Boudoir: Anna & Lauren

Nikolai

As I mentioned earlier, two models followed me and my pal Drew to my studio after the beach shoot. And after we shot Anna, Lauren decided to join her...

1. Friends:



2. Girlfriends:



3. Partners:



4. Lovers:



Enjoy! C&C welcome!

schmoo

Hi Nik,

I'm moving this thread to the general People forum since I see "portraits" when I look at these.

Nikolai

schmoo wrote:

Hi Nik,
I'm moving this thread to the general People forum since I see "portraits" when I look at these.

Thanks, Steph, I'm fine with it, just was trying to be cautios.. And if you want to move "Boudoir: Anna" over here, too -

sweet caroline

When I see these studio shots of yours, I wish the models were further from the background. I find the sheen and the wrinkles distracting. The models are nicely lit and pretty nicely posed, but there's not enough drama for me. You are an amazing photographer, so I'm hesitant to critique these.

I like the composition of #3, but wish the background was unlit. I also like the composition of #2, but the expression on Lauren's face isn't working for me. I think the last one would look cool as a black and white.

Caroline

P.S. I don't mind if these are posted under the general people category since my kids don't get on dgrin, but the suggestive nature of these may make some uncomfortable.

Nikolai

Caroline,
thank you for your time, appreciate it!

davidweaver

Ditto on Caroline's comment. There seems to be a bit too much light on the top center of the group pics. Can you redo it with them about 3-5' from the background and shoot it at the widest aperture possible?

zoomer

Nice shots.
I could look at pictures of Lauren all day, very attractive model.

Looks like you all were having a lot of fun. My favorite is the third.
Thanks for sharing.

Nikolai

davidweaver wrote:

Ditto on Caroline's comment. There seems to be a bit too much light on the top center of the group pics. Can you redo it with them about 3-5' from the background and shoot it at the widest aperture possible?

David, thank you!
Guys (and gals), just for the record: while this is not a wedding photography, there is no such thing as "redo" in this business , ony "another time another model time under similar circumstances"

Nikolai

zoomer wrote:

Nice shots.
I could look at pictures of Lauren all day, very attractive model.

Looks like you all were having a lot of fun. My favorite is the third.
Thanks for sharing.

Thank you! I started postprocessing Lauren's batch, so you'll have a lot to look at - soon. And they will be in at least three very different groups, one here and two in GF :-)

zoomer

Thanks Nikolai.
I just shot my first boudoir type shots for a Christmas calendar for one of my previous wedding clients. She wanted to make a calendar for her husband.
It was a learning experience but they came out nice.
I can't post them until after Christmas though, just in case somebody he knows might happen to see them here.

So anyway I can appreciate the challenges. These came out very nice!
It is very easy to look at them later and see things one might have done different, while during the shoot they might be of minor importance as you are paying the majority of your attention to the bigger issues of lighting posing exposure etc etc

Moogle Pepper

I really like the details in this one, boss!

I think anna could have had a stronger effect if her hands gripped Lauren more instead of leaving a spacious gap.

glennp

Nik,

I 'll have to agree that the background needs to be OOF on these as the sheen and wrinkles are a bit distracting. The only other thing that I see is that Anna & Lauren don't appear to be comfortable and the poses a bit tight.

I like your work so keep it up! Just my 2 cents.

Nikolai

zoomer wrote:

Thanks Nikolai.
I just shot my first boudoir type shots for a Christmas calendar for one of my previous wedding clients. She wanted to make a calendar for her husband.
It was a learning experience but they came out nice.
I can't post them until after Christmas though, just in case somebody he knows might happen to see them here.

So anyway I can appreciate the challenges. These came out very nice!
It is very easy to look at them later and see things one might have done different, while during the shoot they might be of minor importance as you are paying the majority of your attention to the bigger issues of lighting posing exposure etc etc

Thanks, I hear ya:-)!

Nikolai

Moogle Pepper wrote:

I really like the details in this one, boss!

I think anna could have had a stronger effect if her hands gripped Lauren more instead of leaving a spacious gap.

Thank you!
Well, what you're talking about was on a different category:-)

Nikolai

glennp wrote:

Nik,

I 'll have to agree that the background needs to be OOF on these as the sheen and wrinkles are a bit distracting. The only other thing that I see is that Anna & Lauren don't appear to be comfortable and the poses a bit tight.

I like your work so keep it up! Just my 2 cents.

Thanks, Glenn!

Travis

The lighting and posing is great as usual Nik. I'm not digging the background/chair material though as I see distracting my attention from the models (and believe me - that is hard to do!). Were you going for some theme in particular here? Just curious if I'm missing some context.

Nikolai

Travis wrote:

The lighting and posing is great as usual Nik. I'm not digging the background/chair material though as I see distracting my attention from the models (and believe me - that is hard to do!). Were you going for some theme in particular here? Just curious if I'm missing some context.

Thanks!
I'm yet to figure the way to shoot the couch scene and not to have the bg close to it... But I'll keep playing,,,

BradfordBenn

Stripes
I know that this one is minor, but for me I personally don't like the strips in the couch cover and the back drop. I would say have it in one or the other but not both. Or perhaps rotate one 90 degrees. The fact the stripes didn't "line up" just kind of hit me in a few of the pictures.

Then again, I am still not seeing some of the things that others see.

jonh68

There's a background?

Nikolai

BradfordBenn wrote:

I know that this one is minor, but for me I personally don't like the strips in the couch cover and the back drop. I would say have it in one or the other but not both. Or perhaps rotate one 90 degrees. The fact the stripes didn't "line up" just kind of hit me in a few of the pictures.

Then again, I am still not seeing some of the things that others see.

Thanks, I'll think about that!

Nikolai

jonh68 wrote:

There's a background?

Yeah, who knew, uh? ;-)

jonh68

Nikolai wrote:

Yeah, who knew, uh? ;-)

Sometimes I think we as photographers get so wrapped up in the details we miss the big picture.

Wolftep

Great shots Nikolai. As a complete novice feel free to totally disregard this comment, but I may have gone with a softer backround. Something that wasn't quite as shiny. In picture number 4 it worked very well, but when it's in more of the shot, as in the first 3, it does take my focus away from the models a little bit.

Nikolai

Wolftep wrote:

Great shots Nikolai. As a complete novice feel free to totally disregard this comment, but I may have gone with a softer backround. Something that wasn't quite as shiny. In picture number 4 it worked very well, but when it's in more of the shot, as in the first 3, it does take my focus away from the models a little bit.

Thank you, appreciate the feedback!