Creative Live courses and this was definitely one of the most interesting and informative of them. Lindsay showed her wealth of knowledge in lighting, posing, post processing and marketing. I was truly impressed with her level of comfort in each field. She tackled different situations and questions with ease. I really liked the course layout as well. She shot her own themed shoots and explained them. Then she helped each student with their own very different styled shoots. It looked like a lot of fun and a great way to learn too. Then at the end Lindsay had a fun little light painting session. WELL DONE LINDSAY AND CREATIVE LIVE!!! ;-)

Allan Burch
 

I'm an artist and amateur photographer who has long been interested in the subject of fashion photography and how to incorporate it into my art. Lindsay impressed me with her depth of knowledge and her comprehensive and selfless method of presentation. Showing before and afters to illustrate technical differences was particularly helpful to me, as was seeing her explain the importance of concept and story. Posing, glowing skin, and lens flare techniques were also a treat to witness and learn from her. Her passion for the subject is tangible, and left me more excited about the potential for my own work. The sheer volume of information Lindsay shares in this workshop is tremendous, from idea to the shoot to post-production, and certainly worth the investment I made in my career. Thanks to Lindsay and thanks to Creative Live.

Darci
 

I thought Lindsay was totally amazing:) She has inspired me. I want to attend more of her workshops. She was a great teacher. I want to learn more from her. I would love to attend one of her intensives, but I will have to wait til next year:( I am just starting out and she has given me many ideas. I cannot say enough good about her. I would love to see Lindsay back:)

Student Work

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