Be careful of how you talk to your model. Build her confidence with kind words, but I suggest you avoid making her feel like a piece of photographic meat. Don’t go overboard telling her how sexy she is, nor should you make any kind of vulgar comments. Duh! Tell her she is pretty, or that her eyes pop, or that she nailed a pose. I avoid talking about her body. She knows she has one. Focus on the work.

Always work to get a great image, help the model figure out what to do with her hands, arms, legs, feet, face, hair, etc. You are the one responsible for her looking good. You have to watch to make sure that a pose doesn’t make her look flabby. Even the slimmest, most fit girls can look bad with a bad pose or camera angle. The model may not be aware of how things look from the camera’s point of view.

I’m not spending time here on posing. We’ll save that for another time. But, you should have a good idea of how to make the human body look interesting.  Should the model cross her legs, or have her knee bent, or twist her torso? Should her chin be up, down, left, right etc? Should she arch her back, look over her shoulder, let her back sink? That is all up to you. If you have a good model, she will figure out a lot of this herself, but she will still need feedback from you to get the poses that make her look best.

This photo of Anastasia was taken on a rainy day. The skies were sullen, and a very uninteresting grey with little character. She had this amazing bright pink bikini that was such a great contrast to the grey day and the green surroundings. I stuck a light stand with a speedlight, and weight on the stand in the middle of the river.  I had her sit on the rock and I waded into the stream. Her pose is very introspective and private. She is not communicating with the camera, so shooting the scene with her in it, makes the whole thing come off as if we are just catching a glimpse of a private moment. And, to me, the image is beautiful and serene.



Charolett below is in a cluster of trees in a modest swimsuit, with bright cheerful colors and polka dots. The spot is very shady and the sun is coming in low to her left. I set a speedlight with umbrella on a stand in front of her and to her right. I made sure there were tree branches and leafs in front of the umbrella to act as a gobo (go before the light) to create more shadows from the other direction. The low ambient light, the trees, and the lighting coming from her sides creates a play of light and shadows that define the muscle tone and give shape to her shoulders, legs, and helps show her cleavage.

A couple of other things that help give this piece form and dimension are the branches and leafs in front of the model, and the tree trunks behind her. The fact that only the side of her face is well lit, gives this photograph a sense of mystery as it does not fully reveal the girl.

Kelly had this amazing long blonde hair and reminded me of a Barbie doll. I put her behind this tree, peeking out from behind it. The knobby gnarled tree adds a lot of visual contrast to her smooth skin and shape. The sunlight coming from behind her lights up her hair. I added some fill flash for this to compensate for the bright background. Even though she is a very beautiful girl this swimsuit photograph is about the whole environment. The tree seems to have a face, almost as if it is looking at her. Kelly looks out at us in her pale pink bikini and all the elements create a whole effect making the bikini not be the central or sole focus of the photograph.

These are some examples of swimsuit photographs where the swimsuit is part of the photo, but not the sole star of the show.

My next post will be on using light and perspective to create a more sensual look in swimsuit photography.

It is the same because you need to know your stuff. You have to be able to get good poses, good light, and everything else right. It is the same, because models expect you to not waste their time.

Swimsuit and bikini photography is different because light plays a role in a different way than on a fully clothed model. Also, depending on your purpose, swimsuit may be more sensual in the visual appeal than your other work.

On another post, I will talk about how to find the models you want, but this post is going to be more on working with them and getting the results you want. I will talk some about lighting, but more on general lighting concepts rather than technical details.

Swimwear photos can be cute and sweet or they can be hot and sexy. The choice of your model, accessories, poses, lighting and other factors affect where your shoot will fall on that spectrum.



This model was working on building her portfolio. She is fifteen an so we did not want to overly sexualize the images. Cute and sweet and pretty was the goal here. Here the sun was setting low in the sky. I worked with Hannah to help her be aware of how the sunlight would create light and shadow across her abdomen if she was turned just right. I used the blue parasol to compliment the sky and her bikini. The parasol also takes some attention away from her body, and gives a distracting element that makes a whole picture, rather than having all the focus be on her body.

With Hannah kneeling in the water, leaned back slightly, shoulders square, it stretched out her tummy to make it look as slim and fit as possible. I used fill flash to soften the shadows on her face and torso. But the sun did most of the lighting. This is a whole body shot, so it does not focus on body parts. I think that helps soften what could otherwise be a too sexy image for a 15 year old.

Here is another full body shot. I’ve included a beach ball prop. I had Hannah jump with the ball. This created a sense of energy and gives the viewer more to look at than just the body. The story here is about the girls energy and joy, not the body. I used sunlight and fill flash on camera for this photo.

Charolett is working hard to build a modeling career. She had never done a swimsuit set and did not want to do a bikini, but did want to try swimsuit modeling. Here in Utah many people want modest swimsuit and designers are going to need models for modest swimwear.

