Sarah... a plus sized beauty! (With a few shared tips)
heatherfeather
Registered Users Posts: 2,738 Major grins
Hi everyone!
I had a fun challenge yesterday. I have a friend that is a classic beauty in every sense... but the challenge was that she is easily 100lbs overweight. And she has all the baggage that goes with being overweight but most especially, she was feeling unlovely, unconfident and undesirable. My goal: To make her see how beautiful she really is, as she is. It really helped that she was willing to step out of the cookie cutter photos that most people want and took a risk to go for the dramatic. I am not saying that I am the master at shooting heavier people... that is for sure. But I have had some successes using some tricks I have worked out over the years.
We started indoors.
1. My goal: to get the essence of a classic painting through lighting and simplistic posing. Tricks I used: Soft light from quite a bit above her. Pose was crucial: She was faced about 11 o clock, and then I had her turn her head sharply and tip the top of her head toward me. (They always want to tip the top of their heads away... don't let them. It will make that double chin just scream for attention.) The point of the light and the pose was to hide her under chin area and define the jawline. Also, I shot this from quite a bit above her. I won't say I didn't help her along with a tiny bit of photoshop. But the meat of the photo was there and I have no issues with a 1 minute photoshop fix.
2. Here is another pose we did. I would have used a rim light for any other model, but for her, we were trying to minimize her bulk, and focus on the pretty places. Not sure if that was the correct thing to do, but it worked out because she loves this shot. I did some skin work and burning, but other than that, this is pretty much as you see. No warping or liquifying at all. Its all in the pose and light. Lighting was from above, top of head is tipped toward the camera, 1/4 turn and there you have it.
By now, some of you are probably saying that she doesn't look that heavy from these photos. Well..... here is a link to show you what we were working with. She has some real raw beauty, but it must be found.
3. For the next bit, we used the "hide under a big piece of fabric technique". (Yes, I did make up that inspiring technique name myself.) It worked really well to have the light colored fabric to blend in with the snowy background and again, minimize her bulk. The viewer can really pretend that the bit of her body you see is all there is of her.
4. For this one we used the "stretch it out" technique. One of the most important things for this shot was that I made sure that her armpit was covered and her neck stretched out and poked forward a bit. She has some good lines at her waist when her arm is raised. This is her favorite photo in the set.
Post work: I cleaned up some wrinkles at her shoulder and neck and lightly burned under her chin to give it just that much more definition.
5. That fabric helped so much to give these a bit of drama.
6. Hide behind a tree. It also must be said that showing a lot of skin on a larger person is pretty tricky. That fabric covering the upper arms is a must. Show the good parts, hide the flaws and let that fabric drape.
Hope you all enjoyed these! She is truly a beautiful person, all the way through!
C + C = me +:D
I had a fun challenge yesterday. I have a friend that is a classic beauty in every sense... but the challenge was that she is easily 100lbs overweight. And she has all the baggage that goes with being overweight but most especially, she was feeling unlovely, unconfident and undesirable. My goal: To make her see how beautiful she really is, as she is. It really helped that she was willing to step out of the cookie cutter photos that most people want and took a risk to go for the dramatic. I am not saying that I am the master at shooting heavier people... that is for sure. But I have had some successes using some tricks I have worked out over the years.
We started indoors.
1. My goal: to get the essence of a classic painting through lighting and simplistic posing. Tricks I used: Soft light from quite a bit above her. Pose was crucial: She was faced about 11 o clock, and then I had her turn her head sharply and tip the top of her head toward me. (They always want to tip the top of their heads away... don't let them. It will make that double chin just scream for attention.) The point of the light and the pose was to hide her under chin area and define the jawline. Also, I shot this from quite a bit above her. I won't say I didn't help her along with a tiny bit of photoshop. But the meat of the photo was there and I have no issues with a 1 minute photoshop fix.
2. Here is another pose we did. I would have used a rim light for any other model, but for her, we were trying to minimize her bulk, and focus on the pretty places. Not sure if that was the correct thing to do, but it worked out because she loves this shot. I did some skin work and burning, but other than that, this is pretty much as you see. No warping or liquifying at all. Its all in the pose and light. Lighting was from above, top of head is tipped toward the camera, 1/4 turn and there you have it.
By now, some of you are probably saying that she doesn't look that heavy from these photos. Well..... here is a link to show you what we were working with. She has some real raw beauty, but it must be found.
3. For the next bit, we used the "hide under a big piece of fabric technique". (Yes, I did make up that inspiring technique name myself.) It worked really well to have the light colored fabric to blend in with the snowy background and again, minimize her bulk. The viewer can really pretend that the bit of her body you see is all there is of her.
