Boudoir Photography

Hello everyone.

My apologies for the delay in getting this mornings post out to you. I was out on a shoot early this morning and the time just got away from me.

I know all of you are getting your lists and contacts together for your giving back to charity, so while we are all in that preparation mode I decided to focus on something completely different.

I am a Portrait and Wedding photographer by choice, but recently got an enquiry from a client to shoot a boudoir series for her husband-to-be.

Now, this is something completely new to me so I was not sure how to approach this type of photography. I did a little research and this is what I found with regards to getting this setup for my client.

Firstly, this is a very personal shoot so I recommend the following. At all times I communicated with my client and made sure that she was comfortable with the entire process.

• Get a model release and make sure you cover all the details in a contract. This has to be signed before the shoot and make sure they know what you are going to be covering.
• You need a private room and make sure that you have enough props and clothing changes for your client. Suggest they bring their own lingerie and neglige's for multiple wardrobe changes. I normally have a female assistant to help with wardrobe changes and I also have a make-up artist to assist with makeup.

Make-up artists and hairstylists in my area cost around $60p/h and an assistant is about $25-30 p/h.

I have an air conditioned room and I suggested they bring music they preferred to help set the mood. I also have a bottle of their favorite wine to help break the ice with some cheese and grapes as appetizers.

One thing that I did find in my research is that many first time boudoir clients want to bring a friend. Make sure that they know they will have their friends looking at them in their underwear and if they are not comfortable with this then I would suggest they do not bring any friends with them that have not seen them in any clothing. Family members are not encouraged to attend.

This tends to make your client shy and could inhibit them from feeling relaxed in front of the camera as well as their close relatives.

For some suggestions on Wedding Boudoir or Alternative photographs you can view some photographs on my Pinterest page. Please note that some of these photographs contain images of women in underwear and may not be appropriate for everyone.

I had a wrought iron bed and mattress for this shoot, as well as a comfortable high back chair. I also bought some white linen for this setup to help with the contrast in the shoot. The colors of the lingerie and clothing that will be worn needs to be the feature throughout the shoot so make sure you ask all these questions before the day of the shoot.

Make sure you shoot using both natural light (I had some great windows for this) and strobes. Use the walls and chairs in the room as well. Boudoir is not all about the bed. Great close-ups of jewelry, buckles, earrings as well as hands and fingers are also recommended. 

The shoot lasted about 4hrs so plan accordingly. This is not a shoot that needs to be rushed. It is a premium service that you can offer your clients so spend a little extra time pampering your client and offering them a wide variety of choices when it comes to the photographs that you take.

For some suggestions on boudoir photography you can find some inspiration on my Pinterest page here.  Again, some of these photographs show women in underwear and lingerie so may not be suitable for everyone.

The after sales part of the session is the most important. I charged $495 as the session fee. This covered my basic costs, as well as the hairstylist, make-up artist and assistant. In my after sales presentation I made an additional $1275 in prints and books from the client. I made sure to let the client know in the beginning that this is what the average market price is so they come with an expectation. I did my own research in my market catchment area to verify what other photographers are charging. Make sure that you do your own research for the market that you are in.

To calculate your own daily operating costs you can use this calculator.  It has helped me in the past.

This is another great way to add to your portfolio and may tie into the style of photography that you currently do. I know that it may not be suitable for everyone, but if you have the facilities available you may be offer this to potential clients if they request this. 

I got some of my training from these sites:-

1. Lindsay Adler - Boudoir Posing Guide
2. Christa Meola - The Art of Boudoir Photography - How to Create Stunning photographs of women
3. Creative Live Videos - Boudoir

Great shooting and I will speak to you again next week.

Good Monday Morning Students and Faculty,


I hope everyone had a great and relaxing weekend.  Today I want to talk about our August photo challenge.  This is a challenge for all of you to volunteer your photographic services for one day in the month of August.  This challenge has so many benefits not only for the person or organization you are doing it for, but also for your career as a photographer.  When we do any work as a photographer, whether it be for charity or pay, we are promoting our name and building our contacts. I know it may seem difficult with all that we already have going on in our lives and things get so busy, but you will see that if you do this it will definitely pay off in so many ways.  This is a great opportunity to do some marketing and get your name out there.  You can hand out business cards and really show everyone involved how passionate you are about what you do while showing how good you are at it. 


Please start doing some research in your community and see what is available out there for you to take part in.  There are all kinds of events especially during the summer.  You may want to go to your local library and ask if there are any happenings that might need to be captured.  This is really a wonderful way for you to expand your business.  If you are having trouble finding something that you may want to take part in, please don't hesitate to ask me or one of our other ambassadors.  I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.  Good luck and have a great week.


Barbara Ann 

How to Get Fantastic Colors

When it comes to photography, I’ve had people ask me, “How do you get those great colors in your images?” This is something any photographer can get, especially when you are asking about my sunrise/sunset photos, but it’s not easy to get unless you go after it.

There are two times a day when you have the best chance for awesome colors, sunrise and sunset, which is why these times are called the “magic hour” or the “golden hour”. Most people work in offices, drive back and forth to work and then live in their homes. If you are not outside, you are not going to catch these “magic hour” periods and get those fantastic colors.

