Location Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
”Nightclub Shoot with Yvette Nelson” - Story Behind the Picture When working on a shoot for Razor magazine I had cast Yvette Nelson as a background model for a men’s wear spread. She is a fabulous model to work with and I was very happy with the look’s that she gave me in my shots with the guy’s. After the shoot I asked if she would model for some solo shots of her in this black baby-doll dress. We set up a 650-watt light (Tungsten) that we used for the shots with the guys for the magazine. I had Yvette stand near to the bar in the nightclub at the location that we were shooting at and had her give me some poses. Now when you work with a professional model you have to respect that they know what to do. The reason you hired them in the first place was for they look like and what they do in front of the camera. All you need to do is give some direction. Now as for my lighting I wanted to have some of the light that I could see in the club to show up in my images so I had to lower my shutter speed and open up my f-stop to get as much light into the camera as I could for the exposure I was looking for. Now in doing this I was dragging the shutter and this way I could get a bit of a blurry glow off the lights that were in the club and also the light that was coming though...
Location Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
This story is about my advice on shooting post cards and how it worked by helping to get me started in shooting sexy girls and getting my photography and name out there. There is a need for sexy looking girls on postcards and the models are also looking for a way to get published so they could use the cards to send to companies to see about getting their attention. I still get my cards sent to me from people who find them all over the world and I am very flattered that people take their time to do this. The card of Kelly in the USA swimsuit standing under a pier in South Laguna, California is a one-off shot as that pier was washed away in a storm so I can never shoot that view again, as you can see the card company took the background out and used a closeup of the stars from the swimsuit as the background. In the popup you can view the image as I shot it with my camera with the original background still there. The other postcard of the model in the black wetsuit looking swimsuit shot is also under the same pier. The other two cards I shot was under another pier in Newport Beach, California, one of the images I used with tungsten film which gave a blue look, the popup image I have color balanced it for a normal daylight look. The girl with the yellow surfboard is Playboy® Playmate Nikki Zering when she first started out as a model. When shooting new shots I would shoot...
Playboy Playmate, Studio Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
In these shots of Playboy® Playmate Irina Voronina for Maxim online I set up a white backdrop with some silver cards to add some dimension and interest to the shot. The white back drop needed to be white so I had two lights facing the backdrop they would be behind the cards so I would not have any light bouncing back onto the model. You have to keep the lights bright but not to over exposed or you will have some flair that will come back onto the model. I would say the best way is to have them about 1-1/2 stops of light brighter than your front lights. Now with the cards on each side it made for a nice look of depth in the shots. Just have your model stand between them and then light her up with the use of some front light. You can use a ring light or soft box. I would not use round lights or modifiers as they will show up as a hot spot on the cards. So tall softbox would be the hot ticket or as I said I used a ring light. A ring light would that not make a hot spot because its in line with the model and she is stopping the light from showing up as I hot reflection. Now the nice thing about the cards is that they will reflect back light to light up the model from behind so you will not see a shadow, the white backdrop also helps with this as well. Working with a Playboy® Playmate Like Irina will help get...
Playboy Playmate, Studio Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
This Playmate Poster story behind the picture is about coming up with an idea for a Signature poster of the lovely Playboy® Playmate Neriah Davis. I had seen an image of the famous movie star Brigitte Bardot and thought I could use this as a guide for one of my own idea’s something simple and sexy as I was shooting a Playmate. When you shoot for a poster company or for any one that you think will need to make a decision (Pick a shot) of what they think it's best to come up with more than one idea. My first idea was the Brigitte Bardot sitting on the floor topless with black stockings on, Neriah would have to cover her boobs to be able for the poster to be sold to the public. My other idea was to have her against a red backdrop in satin underwear. Each of these shot were going to be in the studio so I would have to come up with similar lighting that would work for each so that I could have them done in a one day shoot. The sitting on the floor shot was with a white backdrop and a nice shinny floor for some reflection as I did not want it to look like she had been cut out and was floating. The Red back drop shot was with a satin cloth draped from a rod across some back-ground stands. This shot was only going to be a ¾ shot so I did not have to do anything about a floor. The lighting was almost the same for...
Location Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
I had met this lovely looking woman at a car wash and talked with her about modeling. She had been approached before but nothing became of it. I informed her of some of the models that I had worked with and knowing of some of the names of the model’s herself she decided to come see me at my studio to talk about a day to go and shoot some images. I had a client that was very interested in some new swimsuit shots for a calendar and so I set a day and time to shoot a sexy swimsuit shot of this fabulous new model. We went down to the Newport Beach, CA pier to shoot early in the morning and the sun was coming from the Left of the image and in order for me to get some softer light we moved to the underside of the pier, the light under the pier is what we call open shade. I had a small silver reflector to add more reflected light on the model from the other side. Now the trick for exposure is open up your f stop by ½ a stop so you expose for the shadow detail. In doing this you might get a bit of a hard highlight on the body with the sun but I think it works. I found that the structure under the pier gave me very hard lines in my background which looked masculine that then gave the curve shapes of the model’s body more femininity. This is a quick way to get a super shot if you don’t use...
Location Photography, Playboy Playmate, The Story Behind the Picture
I had seen this group of buildings and thought I would go there to see if I could use them as a back drop for some fashion shots. So, to get my idea started I went there to scout out the location and take some photos so I could send them to the model and also look at the lighting to see what I would need to take with me on that location. I had in my mind to shoot a model with this sexy black catsuit which I thought would make for a super fashion shoot. I had an e-mail from Playboy® Playmate Carrie Stevens about getting together for a shoot and I thought that she might like to go on location with me for my idea. So, I informed her about this great location I had found and that I also had this fabulous sexy catsuit I would like to shoot her in. Carrie thought it was all good and we set up a date to shoot. After thinking about what I was going to use at the location I also thought about how much time I would be able to get there before somebody would ask what I was doing. Now it is best to find out if you can shoot on a location but as this was open to the public I was thinking of the people who were going to be just walking about as I did not want to make some disturbances. So, about 20mins was about the time I thought I could get. I set up my camera with my portable ring...
