How To Take Amazing Glamour Shots

What is glamour photography? Glamour photography focuses on the physical form of the model and attempts to represent the model in an attractive, suggestive way while maintaining good taste.

You may have come across such types of glamorous photographs of celebrities and actors in magazines. But did you know that you too could shoot glamour photographs at home. In order to do this, you will need a good digital camera with adjustable light settings. By learning some basic techniques from Saneesh Sukumaran a leading Bangalore fashion photographer, you could learn how to take glamour shots at home.

Use Contrast in Lighting

First of all, you need to use contrast in lighting during the photo shoot. To elaborate further, you should use soft lighting in front of the subject and strong lighting at the back. By doing this, you will achieve an exaggerated and shadow free look. This will help you in learning how to take glamour shots at home.

Choose A Background That Complements The Model

Secondly, you need to ensure that the background you have chosen complements the color of the model’s dress. At the same time, photographers need to take care to avoid using an attention-grabbing background. Otherwise, the background will distract attention from the model, who should be the focus of the glamour shots.

Similarly, you need to clear out any distractive elements and props from the intended location for the photo shoot. Instead, choose a subtle background that enhances the look of the model.

Choose An Exotic Location

While majority of the photographers choose to take glamour photographs in a studio, exotic locations like a beach, mountain and waterfall offer great choices for the location of the photo shoot. Moreover, you can adjust the light settings using the camera for on location photo shoots.

The downside to choosing an outdoor location is improper lighting. While you can control the lighting in a studio setting, outdoor shooting does not offer you the same flexibility. Therefore, care needs to be taken to ensure correct lighting techniques are used for on location photo shoots. Else, you will end up with blurred images of the model, due to insufficient lighting.

Shooting Vertically

While ordinary photographs are taken horizontally, glamour photographs are taken vertically. This differentiates glamour photographs from ordinary snaps. Therefore photographers need to physically turn the camera to a vertical position before taking photographs of models. This allows photographers to capture the full length of the model, instead of letting the background dominate the photograph.

Posing Techniques

Lastly, you should ensure that the model poses in a variety of ways. In addition, the model should feel comfortable and the poses should be shot aesthetically. In the case of a female model, you could capture the natural curves of a woman’s body. Additionally, care should be taken to ensure that the model lies in the centre of the photographs.

You can start taking glamour shots at home by following these tips from Mr. Saneesh Sukumaran, a well-known professional in Bangalore Wedding & Glamour photography. All you need to do now is to start clicking away and establish yourself in the glamour photography business.

Best Posing Ideas For Family Portraits

When you go to a professional studio to get a family portrait done, the photographer asks you to pose in a particular way to get good shots of your family. Wouldn’t you like to save on the extra expense of going to a professional photo studio by taking family portraits at home? Here are some helpful tips to help you do exactly this.

A family portrait should capture the essence of togetherness and exude warmth of the family members. In order to achieve this, you need to have a perspective of the big picture and make some slight changes to the positions of your family members. This will improve the quality of the photo and give a professional look to the portrait. You can benefit from some of the best posing ideas for family portraits; some of which are outlined below.

Stand At An Angle: 

First of all, when your family members pose in front of a camera, ensure that they are standing at an angle to the camera. This change in position will make the photo more interesting and appealing to the viewer, rather than the conventional style of family members standing at right angles to the camera.  

On one hand, when people face a camera head on, the resultant photo does not produce a flattering image of the family members. On the other hand, when they pose at angles, all the people in the photograph tend to look slimmer.

Conceal The Hands:

When many members of a family are standing together, their hands can prove to be a visual distraction from the actual faces of the family members. Moreover, many family members translate to having more number of hands in the photograph.

Often, people do not know what to do with their hands. Should they fold them, let them stick to the side of their bodies or put them in their pockets. One way to deal with this issue is to conceal the hands from view. To this end, you can ask some people to fold their hands, place them on their laps or tuck the hands in their pockets.

Vary The Postures:

Yet another way of making a family portrait interesting is by varying the postures of family members. To achieve this, you can request the elders in the family to sit down and allow kids and adults to stand for the photo session.

You should ensure that the photo has a good balance of all subjects. Therefore, the photo should depict youthfulness of children, wisdom of elderly people and maturity of adults within the same family portrait.

