Janel's boudoir portraits...

zoomer

Janel is a pretty girl and tall, 5'11".
She was pretty shy especially in the bedroom so we shot all over her house...whatever works.

Be aware there are a few marginal NSFW at her gallery:
http://aoboudoirboise.smugmug.com/Other/Janels-boudoir-portrait/15138042_dhGbb#1131874960_oVSxS

Icebear

Nice work. Comfortable to look at. Not too edgy. I don't think any girl who owns a pair of high heels like those black ones is really shy. Nuh-uh . . .

zoomer

haha ok....shy in front of me then .
Appreciate the comment.

NeilL

I suspect this shot was too underexposed sooc, and too contrasty on the face. I would suggest that you could have used high speed sync to shut down the background which I think distracts too much, and to increase attention on the face. But a reflector putting light into her off-light hair could have improved exposure. Her gaze is too intense for the atmosphere in the rest of the image, something lower and less focused might have been more in keeping. The shoulder strap and pendulous accessories tie her down to the couch, and that and the gaze convey the feeling that she is bound down. I get the feeling from the angle of her body that she is going to roll off the couch. The image could be rotated ccw. The lighting on the face is quite nice. Just my opinions.

Neil

Albert Dickson

Great Stuff Mike. There is a wonderful clean vulnerability to this ladies gallery. Realy nice work. Boudoir in Boise should be a awsome gig. I think there are only a couple of studios doing boudoir here and besides you I don't think any of them are making it a real focus of their business. Tell me if I am wrong.

zoomer

Neil, not quite sure where you are coming from with your critique. Photo was not underexposed at capture and not too contrasty. Flash was not used so high speed sync could not be a factor and the photo was taken at F2 so the background is as blurred as it could get. Exposure is spot on, and I hate reflectors, never use them. She is an a bed not a couch, intense gaze, she is laughing at me and looking at the window, I tilted it on purpose. I don't like the background to be overly dark the subject to be overly bright, don't like that look.
It easy to nit pick any photo if that is your intent.

Hi Albert,
Thanks very much. I though the boudoir would be a great way to keep me busy during the winter as I don't have a studio and the outdoor portrait gigs in the winter are slow as you can imagine.
Yes boudoir is definitely an underdeveloped niche in Boise. There are only 1 or 2 currently doing boudoir that really take professional quality photos....we will see how it goes.

Dooginfif20

NeilL wrote: »

I suspect this shot was too underexposed sooc, and too contrasty on the face. I would suggest that you could have used high speed sync to shut down the background which I think distracts too much, and to increase attention on the face. But a reflector putting light into her off-light hair could have improved exposure. Her gaze is too intense for the atmosphere in the rest of the image, something lower and less focused might have been more in keeping. The shoulder strap and pendulous accessories tie her down to the couch, and that and the gaze convey the feeling that she is bound down. I get the feeling from the angle of her body that she is going to roll off the couch. The image could be rotated ccw. The lighting on the face is quite nice. Just my opinions.

Neil

These types of comments are the reason I very rarely post stuff anymore. People who just love to rip a picture apart for no reason. Its a great picture. Is there things that could be fixed? Probably. I think the picture is great and the customer would be 100000% happy with the images she was given. Good job Zoomer!

Chris H

I think it (and the rest of the set) is bloody marvellous. Lets see some of your work NeilL....

Sam

Perhaps a little off topic but do you have a female assistant with you when you are doing boudoir shoots?

Sam

zoomer

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to comment.

I always make sure they have a friend there with them. I do not bring an assistant. I would NEVER shoot a girl at her house, or anywhere not public, alone.

<ed>

Love the expression on her face,to me it made the shot . btw I've ran across you guys in Boise good to see a familiar peep on here

Lightsearcher

Beautiful work, you have an amazing gallery.

Regards.

Marcelo

VayCayMom

Zoomer, I adore your work ( ever since that crazy couple that insisted the engagement session was a failure!?!), so I was excited to look at your gallery.

