The Temporary Pass

I teach a class entitled The Intimate Female Portrait. It focuses on the client-photographer relationship as it evolves from the initial interview through the photo shoot. At the beginning of each class, I ask the attendees what they want most to learn. The consensus so far? They want to know how I interact with a private client or someone new to modeling—how I move beyond a conventional portrait to something more intimate, something more sexual.

Good question. Look, asking a woman to tilt her head is decidedly different from asking her to unbutton her top or remove it altogether. And that alone is not nearly enough: At the same time as she performs this act of exhibitionism, she must show the camera how much she’s relishing it.

When I’m successful at directing her to do these things, it’s because I’ve forged a relationship with her not possible in a single meeting. That’s why the in-and-out portrait studio business model doesn’t work for intimate/boudoir photography. Believing that someone you’ve just met—someone who has never done this before—will or can step in front of your camera and perform in this manner is not only wishful thinking but also costly (think re-shoots at your expense). There are exceptions, of course, but they are just that: exceptions. So make sure your business model includes some relationship-building time.

How can I describe this relationship? It is a temporary pass based on trust and issued by the client. In the case of a private client who has come to us for a “his-eyes-only” gift, the pass allows her to be an exhibitionist for a surrogate, and that surrogate is me and my camera. And the trust? Well, she’s trusting that the images we produce will have the desired results.

The all-important thing to remember about the pass is this: For it to work, it is she who must issue it.

How do she and I build this relationship? I wish I could give you a link to my one-size-fits-all formulaic approach, but no such approach exists. I have, however, come to understand the two essential elements. First, she must determine whether she can do this—be an exhibitionist for the length of time necessary for the photo shoot. And second, she must determine whether she can do this in front of me and my camera.

These are her decisions, making it pointless to attempt persuasion of any kind. So, what’s my role at this point? It is to be an open and observant guide. We begin, she and I, by looking at prints from previous photo shoots, some of them before & after shots. By observing her reactions to these images, I can answer her unasked questions, allowing her to know me better, to understand how—if she chooses—we will work together, and how I’ll help her achieve her goal.

If we’ve made sufficient progress, I’ll do a brief photo test, nothing fancy, perhaps available light by an open window or one light and a reflector. I may show her how to stand or sit, how to move her head or form her mouth, I may have her unbutton her blouse or put on one of our posing robes and then drop it off her shoulders. If she’s brought some lingerie for me to see, I’ll ask her to try it on. If she has an image in mind, we might try it. Whatever we do, the goal is the same: I want her to learn to have fun following directions in front of my camera, because if she can do that, she’ll be able to achieve the level of exhibitionism required for a successful shoot.

I’m frequently asked if I ever forego any of this for a new client and go directly to the photo shoot, you know, to save time or money. No. Never.

I’m also asked, and even more frequently, what I do when a shy, very shy, woman comes to us for boudoir photography? I’ll write about that in my next article.

…
Today’s image: Danielle, having fun.

Changes... they are a-coming

I’ve spent much most of the holiday time rethinking and reworking my web presence, such as it is, including this blog, my website portfolio, Flickr, and Twitter. They were a collective mess, really—no integration and, at least in presentation, little to separate them from the already crowed field. So, changes… they are a-coming.

For today, I’m unveiling the beta of my new blog. No, it’s not on Blogger: I wanted a platform and an interface that offered more flexibility than Blogger.

Among many other things, I wanted multiple pages, and I wanted to be able to make those pages look different from other pages on the same site. And I wanted an interface that afforded rapid prototyping as well as line-level coding changes. I also wanted to offer both public and limited-access content. And of course I wanted a robust, scalable platform that would allow me to import all my Blogger content and to backup that content to an industry-standard XML formatted file.

There are many great blogging platforms out there besides Blogger, including WordPress and Moveable Type as well as their hosted variations wordpress.com and typepad.com. But what I ended up not wanting was a self-hosted site. While we all promise to say our prayers and back up our data, the reality is that we don’t. So placing the safety of redundancy on someone else’s shoulders became a requirement for me.

So what did I choose? Squarespace. It met all of my requirements and then some. But as many of you may know, Squarespace is not free, and since we are all now addicted accustomed to free, that’s something many will find hard to swallow. But there is a benefit: They are in business to serve their customers and not to sell ads. That is a refreshing concept. And their service thus far has been stellar.

Finally, I wanted a site that would be fun to look at without compromising the readability of the post. Please visit my new blog site and leave a comment letting me know if my goals were achieved.

The new blog URL will change after I map my domain name, but for the time being, you can see it here.

…
Today’s image: Danielle, lit with a small softbox at camera right, a small umbrella for fill just left of camera, and a shoe-mount strobe above and slightly behind her.

