by Rolando Gomez
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It’s you and her, a passion-filled, fun-loving couple. You’ve just celebrated your most recent anniversary by exchanging gifts—she bought you that digital camera you had your heart set on, and you bought her a sexy, black, t-back teddy she didn't ask for. Now you're dying to take some sexy photographs of her (without making her think you belong on the "Man Show" with a disposable camera).
You have one problem. Although your sunset snapshots of the Grand Canyon looked "just great," you're not a professional photographer. Your lady may be sexy and sensual, but this is not the Grand Canyon and it’s absolutely possible to make a beautiful woman look terrible in photographs if you don't know what you're doing. Do that--and you're toast (and you won't get a second chance either)!
As a professional photographer for 23 years, photographing beautiful models and women I’ve met in my life, I fully understand the secret desire most men have to take some seriously, sexy and sensuous photographs of their wives and girlfriends.
So were do you start? What do you do? They didn't teach this in Art 101 in college. Besides, you were a freshman and the class was mandatory so you slept halfway through it. Relax, I'm here to save the day, and maybe even add more spice into that relationship (or perhaps get some new blood pumping through a lackluster one)!
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In fact, establishing the "rapport" is even more difficult because she knows you so well you’ll have to start by letting her know how you feel about boudoir photography. Let her know it's not "cheesecake" to you--it’s her essence you’ll be capturing for both of you to cherish over time.
Your goal is to capture her beauty, to capture it for all time, as only a photograph can do. Tell her it would be a crime to not record how beautiful she is right now. And that there would be nothing worse than to wish 20 years from now that the images had been made! Twenty years from now it just may be "too late."
Let her know that your desire is to capture her inner beauty with her physical beauty. Your goal is to maximize her confidence in you and herself. She has to feel good about herself during the photo session, otherwise her facial expressions will not harmonize on film or those digital storage devices.
Understand, it is difficult for most women to pose scantily-clad in front of a camera. Today however you can reassure her that the images will be private, as with your digital camera, computer and home printer, those images never have to leave the home. Sure, you've suggested this before, and she's often responded that she could look as good as those Victoria Secret models. So now it’s do or die.
Second, treat her like a lady, offer her a box of Godiva chocolates and a glass of Merlot to calm the nerves a bit. Communicate your thoughts, but don’t try to solve her problems, just listen and reinforce her beauty in a subtle tone with choice words while shooting, keeping calm and cool mixed with a little bit of photographic passion. Remember the origin of the word rapport from early times was defined as the “relationship created between a hypnotist and those hypnotized.” The swinging watch is in your hands, but she wants to experience and feel the uplifting of her soul and self-esteem, not to “not remember a thing” when she wakes-up.
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She feels the comfort created by this new experience because you’ve selected a long, focal-length lens, from 85mm to 105mm for your 35mm camera, which allows more distance between you and her, and she can’t really see you because you’re shooting with the light source behind you and the bed she’s softly laying on is located in a dimly-lit room, almost if though she’s sitting in the path of a stage spotlight.
Longer lenses provide what I call the three “C’s” of shooting, compression for the background, nice tight composition, and comfort distance between you and the subject, not normally found in lenses that come as “standard” for most cameras.
Digital cameras today come with built-in flash, but if yours didn’t, don’t sweat it, all you need is one light source, which can be diffused window light if shooting during the day, or with the latitude of exposure that digital cameras offer over film, light from a table lamp with the lamp shade removed and off to the side will work, just set your camera to “auto white-balance,” to compensate for the color of the lamp. If you’re really serious, buy a small light kit from your local photo store, many like Dyna-Lite are inexpensive, but a good value and come digital ready.
Have her pose across the bed, and stay parallel to her to prevent distortion while keeping the main light slightly above her and around 45-degrees to the left or right of her face. Never shoot up, as people don’t like to look at nostrils, shoot level or slightly from above, and vary your shots from horizontal to vertical. Verticals are more powerful than horizontals, though she may be lying down, get close and shoot that “headshot” then move back, turn the camera and shoot a full-length horizontal.
When you combine the atmosphere of great lighting, and the sound of the shutter releasing she’ll feel safe, comfortable and confident in her looks as well as your photographic abilities. Along the way explain to her your rationale in posing and composing each image—get her involved in the process and make her aware of the angles, focus, close-ups and never leave her guessing about your intentions.
Always keep in mind that the shoot is never about the photographer. Try not to bring up the negative aspects of her life – always accentuate the positive. “Hold that pose…beautiful…perfect…” As a model once said to me, there’s a fine line between positive reinforcement and being condescending. “I was always reminded that I was beautiful, but it never came across as being insincere or as a ploy. It was never so much a physical thing as it was about capturing a mood, an expression or what I was feeling inside. I never felt like a model posing to capture a look. It was more about capturing my feelings at the moment.”
When it’s all said and done, your images should be cropped tight with your subject’s eyes sharp and her complexion softened by using a black scarf in front of your lens to diffuse the light source and to produce soft skin tones.
If you’d like to compare your abilities to mine or other professional photographers, go to Zuga.net, there you’ll actually see me and other professionals in the act of shooting along with the actual results in articles and full-motion video.
Your images should reflect detail in the shadows and highlights, but most important show the harmony of the corners of her eyes with the corners of her lips—a smile—much like the portrait hanging at the Musee du Louvre, in Paris of Francesco del Giocondo’s wife, Mona Lisa.
There should be subtle hints of the four-S’s found in glamour and beauty photography, sexiness, seductiveness, sultriness, and sensuousness. The images should be edited down to one or three, regardless of how many were originally taken, as most professional photographers usually “burn film” to get “those” images that count, whereas the serious prosumer will take pictures to get to photographs, and it’s those photographs that will make the difference for both you and her and provide a piece of thread in the rope of life that you both will passionately enjoy over time.
©2004 Rolando Gomez
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