Sunset in Laruens County, Ga

 Photograph is a career/hobby where you have to be outdoors if you want the best colors and you have to be ready all the time. Scout a good location and make sure you are there early you might even want to bring your tripod but it’s not necessary unless you want to do long exposures.

Sunset over an abandoned Pawn Shop

 If you use an iPhone, like I do, there is actually a Magic Hour app in the App Store that will let you know exactly when “magic hour” will occur each day so you can be out there and ready. I also just found out as I wrote this article that they make a companion version of the app for my Apple Watch as well, which is nice as I tend to keep my notifications on my phone silenced as I get so many. On the Apple Watch, I can have it vibrate my wrist and let me know.

Sunset in Stateboro, Ga

Now, one other thing to keep in mind is the “magic” colors don’t happen every day, so don’t be discouraged. Nature works on it’s own schedule and even if you go out this evening and there are no awesome colors in the sky, keep going out there, they will come. One of the biggest things you need to learn as a photographer is patience. If you don’t have patience, then you are not going to do well in my areas of photography, especially shooting people, nature or sunrise/sunset. All of these parts of photography require patience as I am sure most of the professors here are AI will agree.

Now get out there and find that fantastic color!!!

Comments/Questions

Internship Update

As you have noticed there has been a slight pause in my discussion of my internship.  My team the Jackson Silvehawks had so many injuries that they had to fold for the rest of this season so the team could heal up.  One of our final games was actually a historic loss of 106 - 0. You may see some footage on ESPN about it as they asked for the video.

I am still doing my internship, but have switched for working for Saturday Showdown a local Semi Pro tv show. We didn't have a game last week due to the holiday and so far our season in Ohio has been brought to you by rain.  (Which by the way, this can make for fun pictures, if you aren't playing on AstroTurf).

One of the Summit County Storm players at practice falls right into a large puddle losing the ball.

When I ended my internship with the Jackson Silverhawks I actually had 4 different offers on where to continue my internship.  This is  the reason that I kept in contact with other Semi Pro teams. There were hints of problems with my team this season and I wanted it to be an easy transition for me so I didn't lose any time trying to find a a new team.  Before I actually even knew my team had folded I was contacted by The Rubber City Broncos, The Summit County Storm, and The Cleveland Cobras. Each team has something unique that could have worked out well for me.

The RC Bronco's does have a regular photographer who happens to be my best friend. So in choosing that team I would have worked with her. The downfall is we would often have the same photographs unless I shot on the opposite side of the field.

The owner of the Cleveland Cobras is a good friend of mine who normally shoots her own team. This might have been a fun one to do as I have only ever worked with male owners. It would have been fun to see how she does things differently. The downfall is her team's home field is up in Perry, OH and about a 2.5 hour drive for me for home games.

Which brings up to the Summit County Storm.  I did originally plan on just shooting the Storm.  The Storm is about 3/4 players I already knew because they were last year Silverhawks. The Coaches also were former Silverhawk Coaches.  The downfall with them was due to the Silverhawks folding for the year they had a schedule that had a lot of farther away games.

In the end I choose Saturday Showdown which was my 4th choice. Working with Saturday Showdown, I get to shoot a variety of teams.  I'm not just shooting the game but helping to do other things that the show needs. I did co-host one show and could be a permanent co-host if I had the time do it ongoing.  We have even talked some about shooting other types of football games after my internship is over.  I felt this was the best situation for me as I could work closer to home and had the most I could learn from them.

                          One of the RC Broncos's Players leaping over the fence for practice.

I have been able so far to shoot some for the Storm, and the Broncos as I'm often able to choose what I want to shoot. I hope that I also get a chance to shoot for the Cobra's before the season is over.

I can't say that my internship hasn't been eventful so far!

There is one thing to keep in mind as you get past week 5.  It really only effects anyone who is going part time as I am.  When you are at 5.5 weeks you will have to add on another class making it like you are going full time for the 2nd half of the internship.  This may not cause a problem in your schedule you just need to be aware of this situation.  If  you don't plan for this situation  even though you are still in the middle of your internship the school / financial aid department  reports you are not actively enrolled in school.  I actually didn't realize I needed to do this until I started getting warnings that loans were going to be due since I wasn't enrolled in class.

It was a bit of a bump in the road as we scrambled to fix this situation. I do recommend if you are shooting heavily for your internship or have a job that you choose a non-shooting class.  While I chose a class that works well with my actual internship it has been hard to get my required shots in with my work schedule.

As always, I look forward to hearing your feed back. (Yes it is OK you can totally freak out of the Silverhawks score.  In the 3 games we played we never scored a single point and lost at least 78 - 0 on every game).

Talk to you soon!

Jessi

Giving Back - Videos

Good morning everyone.

This week we will continue in the theme of giving back. We want to build a great portfolio for community charity work so what can be better than giving back to the local community.

To add some great features and additional work to your resume', why not add some video to your work. The industry is starting to demand that photographers also add some video to their packages. This might be a really opportunity to improve upon your video skills.

