Size "Plus" shoot
D3Sshooter
Registered Users Posts: 1,188 Major grins
The first time I had to shoot a Size "Plus" lady....normally i work with fashion girls. This was so different and a lot to learn, especially how to make them look more slim by playing with the light and compostion. I have not mastered it yet. Anyhow here is one shot from the last Size plus shoot.
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I'm wondering if crossing her ankles and moving her left shoulder/elbow back, away from the camera, and placing her left hand about mid-thigh, wouldn't have accomplished more of a slimming appearance?
GaryB
“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!” - Ansel Adams
That out of the way:
1. Take light away from where you don't want it. You've basically lit ALL of her, both sides. EVERY woman looks better with light taken off the waist and calves (look at that big highlight on her camera right calf). The only thing really in shadow is her camera left hand. I'd have used a much smaller modifier and/or flagged it off a lot of her body. On that note, the brightest thing in the image is actually the top of the sofa - unless it's an ad FOR the sofa, that seems to be pulling focus from where it's intended.
2. That square to camera adds visual pounds. LOTS of pounds. Turn her at more of an angle - without actually shooting her leg/hip side on - to get some curve into her waist and watch her drop a size (or more)
3. Whatever is furthest from the camera looks smaller. By bringing her hips and that camera right leg forward and to camera, they look bigger. Get her to (in the words of Sue Bryce) "Kick the booty back" and watch her slim down. This is also where lens distortion can be your friend - use a slightly wider angle, and help minimize what's away/below.
4. Tilt the camera down at her a bit more. Shooting from below is great to elongate legs (no point here, she's sitting) or on the skinny-minny models. Help a curvy girl out by shooting from a bit above and watch that body start to look curvaceous, voluptuous, and mighty fine.
There are a lot of Sue Bryce videos knocking around the internet following her many Creative Live classes. I don't connect with Sue's "guru" stuff and find the "have to do it just like Sue does" thing that some of her followers do a bit creepy, but I have found watching her pose INVALUBLE. She is absolutely BRILLIANT at posing non-models elegantly and with a fashion/glamour vibe, and a real genius with curvy girls.
In all fairness, he didn't say "fat", he said "plus-size".
Me, I would call her zaftig. Zaftig isn't a bad thing. I like zaftig. By today's "model" standards, Marilyn Monroe would have been zaftig. Jane Russell also comes to mind.
I'd trade my eye teeth for an opportunity to photograph either of them.
Anyway, didn't want to start a huge row or debate about it, but I do get so frustrated. Just seeing what this kind of language, however innocuously intended, does to teen girls is enough to make one pause and think. Even the slimmest, loveliest of athetlic teenagers beat themselves and each other up for being "fat"; it's heartbreaking to witness (your daughter's in HS, so I'm sure you know what i'm talking about). And, frankly, although I have experienced for myself how much easier it is to shoot a slender, toned gal than a curvy one with "flaws", I think we photographers are still often part of the problem rather than the solution.....
Which takes me back on topic, and once again recommending the Sue Bryce demos of how to really flatter a curvaceous, boobalicious body with a booty, like this lovely woman in D3's shot. Definitely worth googling around and/or just buying the Creative Live seminars.
Now back to this picture; this is one out of a set of 50 different dresses combined with a male and to be used for a Size PLus fashion folder…..the shop for which this work was done had a lot of influence on the poses because it was about the dresses . The model is merely a "coat hanger" to show the dress. That brings me back to the tips on not to light certain parts, more slanted etc….. however if the dress needs to be visual with all its details then the two become a problem….as they are kind of contra-dictive. The fashion designer and stylist have always a lot to say… and then you stand there as the photographer trying to convince them……not that it helps……This shoot had to be Barok, and hence the sofa and other attributes such as heavy gold painted mirrors etc make it extremely heavy, besides the fact that it pulls the attention. As you rightfully mentioned.
So it seems that I have a bit of work to do…
TXS for your time, steve
That said, I did wonder is this might be a clothing shoot, so you achieved your goal in at least one way- I didn't mention it because usually your work posted here is "concept" stuff, so I assumed this must be too.
I'm not sure I get "Baroque' from that sofa - more "cheetah print!"! Lolol
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