Retro Glamour/Pinup with Marlo Marquise

These are from a set that came out of my last shoot with Marlo Marquis. Marlo is a burlesque performer and loves the retro classic styles of the 30's and 40's. She has that classic look to go with it and it suits her well.

My favorite of this set is the full body pose. Although it is a static pose, there is a feeling of fluidity and movement here. I just feel she knocked this pose outta the park and I'm pleased with my light and camera angle as well.

The lighting came out of a 24x30" Photoflex softbox powered with a White Lightning x1600 head at camera right and approximately 7 ft high. A 20320" box just below it (relevant only for the full body) to light the waist down. Powered by a Canon speedlite 580EX2. Another 24x24" box at about eye level on camer left to provide fill powered by another 580EX2.

A strip box powered by a White Lightning x800 head on camera left and behind and above subject angled slightly downward. This provides some hair light and some rim for the subjects right side (camera left).

The white paper background is lit by two Vivitar 285 flashes shooting into small lumiquest softboxes (6x9") attached to the lights. I like to illuminate the background to a lesser than white exposure to avoid blowouts from reflection and also for the reason that I like the bg's to be off-white as opposed to stark white.
The bg would be easy to make completely white later in processing if I ever felt it worked best for a particular image, and so my options are open.

I usually let the subject do their thing while shooting but I do actively give model direction. I think a photographer should be involved in the direction and should not hesitate to suggest variations of a pose or to look a certain way, etc. A good model/subject certainly makes things easy, but they cannot see what I am seeing through the lens and the slightest variations of body positioning and/or eye contact or looking away can make a difference. Marlo is really fantastic, with an incredibly fine sense of styling and and fantastic presence.

I have a shoot coming up in the very near future which involves Mona De Lux, some retro pinup/glamour, some latex wardrobe provided by Venus Prototype. stylist Masae Satouchi and....industrial plastic wrap....

Stay tuned. :)