Glamour Photography Studio Workshop

Here are some photographs from a recent Studio Plus Workshop (themed and location photoshoots) and the theme for this studio workshop was 'glamour', but we added some other styles too just because they suited our model, Grace Miller, who is also a musician.

If you look up "glamour photography" on Wikipedia, it's defined as "a genre of photography in which the subjects are portrayed in erotic poses ranging from fully clothed to nude". These days, I think the definition has expanded to include a more general flattering style that is sexy and fun, but not particularly explicit. The style can be pretty broad and can range from high-key right down to low-key, which gives us plenty of opportunity during a glamour photoshoot workhop to play around with a few different studio lighting set-ups, as well as a couple of different locations and backdrops.

To start with, we photographed some portraits of Grace in a glamour style, which look great in black and white. There are also some wet-look shots, which involved shooting while we sprayed water on the model, behind the model, all over the floor... For these shots, you might want to clean these up a bit more than I did. A 'proper' glamour photoshoot would usually involve a bit of soft-focus and be very clean, but I like the more raw edge of the shots with high contrast and the water still on the floor. But that's just my style!

Grace is also a musician, and so I asked her to bring along a suitable prop, so there are a few shots of Grace with her guitar in a high-key style. Grace also entertained us on the ukulele at lunchtime!

Although I do most of my shooting in the studio, there's nothing like getting outside for a bit, so we also took some photographs out by the pool. For these shots, we were outside in the mid-afternoon sun, which isn't ideal for photography, but with some reflectors and diffusers we could get rid of the harsh shadows and provide a nice warm light for Grace to pose in while she was in the pool. Sometimes when I'm shooting outside, I will use studio lights, but in this case we used the natural light only. Partly this was because with the brutal Queensland sunshine, the studio lights would be really hard-pressed to beat the direct glare of the sun, but mostly it was because I was slightly nervous of having half a dozen photographers around the pool surrounded by studio lights! Electrocuting your model is frowned upon in photographic circles...

This studio workshop at the Gold Coast Photography Studio was a lot of fun, and there'll be more like this in 2017, so why not come along and join us for a photoshoot? If you're new to studio photography, then the Studio 1 Workshop is a great introduction and it won't be long before you're shooting like a pro!

Cheers,
matt g