I photographed Charolett with a cloudy sky and a small amount of fill flash. Her body is in near profile, but not quite, her head turned softly, with the chin down slightly, toward the camera. This pose gives a soft, gentle, feminine feel. The sepia takes the flesh tones out of the picture and makes the whole image, with the rough horse coral behind her, feel a little moody. We let the wind blow her hair to complete the feel of the photo.

My next post will be part 2 of a 3 part series and will deal with swimsuit photography that is scenic, or moody, and not body centric.

As we worked I discovered that I really liked the way Olivia looked when she looked straight at the camera. She connected with the camera with a head on look that knocked my socks off. I flooded her face with light from both left and right to take out hard shadows and to help her skin look as smooth as possible.

Olivia did not need much coaching, she is kind of natural at posing, but we did give her some direction.  I like to see a model do something with the shapes they can make with their body, and limbs.  The above pose is simple, soft, and feminine. And there is that direct look at the camera. Wow.

This pose was Olivia's idea, I just had her switch hands so that she her arm when across the body and the fingers went up the side of her face.  Here you can see the wonderful make-up done by Tammy. I personally look for clean make-up that shows of a girls natural beauty for a new model portfolio.

This was Olivias idea. We worked if a few times to get placement right and then shot it a few times. This was my favorite of the bunch.  I like it because it shows off her slender limbs and her nack for looking gracefull.

This last shot was toward the end and I wanted to get some photos that showed different facial looks. She gave several strong looks, but this was one of my favorites.

Friday I will have a tutorial on working with swimsuit models.



In this photo, the model and I are both in an abandoned warehouse and it is dark inside.  In this photo, the setting sun was to the model’s left and behind her.  The field and sky were quite bright and she was pretty dark. As you can see in the before shot, the model turns out very dark and you cannot see much of her features. Not only that, but the bright background is dark too.  Your camera wants to adjust to an average amount of light so with the bright background, the camera compensates by making everything darker.

Here is a photo with the camera set on auto, not adjusting for difference in light levels of subject and background.

Here you can see the harsh shadows and dull background.

To light this photo, I set the exposure to make the sky look blue, not washed out blue, but a nice blue and the field showing its color too.  Then I placed a speedlight on a stand with an umbrella about 3 feet away from the model, about centered at the height of her nose. The light was pointed at her, but also at the sun.  The wall blocked light on the left side of her face.  I adjusted the amount of light needed to make her look bright enough.  The light from the flash has no effect on the background and so you get both the background and the model looking properly exposed.

Here is a diagram of the lighting set up. It is pretty simple and easy to do.



 I spent many hours the past two days photographing and watching soccer. I took over 2500 photos in that time and am busy getting them sorted, edited, and posted online for people to purchase. Among all this my car decided to quit running. Some foolish fuel line issue. With that hassle added to the soccer photos, and no sleep, I did not know if I was going to get to go out and shoot, but about 5 pm I had to do something different.  I took my brand new K7 body and new this week 50-135mm F2.8 lens and walked down the street to see what caught my attention.

I don’t do candid work very often, but as you can see this is candid, although the kids at the water fountain did see me, they did not pay any attention.

When we first moved into our house, the first day the kids found the park and this fountain. I see little kids still think it is a blast on a late summer afternoon.

I loved the way the sun played with the water, the little rainbow is fun.

This little guy was taking a moment to let it all soak in.

This boy and his sister were having a blast feeding the baby ducks.

An old fisherman. He gave me a wary eye when he saw me walk by with the camera. I'm so glad the shutter on the Pentax K7 is quiet.

As a photographer, it was fun to see what kind of shots I could get and how to make them look cool.  I do a lot of glamor and fashion work, so scout camp is a whole lot different. Well in some respects.

Watching my son learn to run a sail boat, rock climbing, lead his troop was priceless. No father would want to miss this stuff.

Gotta Love Med-Rare Steak!

Loved watching David climb.

The complete set can be seen here.



The how: One goal of the shoot was to “isolate on white” so that the images could be more easily used in graphic art for promotional materials. I shot them on white seamless paper with two lights aimed at the paper and then one reflective umbrella pointed at the subjects.  Lighting varied depending upon how far forward of the two background lights the subjects were placed.

I was really happy with the way this one turned out. Dolph likes his Mac computer.

In post, it was not too hard to clean up any areas that were not perfectly white.

Would you like your portrait taken? I do location and studio work with children, teens, families,  and yes, DJ’s. Contact me now to set up a portrait session.

Charolett is a beautiful girl, she has lots of energy and enthusiam. Her dance skill come into play when she models.  Here is her "before" shot.

Here is one just after Tammy finished her make-up work.

As we were shooting, we came across this chair which had just been left outside. So we used it. I love that when I work with Charolett, I don't have to give her a lot of prompting, she just create fun poses on her own.