4. For this one we used the "stretch it out" technique. One of the most important things for this shot was that I made sure that her armpit was covered and her neck stretched out and poked forward a bit. She has some good lines at her waist when her arm is raised. This is her favorite photo in the set.
Post work: I cleaned up some wrinkles at her shoulder and neck and lightly burned under her chin to give it just that much more definition.
5. That fabric helped so much to give these a bit of drama.
6. Hide behind a tree. It also must be said that showing a lot of skin on a larger person is pretty tricky. That fabric covering the upper arms is a must. Show the good parts, hide the flaws and let that fabric drape.
Hope you all enjoyed these! She is truly a beautiful person, all the way through!
C + C = me +:D
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Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
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Thanks for taking the time to detail your tips and SOP on this shoot. It was a great read and valuable for future endeavors.
This gal's hair is quite striking. I think I may have really liked number five if more of her hair was revealed around her head/face and then framed by the cloth.
Nice stuff, I bet her self esteem has been strengthened quite a bit because of your work.
As to her self esteem, this is what she wrote to me on Facebook: It worked!
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Having said this (I love all the photos), I am not a big fan of #2 either ... I LOVE the light, and her face, but her chest ... I just don't get it. The fabric seems to be falling in a "weird" way .... hmmmm ....
And I also have to say, I am usually not a big fan of red. I totally get that the color is supposed to be sexy and she definitely stands out of the background (!). You got the skin tones right too, BUT because of the saturated color you lose detail in the fabric (#4) + I don't like how red looks like in b&w (doesn't it somehow look dirty?). *I* always stay away from it. Especially from a bright red like this ...
What am I "complaining" about though??
Wonderful set!
The only thing that I find disturbing is your watermark, it spoils the pictures (sorry). But the most importend thing is that you made somebody happy with the way they are...
Fwiw, I love, love, LOVE the red. Nothing to do with sexy or not, I just love the contrast against the white ... plus it's my favorite colour anyway
Thanks for sharing, and for the breakdown on how you found the right angles to bring out her natural beauty.
As they say on the interwebs... you shot these "like a boss".
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Well, I took your suggestion and tried turning my monitor upside down and SHE FELL OUT OF THE DRESS! I had to turn it right side up real quick before my wife came in and caught me. :whew
Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
Really nice work on these, she looks very pretty.
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those eyes!!! that contrast!
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Cowboydoug
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more so, did you expect to use the fabric, and planned on it or was it her idea?
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So it was a warm day here in Alaska. We have had the strangest winter... it has been above 40 several times and we have had a lot of rain. (So strange.) But the day of the shoot is was about 35. I tried to get her to do warm up sessions indoors, but she was having so much fun (after seeing a couple of chimped shots) she wanted to keep going for it without a warmup break. We shot outdoors for about 45 minutes or so. We have a lot more photos and poses from that set, but I didn't want to be redundant with my sharing. She was chilly, (especially since she was visiting from Texas, haha) but warmed up just fine. I think there was a chance that I was colder than she was with my full set of snow gear & boots on. Body fat is warm stuff.
I never really know what my clients are going to bring for clothing.... and the burgundy dress was a bit of a surprise. After shooting a few pics outside without the cloth, I knew it wasn't working and was wishing for a cape or something to hide her a bit more. I didn't have a cape on hand, but I did have the old curtain valance panel that you see in the pics. So I ran in and got dug through my cupboards and found it. It worked really well.
All in all, we worked at the session for about 1 1/2 hours, and that includes clothing changes and makeup touchups, clomping through the snow and everything.
Curtain idea is fantastic. I doubt I would ever think of it, and boy would I miss out.
very inspiring photos!
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That's a pretty tough lady to shoot outdoors like this, even in your heat wave of a whopping 35F.
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+1
I am adding a vote to #5 as a favorite.
Thank you so much for your tips along the way, too. Very educational!
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Take a close look at five...do you see the shadow on the left side of her face...you might want to think about softening the shadow line next to her eye...just a suggestion. When you first look at five, the eyes capture you and you miss the shadow detail.
Went back and looked at number one...very nicely done...also one of my favorites. Posing, lighting, and presentation...really a beautiful shot.
Got to say...that you did one of the best jobs that I've seen hiding her plus size. Great use of the sheet.
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To illustrate:
Deep processed:
Another very similar frame right out of LR:
A two minute run through photoshop removed shoulder wrinkles, and burned in shadows under her chin.
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