First Glamour Shoot Ever!

Over the weekend I had a chance to watch a few bits of the latest Creative Live workshop with Sue Bryce.  On Day One I got to watch about an hour of the live broadcast and caught the tail end of the section on posing and all of the brief intro to flow posing.  I really didn't think that I would be interested, but as I watched I became fascinated with her process.  Shooting natural light in a studio setting...'ding!'  Controlling the posing in minute detail...'ding!'  When she said that it was so easy that anyone could learn how to do it I knew I had to give it a try.  My mind was going a hundred miles a minute and after only an hour, I was hooked.  No one is more surprised than me that I became so enthusiastic about the Glamour genre.  I think it's because I've been so focused lately on making the leap into studio and lights and all the gear that involves.  I've been stressing about visible noise in my photos and lens compression and the limitations of crop sensors, props and wardrobe and marketing and everything in between.  It was so refreshing to see someone who made it look so incredibly simple.  A client, a photographer and a camera.  Add hair and makeup and a fan (or hairdyer) and you're good to go, or that's how it seemed.

I don't normally like photographing adults all that much, we stress about everything.  Especially us women.  We worry that we look too fat, we have wrinkles, our hair isn't right.  I know this because I do all those things when I'm in front of the camera (and even when I'm not).  This approach to photographing women was all about making them feel beautiful no matter what age or what size they might be.  There was a science to it, a formula, that, when applied effectively, seemed to result in the most amazing transformations whereby the woman we all are on the inside was brought to the surface for everyone to see.  It was mesmerizing.  What woman doesn't need to know that she's beautiful right now, today, in the skin she's in, at the age she's at, and with whatever weight she happens to be carrying at the moment?  I know I want those things.  I'm always waiting; waiting to lose those last ten pounds, waiting until my hair gets longer, my skin looks better, until I'm less stressed.  After only an hour of viewing, I purchased the workshop.  I called my Mom, who was coming over to visit on Sunday, and asked her to please bring a few outfits and some makeup because I'd really like to give this a shot and I needed a guinea pig.  I downloaded the flow posing section, converted it and loaded it on my iPod and wondered to myself what the heck I was attempting.

As it turns out we didn't get around to shooting until Monday afternoon, with only an hour to get it all done.  I hadn't reviewed the posing guidelines, had shown my impromptu model what I wanted her makeup to look like (there was no professional hair and makeup person), stuck the iPod in my pocket with the headphones on, picked up the camera and pressed play.  It was not as easy as it seemed AT ALL.  I was basically parroting what was coming through my headphones and figuring out how I'm supposed to coax an alluring gaze out of my own mother.  No pressure.  After we made it though that hour I was exhausted and couldn't do any more.  I wasn't really sure that I'd got anything that would have the impact I was looking for and the whole experience was a bit of a blur.

I stayed up that night to download and work on the photos.  I remember saying at one point that I would be happy if we got five useable images out of the session and that's indeed what I got.  In the end I'd have to say that I'm happy with the results but I know I made a ton of mistakes.  I couldn't get the posing right, my camera angles were all over the place, my cropping was off, I was having a terrible time trying to convey what her hands were supposed to look like.  I could go on but I won't because I got out there and tried it and above all else, I learned from it.  What I really wanted to know was how my subject would feel about the end results when she saw them because that's the real test.  Of the five finished images she didn't like one of them (so I haven't included it here) and she especially liked two of them.  She commented that the makeup looked much better in camera than it did in person, the posing looked more natural and flattering than it felt and overall she thought she looked good.  She said she'd be willing to do it again, which for me is the biggest compliment I could get.  Baby steps.  I'm definitely going to try this again and I'll apply everything I've learned from this experience to make the next shoot better than the last.  I'll also watch the rest of that workshop so I can get as much information as I can.  Many thanks go out to my mom for willingly stepping in front of my camera even after I admitted I had no clue what I was doing.  Also, it was her idea to have a before shot to compare the results with.  I know you hate that photo mom, but I think you look great au natural and I appreciate you letting me post it even though you'd rather I didn't.