Don't Say Cheese:

Majority of people feel uncomfortable posing in front of a camera. Moreover, you tend to aggravate the situation by telling them to get ready for a shot, giving rise to stiff postures and unnatural expressions. In particular, the word “cheese” automatically triggers artificial smiles and expressions in family members during a photo session. This results in some average looking family portraits.

What you can do to avoid this is to initiate a conversation on a neutral topic and keep everyone engaged in your conversation. At this stage, you can take photos randomly, so that the family members are unaware of what you’re doing and you can end up with a great photograph with natural expressions.

These posing ideas for family portraits will help you hold family photo sessions at home with ease, without the need to hire a professional photographer. However, if you are unsure of your abilities, do not hesitate to contact a good professional studio that specializes in family portraits.

By: Saneesh Sukumaran 

Handy Tips For Child Photography

Many people think that child photography is no work and all play. However this notion is far from the truth. Child photography is a challenging field, primarily due to how difficult it is to manage children during a photo shoot. Therefore, you need to develop skills in handling children before you can take perfect pictures of them.

Here are some useful tips to help you better manage and deal with children during a photo session. 

Help The Child Relax Before The Shoot:

Kids react to shoots in different ways. While some children can be inquisitive and very active, others can be submissive and quiet. Either way, when a kid arrives for a photo shoot, take the time out to speak to the kid and help him relax. Further, the co-operation of a child is necessary to help you get the desired shot. On one hand, a child that retreats into a shell on seeing a stranger will not be able to give you a range of expressions or give different poses.  On the other hand, a kid who is enthusiastic may end up playing with camera equipment and may not listen to your instructions for the intended shoot.

Some ways in which you can help a child relax are by offering him a toy, a balloon or a ball to play with during the photo shoot. This will keep the child occupied. Another suggestion is to involve the child by showing some of the snaps you have taken of him. Further, you can help him see through the viewfinder to help him get interested and let him take some snaps as well.

Choose Various “Fun” Location Settings

Depending on your schedule and availability of time, choose various “fun” location settings while shooting with a kid. These may include an indoor location, outdoor location and a neutral location with a simple background. This variation in setting will bring different reactions and expressions to a child’s face, giving you the opportunity to capture different aspects of a child. Finally, try to choose spots, like a park, a zoo or a children’s playground that will help the kid have fun and unwind naturally.

Some of the most memorable shots taken by photographers are those of innocent children. The tips given here are useful for amateur photographers who want to take up child photography as a full-time profession.

By Saneesh Sukumaran 

4 Tips for Excellent Family Photos

The best way to treasure and relive happy moments with your family is by photographing all the family members in a photo session. You will treasure these precious moments for years to come through the family photos. Besides, you will find it easy to introduce your family members who are either abroad or away from home to visiting relatives and friends by using the family photos.

So how do you go about planning your family photo sessions? There are many ways in which you can plan and organize family photo sessions. To begin with, you can hire a professional family photo studio. Alternatively, you can get a hold of a professional camera and start clicking away. Either way, you need to be aware of some guidelines to create some amazing family snaps that are frame-worthy.

Get Family Members To Draw Close To Each Other:

First of all, get the family members to draw close together because families that stand close together emit warmth and affection that is visible in a photo. So, get all the family members to huddle up in front of a camera. In spite of the varying physical features and characteristics of individual members, the photo creates the desired effect of a cozy family when they stand close to each other. On the other hand, if members of a family stand apart, maintaining a distance, the resulting image will exude distance and an uneasy relationship among members.

Coordinate Clothing:

You should discuss with your family members about color co-ordination for their clothing prior to the shoot. This will help viewers of the photo to focus attention on the individual family members in a photo. Further, you can choose clothes of different colors, but the colors should complement each other.

In addition, families should avoid clothes with bright colors, prints and logos because this type of clothing distracts attention from the members of the family who are the subject of the family shoot. 

Look Out For Blinking:

In a family photo shoot, the number of people is more. So, it becomes challenging for the photographer to check for blinking. However, if you want a perfect shot, you need to keep a look out for any of the family members’ blinking their eyes. This is very important for a family photo, as families maintain their family photos for decades. Moreover, nobody wants to find they blinking in a family photo, as the photo is preserved and viewed over a period of several years. 