Here is a short video on how to set your WB for your DSLR camera.

and this video as well..

They are easy to follow and getting your WB correct in camera will be a breeze.

If you have a few different cameras than were mentioned in the videos then you can also check out this link for additional camera WB settings.

Last week we had a online video training speaking about some of the sites you can visit to find out how you can contribute to the community.

Here are two of those links.

Volunteer Match

Shutter Mission

Have a great Wednesday and I will speak to you again next week.

Denzil

Shooting Fireworks

With the Fourth of July holiday being this past weekend I thought it was a good time to post on a question that many student photographers ask, “How do I shoot fireworks?”

Shooting fireworks can be tricky because first of all, you are shooting at night, which many photographers find difficult to begin with. Second, because your shooting at night, your auto focus will be totally useless as will any automatic modes on your camera. In this post I am going to give you my tips for shooting fireworks and they are pretty much the same that any other photographer will give you.

Check your local weather reports. Even though fireworks are generally used in the U.S. for July Fourth, they are often used to ring in the New Year as well. Even though it is July, there is no guarantee it will not rain as we had here in Georgia this year.
Scout your location. Get to your location early and make certain you will have a clear view to the action. If your fireworks are happening across a bay or lake, you may want to shoot from the opposite side as the reflections on the water look amazing!

Shooting over Boston Harbor photo ©Michael Phillips

As far as gear and settings, you want to shoot fireworks as a long exposure usually as this will give you your best shots and make for some really nice light effects when the fireworks detonate.

1.) A DSLR camera that is capable of BULB shutter mode. Some of you may be asking, what is BULB mode. BULB mode is a setting that allows you to press your shutter button and have the shutter stay open as long as the button is pressed. On my cameras, BULB has it’s own mode on the dial labeled with a ‘B’, but on your camera, you might just have to keep going lower and lower with your shutter speed until you see BULB on your LCD.

A nice, red burst captured at Covington, GA Fourth of July show

2.) Since we are shooting long exposure, you will need a tripod. It is not possible to have long shutter times with hand holding your camera as hand-shake will blur and ruin all your images.
Cable release. This is a cable and button or remote that plugs into your camera and allows you to trigger the shutter without touching the camera. Even with your camera on a tripod if you try pressing the shutter button on the camera, you will blur and ruin your shot. Recommended shutter time is 2.5-4 seconds.

3.) Set your ISO. When shooting fireworks you want to use your lowest possible ISO setting. If shooting a Canon it will be 50 or 100, depending on your camera model, if shooting Nikon it will be 200 most likely. You don’t need to worry about low light, the fireworks are bright when they go off.

4.) Aperture. Set your aperture at around F/11-F22. You want your aperture as narrow as possible to let in the least amount of light and get the best final images. Aperture is something you may have to play with on the fly as your shoot, but start at F/11 and adjust from there.


When shooting fireworks, open your shutter when you see the rocket going up into the air and hold it open as it explodes into it’s colors, then release. If you want to make more of a full light effect, hold it open as several of them burt open in a row and you will capture all of the explosions. If your shots look too dark, then move your aperture open more, say F/8, or if they are too blow out then move to F/16 and try again. Also remember to leave your White Balance on auto and you should be fine. If you are looking to make the sky bluer in the background, then use Tungsten or if you want more orange, then use cloud or shade on your White Balance.

Covington, GA Fourth of July fireworks finale

That’s pretty much it, the rest is trial and error, shoot and adjust until you think they look good. Once you have your settings, I recommend turning off your auto preview as it is distracting and slows your camera performance down. Now go shoot some fireworks!

Comments/Questions

What is a Rubric?

What is a rubric? How to read a rubric to get all your points

Another very good Wednesday morning to you. It is currently storming outside my window and my boys have their noses glue to the window panes watching the lightning flashes and listening for all the thunder.

If you have children then I am sure you can picture two little boys in their pajamas on the couch.

Well on to why you should allows make sure that you pay attention to your Rubric.

Well what is a Rubric to start with? The dictionary refers to it as " a statement of purpose or function" .

I always read it as, "Don't forget to check this list because I will lose points" list.

This rubric is normally in addition to you assignment requirements and lists the specifics on what is required for your assignment submission. Don't get confused here because you also have additional notes from your Professor, as well as additional tips and comments in your discussion feed.

You should always see the rubric as the official rules and regulations.

This is what you get graded on. The points to the right gives you an indication on the amount of content. It is not written in stone, but more information and details is always better than to little.

This what you are graded on, in addition to the other requirements within your assignment.

So, as you can see it is very easy to follow and it is normally set out in such a manner that you just need to follow the sequence as it is listed.

NB! One important point to remember here. Sometimes the feedback you need to give to your peers might not all be listed as the last day of the week. It changes all the time so pay attention to the date listed here as well.

Now there is no reason not to obtain full marks, (well only if you provide all the facts and information required) for any of your assignments. 

So have a great week and I leave you with this great quote from Zig Ziglar.

Ps: We have a great session on giving back to the community and how you can expand your business in the process. Please join us.

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/8937203609213996043