- 1. Choose correct type of lighting
- 2. Avoid sophisticated locations and too many decorations
- 3. Cooperate with a model on glamour photography
- 4. Play with various postures and appropriate makeup
- 5. Prepare all accessories in advance to get everything in order
- How to shoot glamour photography
The art of photography is developing very rapidly and has many areas: portrait, wedding, fashion, glamour, and others. Fashion and glamour photography seem to be the same at first glance, but if you look at it closely, then you will understand the fundamental difference. Mostly it is about the subject of shooting: the subject of fashion photography is clothing, while in glam photo shooting it is the importance of the model that makes the difference. There are many different styles, representing this industry: a portfolio of models, photos for annual calendars, sensual photoshoots, or pics for personal profiles. Whatever your purpose is for filming, a glamour photo editor is always a great assistant.
Luxurious entourage, elegant image, perfect makeup, and other details become an integral part of glamorous photography. Also shooting with a glamour technique, the model itself is very important, it must have a good body shape and curves, pleasant look, and at least basic skills in posing. Combine this with a properly exposed light and a well-designed exposure, and your glamours pics will be doomed to success.
In this article we will discuss main aspects to enhance images: technical subtleties and locations, working with models, poses and further processing of shots.
1. Choose correct type of lighting
First of all, you will need a full-format camera with a good matrix. A high-quality portrait lens should be mounted on your camera. The next key point of shooting is light or, using the language of professionals, exposure. The wrong type of lighting will turn your best shot into a dull, blurred gallery of images. There are many ways to lighten your photo: from the simplest minimal to using several special light sources, reflectors and white backgrounds. This does not mean that good photos are obtained only in a professional studio with a bunch of cool equipment. Excellent shots can be obtained outdoors on the street, choosing the right location and time of shooting.
2. Avoid sophisticated locations and too many decorations
For each photoshoot, there is a perfect location, which you should take care of in advance. When choosing a place to shoot, you must consider its relevance to the theme and style of shooting. You also need to make sure that your location has correct lighting, in some cases, you will have to bring your own light sources so that the shooting will not be spoiled. And again do not think that best glamour modeling photos are available only indoors. Beautiful shots can be made on the ocean beach, in the garden, even in old buildings, if this fits your plot.
Remember: details decorate the image. Rent a beautiful car with a leather interior or rent a beautiful room in a good hotel, a luxurious snow-white yacht or other props. Entourage is very important in understanding what is glamour photography. If you have a small budget, then you can do without expensive interiors and arrange shooting some portraits in a studio or at home. Add to the frame a chic vintage chair or a beautifully decorated table, expensive champagne, a gorgeous bouquet, and your picture will look more expensive.
3. Cooperate with a model on glamour photography
We now come back to the model of your shooting. If you work with professional models, it will be easy. They know a lot of different poses and their correct angles. When posing it is necessary to start with five basic postures and then work towards others. If your model is not familiar with best poses, she will need help by telling how to stand and what pictures you want to get. It is very important that you find a common language, and you feel comfortable working together. Sometimes people who are not professional models are frozen in the frame and all photos turn out to be artificial and too staged. Your task is to establish contact: the model should be open and ready to communicate with you. Cooperation between photographer and a model makes 80 % of success. Suggest favorable angles, joke and amuse your model. So your cooperation will be funny and successful, which will necessarily affect both the quality of photos and shooting itself.
4. Play with various postures and appropriate makeup
Clothing and makeup of models are of great importance in the photoshoot with such a specific plot. Everything should correspond to the subject of shooting and complement each other. In glamorous photo editing, experts use a wide-angle lens and bright lighting, which means that makeup should be bright with a well-covered tone of the skin (studio lighting and portrait photography require HD quality tonal bases). Too light makeup will be very faded and expressionless in this light. Make-up with too bright points and defiant will look vulgar. The best and most appropriate option would be to invite a professional makeup artist, so your model will have perfect makeup that matches the subject.
5. Prepare all accessories in advance to get everything in order
A glam headshot involves a lot of luxury, so clothes must fully comply with the subject of shooting. If there are no suitable dresses in the wardrobe of the model, then they can always be found in the service of clothes rental, there you can also choose accessories for additional glamour photo effects. The dress should be evening or cocktail, it is best to choose monochromic things, so as not to distract attention by bright prints and intricate patterns. The most widely used option is a flattering dress with a full length to the floor and thin straps or short dresses with sequins, such things are perfect for a glamorous image. It will be better if during the shooting the model changes several different images, so you will get more interesting pictures. Clothing of models can not be crumpled or dirty, except when it reflects the idea of filming. If you are shooting in luxurious interiors of a luxury hotel, then such a detail as a wrinkled dress will immediately catch the eye and this can spoil the frame. Therefore, you need to carefully monitor details: clothes, accessories, styling, makeup and all these elements of the whole image, and if at least one of them does not match, then the whole picture will collapse. Only smart editors will save the situation.
Accessories are matched with the tone and should be ideally combined with clothes of your model. For jewelry photo shots there can be a lot of options used as decoration. It can be beautiful expensive earrings, a luxurious necklace, bracelets, original rings. You can rent jewelry at a jewelry store. You can also replace cheap jewelry with good quality items, to add more charm and chic. But avoid exaggerations: too much jewelry or cheap items will look vulgar and spoil the portrait.For such image heels are required, it will lengthen legs and give the image additional elegance. It can be both classic pumps and sandals with straps, such shoes will accentuate the beauty of the ankle. The main requirement for shoes: it must be combined with a dress and be neat.
How to shoot glamour photography
Before you start shooting, check the light and composition again so that annoying little things like dim lamps, scratches on furniture or untidy clothes do not spoil your shot. Also, check the availability of spare batteries for the camera and whether there is enough space on the memory card. These obvious and simple things can sometimes destroy all your plans and spoil your mood.
After shooting, you will need to process your pics with a graphical more glam editor. Among the great variety, you are free to use the one with help to reduce editing time and efforts. Such software helps to fix the light or exposure, remove unnecessary glare, edit spots on the skin of the model and a lot of different little things that spoil the frame. The main thing here is not to overdo, if you edit too much of everything, it will become very noticeable even for an ordinary viewer. Never remove absolutely all skin irregularities, age spots, wrinkles, because the purpose of retouching is to remove unnecessary details, and not to smooth the model's face to such an extent that it looks unnatural, like a mask. The main task of retouching is to give the face a nice and healthy look or to correct errors of poor lighting in the photo.When adjusting eyes of the model, do not overdo it with white color, it is enough to remove the redness of the eyeball and eliminate excessive veins. You can add thickness to eyelashes, enhance the eyeliner and add contrast. This will highlight the eyes in the image gallery.
The last stage to turn your photo into glamour shot is stylization of the portrait with the help of color correction. It provides a bit of unnatural, but original artistic shades to personalize the light and dark parts of the photo.You can also make a part of black and white options, which give an interesting noble effect. This technique is used if there are too many bright colors in picture galleries.If you are looking for inspiration for glamour photography tips, we advise you to search on the Internet for works of experts, such as George Hurrell, Helmut Newton, Nickolas Muray, Annie Leibovitz, and others. Their books and filming will definitely permit them to create interesting ideas for stunning shots and learn a bit of their skill to pose and process.
Many tutorials learn to use retouching tools correctly without exaggeration. Most often a right glamour photo app will make the difference in editing and creation of new masterpieces. If your camera shoots in its own way, just use retouching secrets to enhance the image. Inspire, learn and practice, who knows, maybe in a few years young photographers will admire your works as well.