I have not tried this and I know I would not be able to post any of my first attempts, one day I want to try my hand at this too, mostly because I think it is so pretty.That is my motivation, ha, just shoot prettiness!

Your client is a beauty and I loved the work but something in the gallery bugged me and I realized it was the background/location of some.I went back 3 times to take a look. Her house was pretty stark looking, not much fabric, no window coverings except for blinds. Sparse. No softness. No pretty things, no pretty backgrounds, hard edged windows, no nice wood trim etc. I think back to some I have liked in the past and I tend to like the ones in a fancy motel room the best or a house with more coziness.

It has no reflection on your talent, and this is easier and cheaper than getting a room I am sure, plus you have no idea what her home looks like and this could work very well in some homes. The ones in her bedroom I liked the best, but the ones that bugged me the most were on the floor, looks like an empty room, cheap track home baseboards, just screamed to me "new, almost empty, just moved in, track house"

Maybe this is exactly what she asked for,plus the benefit of less fuss, less expense, just wanted to say I think her home did not do your skills any justice.

zoomer

Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment, appreciate your remarks.

Trudy I am kind of chuckling because you described her house perfectly.
She is a young lady who bought this brand new starter house with her sister. They just moved in two weeks ago. It is actually a nice little house, just like the first house my wife and I bought....many years ago.
Shooting in the bedroom was tough because the window was on the wrong side of the bed and there was just no room, plus it was obvious she was not really comfortable shooting in there.

I am looking into finding a local hotel I can make a deal with to rent rooms for two hours to do the shoots....work in progress.

VayCayMom

zoomer wrote: »

thanks everyone for taking the time to comment, appreciate your remarks.

Trudy i am kind of chuckling because you described her house perfectly.
She is a young lady who bought this brand new starter house with her sister. They just moved in two weeks ago. It is actually a nice little house, just like the first house my wife and i bought....many years ago.
Shooting in the bedroom was tough because the window was on the wrong side of the bed and there was just no room, plus it was obvious she was not really comfortable shooting in there.

I am looking into finding a local hotel i can make a deal with to rent rooms for two hours to do the shoots....work in progress.

lol !!!

BFauska

zoomer wrote: »

I am looking into finding a local hotel I can make a deal with to rent rooms for two hours to do the shoots....work in progress.

That's gotta be a fun conversation to have with hotel management... "No, really... just for pictures of mostly naked women."

Great shots by the way, the kind of thing that seems like it would boost any girls confidence in her beauty and remind any guy how lucky he is to have a lovely lady. A large part of the success is in the photography, not just subject matter.

NeilL

Zoomer, just had a chance to follow up my comment with a look at the gallery. There is some excellent work in there, including many of the high contrast ones. ##25, 33 and 46 I think are outstanding, strong and distinctive, and expressive of character/idea. They are highly achieved in style and technique.

I can't change my mind about the image you headed your thread with, so I wonder, now that I have seen the set, why you chose that one!?dunno

Neil

zoomer

Thanks everyone.
Well.....I don't think of it as shooting pictures of half naked women. It is just portrait photography, the ladies have a great time with it, playing dressup. I make every effort to keep it classy and clean. But yeah I get what you mean .

Hi NeilL,
Thank you for your comments.
I chose that one because it showed her face and little else, very G rated, just trying to get peoples attention enough to have them want to look at the gallery.
I prefer people look at the photos in the gallery to get a proper feel for the shoot and the photography, impossible to get that by posting 2 or 3 here. If I post 2 or 3 here then nobody looks at the gallery....catch 22.
Plus I can never pick my own favorites.....and I learned the hard way that I cannot pick which photos others will like the best.

chris5olson

very nice, i like the composition in most of the shots. And the photos are sexy but not distasteful. I LOVE the photo where you shot down getting her great eyelashes , that was my fave!