Before the Edit: How I Raised the Level of My Glamour Photography

The locations, preparation, direction, and camera tools that helped me get closer to the pictures I wanted to create.

If you stay serious about photography, you may reach a point where taking a good picture no longer satisfies you. You can recognize what’s working, but you can also see the distance between your finished photograph and the image you had in mind.

That happened to me within my first few years of shooting models, when I was publishing images in CRED Magazine and CRED Exclusive. I was still figuring out my approach. At the time, I called myself The Glam Photographer, and that was the identity behind my website.

Most of my work was fashion and glamour, especially the eye-candy style that fit those publications. I photographed models in swimsuits, skimpy outfits, and sometimes lingerie. That was glamour. A photograph of a woman in lingerie isn’t automatically boudoir; the purpose and presentation matter. I was producing images for a magazine audience, and boudoir wasn’t the look I was creating for those readers.

People might describe that period as finding my style, but I wanted to raise the level of the entire production. The models, the outfits, the styling, the makeup, the lighting, and the sets all needed to meet my expectations. I wanted everything operating at a level ten, with the picture as close to finished as possible before any editing.

I was already taking some great photographs. But many still lacked the attraction I wanted. They showed a beautiful woman without necessarily making someone stay with the image. I wanted the stare factor: a photograph that kept someone looking, trying to understand what made it so captivating.

I began thinking of that quality as the invisible element of attraction, or allure. Pursuing it led me to make practical changes in how I prepared, directed, and photographed my shoots.

1. Choose a location that gives you something to work with

For my publishing power shoots, having a really nice location was everything.

These were productions where I might have anywhere from eight to fifteen models at a hotel, waiting for their individual shoots for the magazine. I made a point of choosing beautiful places: a great suite inside a great hotel, with surroundings that gave us plenty to photograph.

I still remember one of those power shoots at the W in Washington, D.C. There was a rooftop club with an outdoor setting that the models really enjoyed. Some would do their shoots and then go upstairs to have a good time. Others would spend time up there before coming down for their shoots.

The atmosphere was always good. There was a vibe around the day, and having a strong makeup artist there helped the other elements come together.

That surrounding environment mattered to me. It contributed to the experience of being there and gave us a setting for the pictures.

If I needed to put up a backdrop, I could, but I almost never did. We generally used what was already there. The suite, its furnishings, and its surroundings were part of what made the location worth choosing.

I also planned power shoots in places like National Harbor, choosing nice hotels with lots of scenery to work with. Sometimes the area outside offered plenty of different scenery, too. That gave us possibilities within the hotel and around it.

A strong location gives you choices. You can work with different parts of the room, different views, or a different relationship between the model and her surroundings. When you’re selecting a place, think about what it’ll actually give you to photograph and how those details can support the images you want to make.

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