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February 14, 2012
Jennifer Rozenbaum of Jenerations Boudoir, is a New York boudoir photographer who is fast rising in prominence. She was featured in a recent interview on Good Morning America with their insert on boudoir photography for Valentine’s Day. For a Tangents guest post, Jennifer kindly sent in a few tips on how we can improve our boudoir photography.
3 tips to improve your boudoir photography
by Jennifer Rozenbaum, New York boudoir photographer
“WOW! I can’t believe that is me…I AM hot!” This is always the reaction that I aim for when a client first sees their boudoir images, and thankfully it is usually the reaction I get.
Getting a reaction like this one isn’t easy. It takes planning and a lot of thought. What do I do to insure this reaction? There are three main areas of consideration that I always address before pressing the shutter.
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January 28, 2012
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Boudoir photography seems to have a surge in popularity in the past years. More and more interest by photographers – and it’s no wonder. As much as boudoir is a fascinating genre, it is also quite challenging.
The pressure is on *you* as the photographer to get the best images you can of someone who is most likely feeling quite vulnerable. So not only are your lighting skills and posing skills and your general skill as a photographer tested … your people skills really need to kick into gear too. Boudoir photography is personal photography on so many levels.
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January 12, 2012
Hanging out with my friend Brooke, (NYC boudoir photographer), at a recent workshop, I noticed some of the images on her iPad that she was showing to explain her lighting techniques. The photographs had an interesting mix of gold and blue tones, and I thought the way she achieved it would be of interest to everyone. It might be familiar to regular followers of the Tangents blog. (Oh, Brooke is co-presenting a workshop on boudoir photography, and there’s a discount for Tangents readers.)
inspired boudoir lighting
by Brooke Ismach, New York boudoir photographer
Since launching Inspired Boudoir, a joint photography venture with fellow photographer Laura Eaton, I have been lucky enough to speak quite a bit about boudoir photography. Which means I’m showing boudoir images to photography groups. Consistently, I am asked one question more than any other: How did I achieve the “blue” background lighting in the attached photo. Most photographers guess using gels, but the answer is actually simpler than that …
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January 22, 2011
using a small softbox for lighting an intimate / boudoir photo session
With intimate photo sessions, I use a number ways of lighting my subject. This helps to bring some variety to the images. It helps mixing things up a bit by not using just one specific way to light the session.
While I sometimes use a softbox, the medium sized softboxes (or the 24″ x 24″ softboxes) are just a little too big to swing around in a small room. With a recent on-location photo session in New York, I used the Lastolite 8.6″ Ezybox (B&H) a few times. I took it along on that photo session because it is so compact.
So when I arranged with a model, Carly Erin, to do another photo session, I instantly thought of taking this smaller softbox along. With the previous intimate photo session with Carly, I used bounce flash and tungsten light (the Lowel ID-light). But this time I decided to predominantly use this new small softbox. And I really liked the results …
(before clicking on the ‘more’ link,
be aware that the rest of this post has images with some nudity.)
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Comments (36)
January 19, 2011
boudoir photography and the 50mm lens
With working space often times so tight for boudoir photo sessions, there is the temptation to use a 50mm lens for tighter headshots. (On a full-frame D-SLR.) Instead of stepping back a bit and using an 85mm lens or longer, a bit of visual laziness comes into play, and we rely on the 50mm lens too much. It really is too short a focal length for a tight portrait. I think many photographers are even too in love with their 50mm lenses, and use it without thought of how this would distort someone’s face when used too close to their subjects.
I totally understand the need for compromise. Quite often the angle we need to shoot from – whether because of the shape of the room, or the direction of the light – dictates a shorter-than-ideal focal length. This still doesn’t make the 50mm a default lens to work with, and still doesn’t mean the images we’re getting couldn’t have looked better with a longer focal length.
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Comments (26)
March 27, 2010
style in photography – intimate / boudoir photo sessions
I did a recent photo shoot with a model, Carly Erin, to expand my boudoir portfolio.
Sometimes you get to work in large spacious rooms or studios. Sometimes you work in smaller more intimate locations. When you work in a tighter, more intimate setting, the choice to include the surroundings or not will greatly affect how you shoot. I made the decision that I didn’t want the location to be identifiable and this affected how I shot …
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January 19, 2010
lighting for boudoir photo sessions
The one type of photo session where I work the most at getting my lighting just right, is with a boudoir session. I find these intimate photo sessions quite a challenge. I have to get a variety of looks in a short time. For this I have to not only concentrate on posing and angles but also concentrate on the lighting. On top of that, I have to make sure my model or client is comfortable and relaxed at all times. The session has to be fun and really show her off at her best.
I bring a variety of lighting equipment to these shoots – speedlights to be used on camera,
and as a softbox setup. I also favour video lights.
But I keep the equipment portable and compact and easy to set up .. which means that I mostly use available light where I can. By closely looking at the direction of the various light sources in a room, I can position my subject in relation to the light (eg, a window), or simply move the light source if it is a bedside table lamp.
With the light levels fairly low indoors, this necessitates fast optics and high-ISO capable cameras. The style that I prefer is sensual and romantic. Sexy without being overly sexual. With boudoir photography, I feel that a ‘hint’ works better than being more direct. But styles and tastes vary of course.
An example of where I used the soft light coming through the window as the main light source. I didn’t add any light to this. The window light was soft, and it was the dominant light source from this viewpoint. Easy to use. Now I could concentrate on directing the flow of her movement.
1/30 @ f2.8 @ 1600 ISO
Nikon D3; Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H)
The image above was shot ‘with’ the direction of light, giving even light on her. It is also good to break it up a bit and shoot ‘against’ a light source, or at an angle to a main light source …
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April 8, 2009
choosing the necessary aperture for depth of field (DoF)
Depth of Field (DoF) is one of those elementary factors in photography which seem to mystify most (new) photographers. A question that I’m often asked is, “How do you know how much depth of field you need?” Now anyone who has delved into the topic and has done some research knows that you soon stagger back .. your head spinning trying to tie together all the concepts: circle of confusion, focal length, subject distance, size of enlargement, format size, hyper focal distance, and so on.
But a working approach might just be simpler than that …
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April 6, 2009
using a video light for boudoir photography
An image from a boudoir photo session today. I ended up mostly using a video light (or two) for the directional and dramatic quality of the light. I tried on-camera bounce flash a few times, but even when I carefully flagged and bounced the flash, there were a number of times where I found that the bounce flash just evened out the light too much. Sometimes it is soft light, and sometimes it just becomes flat light.
With the video light (held up by my assistant), I was able to ask my assistant to flag the light and drop the light off dramatically to the model’s legs. That’s the beauty of using video light - it is completely WYSIWYG. You can make immediate changes to the position of the light – or how you position yourself – based on the light and light patterns on your subject. And with an assistant holding up the light, instead of fixed on a stand, you even have voice-activated automation in how the light is placed.
More on the video light equipment I use, and
more examples of how I use video light for photography lighting.
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