Try Your Hand at Comedy:

If you want a photograph that reflects the genuine happy faces of the different family members, try to crack some jokes. Another way to break the ice and make all family members feel comfortable is by asking them to try a different task like jumping or running. Further, one-liners that instantly connect with people will come in handy here. Finally, you can talk about a unique aspect about the family to bring genuine smiles on their faces.

By following these simple guidelines, you can get a memorable family photograph which you and your family can treasure for several years to come. 

By Saneesh Sukumaran 

Uses of Glamour Photography

Many people assume that glamour photography is the same as fashion photography. However, they are mistaken, as there is a major difference between the two. When it comes to fashion photography, the focus of attention is on the clothing of the model. On the other hand, glamour or boudoir photography focuses on the subject itself.

In glamour photography, photographers concentrate on depicting models as being very attractive with perfect complexions in flattering poses. Further, glamour photography concentrates on revealing the beauty of the physical features of the model. In order to create glamorous images, photographers make use of both color as well as black and white images.

In addition to all this, glamour photography is highly commercialized, due to its varied uses in magazines, calendars, postcards and ad campaigns. The various uses of glamour photography are described below.

Model Portfolio:

Aspiring models who want to establish themselves in the fashion industry create a model portfolio to help market themselves in the industry. They can include some glamorous photographs as well, because of the commercial viability of this type of photography. Further, the model portfolio will help the models catch the attention of leading figures in the fashion industry and land a modeling contract. Besides this, models who want to expand their current portfolios can also choose glamour photography to seek better opportunities.

On a different note, models should choose a photographer with care as glamour photography involves showing some amount of skin. They need to ensure that the chosen photographer has good references to make sure that the photos are taken in an artistic manner and does not reflect vulgarity or obscenity.

Calendars:

Even though glamour photography commonly uses models or celebrities as subjects of the photographs, even ordinary people can be used as subjects for this type of photography. Interestingly, the majority of models who pose for glamour photography are women. Therefore, ordinary women began to use glamour photography to surprise the men in their lives.

To elaborate, some women like to present a collection of their glamour photographs in a calendar format to their husbands or boyfriends. While posing for these photographs, they use minimal clothing to be more alluring to their husbands or boyfriends. Moreover, calendars with glamour photographs are a good gifting option for any occasion, as they help men remember the women they love, throughout the year.

Cosmetic companies:

The cosmetic industry uses glamour photography extensively to market their various products. Used primarily in ad campaigns and other marketing collateral, these photographs highlight the spotless beauty of models after they have used one of their cosmetic products.

In this way, cosmetic companies can demonstrate how the product can enhance the beauty of a person. Additionally, as glamour photography focuses on the beauty of a subject or model in a photograph, this type of photography is ideal for use by cosmetic companies and used extensively by them. Also, in some occasions, the resultant photos are edited digitally to create an illusion of a perfect model.

Advertising campaigns:

Many companies use glamour photography in their print advertising campaigns to attract attention of prospective customers by using images of attractive men and women. This is because research has proven the positive effects of using attractive models in increasing sales of products. Companies market products like watches, bags, shoes, mobiles, laptops and cars by using glamour photography. In addition to this, the fashion industry also uses glamour photography to introduce or advertise their new line of clothing.

Conclusion:

Glamour photography focuses attention on the subject or model of a photograph.  Further, photographers try to capture the spotless complexion of the model in this type of photography. Finally, there are many commercial uses of glamour photography including creation of a model portfolio, calendar, marketing collateral of cosmetic companies and in advertising.


By Saneesh Sukumaran

Best Posing Ideas For Family Portraits :

When you go to a professional studio to get a family portrait done, the photographer asks you to pose in a particular way to get good shots of your family. Wouldn’t you like to save on the extra expense of going to a professional photo studio by taking family portraits at home? Here are some helpful tips to help you do exactly this.

A family portrait should capture the essence of togetherness and exude warmth of the family members. In order to achieve this, you need to have a perspective of the big picture and make some slight changes to the positions of your family members. This will improve the quality of the photo and give a professional look to the portrait. You can benefit from some of the best posing ideas for family portraits; some of which are outlined below.

Stand At An Angle

First of all, when your family members pose in front of a camera, ensure that they are standing at an angle to the camera. This change in position will make the photo more interesting and appealing to the viewer, rather than the conventional style of family members standing at right angles to the camera.  