Back from the Sick Bed

“What was the point of getting that flu shot, anyway?” I growled at my nurse practitioner wife. “Well,” she deigned with that clinical calm we’re all too familiar with, “there are different strains…”

Not much for TV, I spent some of my time in bed thinking about how best to show the transformation I wrote about in my last article—the one using a mouse-over to show Jackie’s before & after. I like the mouse-over approach, and side-by-side comparisons would work as well, but I’m thinking a short video with music is the answer.

So, regular programming will resume in a day or two with a short video clip showing the transformation of an actual client. I’ll also discuss our choice of still image, audio, and video editors as well as a few options for podsafe music. Cool stuff, so check back.

And back by popular demand, today’s before & after images are more of Danielle in her red dress and alabaster skin—a beautiful young women who wanted to try modeling. To all of you who emailed questions, I can only say that this and the previous image are from her test shoot. Regrettably, she never showed for her photoshoot. I wish she had.

Lighting: Beauty dish at camera left shot through a scrim; medium gold reflector at camera right; small silver umbrella at camera right and behind model.

Featured Comment

Jeff writes:

My wife, out of the blue, asked me last Tuesday about having a set of boudoir pictures taken of herself as a present for me. She was/is worried about her body image after having had two children. She talked to a boudoir photographer in our area and the photographer showed my wife her book which included some before/after pictures. What bothered my wife the most about the book was that she felt the photog only showed women that my wife felt were VERY physically attractive before the shoot so that there was not much “transformation” with hair, makeup and wardrobe needed for the after shots. My wife considers herself to be plain-jane and is fearful that none of her inner beauty will show in the pictures. The first thing I did was fire up the computer and show her the before and after pictures from your post on November 20th so you posted at just the right time for us. She remains undecided at the moment whether to go through with the photo session or not, but she should be making a decision soon.

Not being personally familiar with how photographers charge for photo sessions like this, the photographer said she charges $150.00 for a one hour session and then my wife must purchase either the proofs or a photo package on top of the sitting fee. I feel that the mandatory purchase is unfair if she ends up not liking the photos. I can see paying the sitting fee, but forcing her to buy the pictures? Am I wrong for feeling that way?

Response

What a wonderful gift, Jeff! To ensure its success, here are some things to consider.

Because your wife is apprehensive, she needs a photographer who connects with her, a photographer who not only sees her inner beauty—and her inner sexuality—but also understands her issues and has the requisite skills to deal with them all the way to final prints.

In terms of the session time, we’ve managed to produce some good work in one-hour test sessions of young aspiring models. But that was after an hour or so of hair and makeup, which included talking about poses and scenes as well as clothing. So, at a minimum, say, two hours of interaction. But boudoir clients—certainly our boudoir clients—aren’t young aspiring models. They’re women who’ve been married several years, have had one or more children, and have the same fears and apprehensions your wife has. And I do not believe that a one-hour session—if that’s the only time the photographer and client interact—will yield the results your wife is looking for.

As a follow-up on this topic, you might ask your wife to read these articles:

• What Is Boudoir Photography, Anyway?
• Do You Photoshop?
• So, What Is the Purpose of a Boudoir Photograph, and Why Do So Many Miss the Mark?

Now to the cost, or more precisely, what you get for your money. (I won’t address the actual amount, because it’s pointless comparing rates from different parts of the country and from photographers with different skill sets.) Photographers who set low session fees have an expectation that their profit will come from print or DVD sales. And many do set minimum purchase amounts. But until now, I had not heard of a case where the client wasn’t able to see the results of her session without paying for proofs. This seems heavy-handed to me, but then again, I might have misread your comment, so please let me know if I did.

Remember, it’s a business, so the photographer’s profit must come from somewhere. In your wife’s case, it’s obviously not coming from the session, so it must come from print sales. And if the photographer makes that all-important connection with your wife and the print prices are reasonable, then it could be a bargain. On the other hand, if that connection is missing, then cost is irrelevant.

Articles of Note

This week in the blogshpere: Two exceptionally well-written articles relevant to boudoir photographers!

The first: The key to good photography is composition — posted by Lin at Fluffytek.

In this article, I was struck by commenter Grommit’s question: “Can I see with my own eyes the person to person connection that existed between the photographer and model, or subject?”

That is the critical question for boudoir photographers, because it’s this connection that transfers the experience to the client’s lover and changes an image from just a pretty snapshot to visual foreplay.

The second: “Unbearable Lightness” — by guest poster Unbearable Lightness at Iris Dassault’s blog.

This is a story to inspire. At the age of fifty-eight, the author decided to model. Five years later, at sixty-three, she posed for her first full nude shot. “I finally own myself,” she writes, “which is to say I am confident, free of youthful self-doubt and fear.”

This one sentence underlines what stands between boudoir photographers and so many potential clients. In the end, the marketing of boudoir photography is—more than anything else—about overcoming the client’s self-doubt and fear. I’ll share how Patty and I address this in a future post.

Today’s image: Danielle in Red No. 0016.
Lighting: Beauty dish at camera left shot through a scrim; medium gold reflector at camera right; small silver umbrella at camera right and behind model.