On one hand, when people face a camera head on, the resultant photo does not produce a flattering image of the family members. On the other hand, when they pose at angles, all the people in the photograph tend to look slimmer.

Conceal The Hands

When many members of a family are standing together, their hands can prove to be a visual distraction from the actual faces of the family members. Moreover, many family members translate to having more number of hands in the photograph.

Often, people do not know what to do with their hands. Should they fold them, let them stick to the side of their bodies or put them in their pockets. One way to deal with this issue is to conceal the hands from view. To this end, you can ask some people to fold their hands, place them on their laps or tuck the hands in their pockets.

Vary The Postures

Yet another way of making a family portrait interesting is by varying the postures of family members. To achieve this, you can request the elders in the family to sit down and allow kids and adults to stand for the photo session.

You should ensure that the photo has a good balance of all subjects. Therefore, the photo should depict youthfulness of children, wisdom of elderly people and maturity of adults within the same family portrait.

Don't Say Cheese

Majority of people feel uncomfortable posing in front of a camera. Moreover, you tend to aggravate the situation by telling them to get ready for a shot, giving rise to stiff postures and unnatural expressions. In particular, the word “cheese” automatically triggers artificial smiles and expressions in family members during a photo session. This results in some average looking family portraits.

What you can do to avoid this is to initiate a conversation on a neutral topic and keep everyone engaged in your conversation. At this stage, you can take photos randomly, so that the family members are unaware of what you’re doing and you can end up with a great photograph with natural expressions.

These posing ideas for family portraits will help you hold family photo sessions at home with ease, without the need to hire a professional photographer. However, if you are unsure of your abilities, do not hesitate to contact a good professional studio that specializes in family portraits.

By Saneesh Sukumaran  

How To Do Your Make Up For A Bridal Photo Shoot

The wedding day is arguably the most important day in the life of a woman. A woman wants to look her best on this day as she will treasure this moment for years to come. Therefore, she goes the extra mile to ensure a flawless skin and hires a professional hair stylist and make-up artist for the bridal photo shoot and wedding day. This way, a bride-to-be will be able to better manage her expenses and hire a professional photo studio.

If you are travelling to the state of Karnataka, you will be able to find a good professional photographer Like Saneesh. However, there are some of us who cannot afford the expense of hiring a professional makeup artist. Here are some handy tips for those of you who are planning to do your own make-up for D day.

Pay Attention To Your Skin Color

There are some guidelines in doing your make-up for bridal photos. The first is to pay attention to your skin color. If you have fair skin, you could add color to your face using a pink or peach blush. In contrast, when your skin has a natural tan, opt for darker shades. Alternatively, you can add a glow to your face using a bronzer on your cheekbones. In fact, many professional photographers suggest adding more color to the face to look healthy and cheerful in the photographs.

Add Color To Your Lips

On similar lines, you need to add color to your lips. If your lips look pale, choose a lipstick or lip gloss that is at least 1-2 shades darker. However, if your lips have a darker tint, simply line the lips with a lip color and use a lip gloss to add a glow to your lips.

Limit Shimmer In Eye Shadow 

The third point to keep in mind is to limit the amount of shimmer you apply to your eyes. When you apply the right amount of shimmery eye shadow, it will result in a sparkling effect when applied in the right areas on the face. However, too much shimmer on the face will end up reflecting the light, giving you an unnatural look.  So choose an eye shadow with little shimmer and apply it sparingly in the inner corners of your eyes. In addition, you can use a matte color in the crease of your eye. This will define and emphasize your natural features.

Highlight Your Beautiful Eyes

When a person looks at a photograph, the eyes of the subject instantly capture the attention of the viewer. Hence, you need to highlight your eyes in a subtle manner.

Moreover, if your eyes are smaller than average, avoid using too much eye shadow. Else, your eye shadow will attract more attention than your eyes. Instead, you can use mascara and a soft liner for the bottom of the eyes and a slightly darker eye shadow at the top of your eye. Alternatively, you can use a lighter eye shadow and highlight your eye-lashes by applying mascara.

Make-up for bridal photography involves following these simple tips to ensure great snaps. Then, you can approach professional bridal photography located in Bangalore city. For example, Saneesh Sukumaran have expertise in bridal photography and can offer you some amazing bridal snaps.