Shoot Sexy: Pinup Photography in the Digital Age

I am not a professional photographer and have actually avoided the camera most of my life, but I am always so amazed on how some photographers can take a "diamond in the rough" and turn her into a beauty queen. Shoot Sexy is a beautifully put-together book. It is worth the price just for the design and the eye candy and the playful costumes and poses alone. I've purchased books with a more purely boudoir feel to them and this has a little bit of everything. It has great ideas on locations to pose, directions on how to set up the lighting for different situations and ways to smooth over some of the less-than-perfect spots with some of the photo-editing software out there. At the end of this visual treat of a book there is a final section called photographer's gallery where six different photographers show off their personal styles. Although they are clearly in the same genre, it is amazing on how a little bit of a different vision can make a different yet equally beautiful photo.

If you're a fan of vintage cheesecake pinup photography and want to learn how to do it yourself in the age of digital cameras, this book will show you everything you need to know - all you need to do is find a pretty girl. It is superbly illustrated and the photos in the book alone are well worth the price. The layout's great, it's witty, it's informative, and while it's a treat to see the photos themselves, it's outstanding to see how they were made. It also proves you don't need a photo studio to produce high quality images - you can do this on the cheap with stuff you probably already have or that can be found at the local hardware store. If you like vintage pinups, buy this book, you will not have any regrets.

Pretty good primer on shooting pin-up and boudoir photos. Seems to be as they say, it's a mile wide but only a few inches deep. Especially when it comes to makeup, hair, clothes for your models. However, to be fair, it does go into a reasonable amount of depth regarding the technical end of lighting, camera setup and photo processing. Great for beginners. Happy with the purchase.

Just finished reading this book. Amazing. It has EVERYTHING anyone could ever want to know about Pinup/Boudoir photography. From props, lighting, poses, studio, location, I mean everything is covered in a clear and reader friendly manner. My favorite part is shooting the models with hot rods. The book is intelligently illustrated and the focus on some pinup photographers in the back of the book captures the individual styles of each studio. I could not be more happy with this book. My only complaint is that I have finished reading it and have nothing to look forward to. Do I hear "sequel"?By the way. I never review books, but I am leaving this review on Amazon.

I am a commercial artist and photographer. Wanting to get my daughter involved in shooting the pin-up style of photography, I bought this book. It is the best portrait book in my library. It explains equipment, lighting, and most importantly, posing and working with the model. The techniques are straight forward, easy to understand and apply, and extremely well illustrated. If I only had one book for shooting portraits, this would be it!

Great book for those interested in Pinup Photography!

This book is the only one I've seen that says straight out it's for pin up photography, something that's been hard to find for me. Helps the beginners set up their shoots and gives pointers from set up right down to your model. I didn't need everything in this book, having studied pin ups for a long time, but I feel like it's got great pointers even for people like me who have a little more knowledge. But super awesome for the beginners, also gives helpful tips to how to set up a studio and make clientele comfortable.

I really enjoyed reading this book cover to cover. Some of the exposure and photography tips are pretty basic and if your even semi-advanced with photography you'll probably already know all of it. I did really enjoy his prop, posing and set-up tips though! I especially loved the on-location lighting setups. I also love how he easily shows you how to go from a pinup shoot to a boudoir shoot. Some of his retouching leaves something to be desired though in my opinion, especially with his on location photography. I wish the book went a little more into how to do the pinup hair and makeup, but that's just me and not really what this book is about. It also looks like there are plenty of other great books out there solely on that topic that I'll have to pick up.All in all a fun, colorful, easy read. By the end you'll have the basics down and know how to do a pinup/boudoir shoot, from set up to post-processing.

Lots of superb ideas for photos, clear pics and writing with lovely feel to the book and pages- nice to have out on coffee table to

I expected more, but it's ok.. perhaps it should be cheaper for what it contains... Don't expect in deep explanations.

This book really gives you food for thought, it is well set out and gives you plenty of ideas.

Ich fotografiere gern, und besonders die Pin-Up Fotografie hat es mir angetan. Die Ästhetik der Aufnahmen aus den 1950er Jahren ins digitale Zeitalter zu transportieren ist mir bisher aber nicht gelungen. Nun habe ich einen Guide auf dem Weg zu diesem Ziel!Der Autor beschreibt nicht nur die klassischen Posen sehr detailiert, er gibt auch Tipps dazu wie man diese dem Model vermitteln kann. An Stelle fader, unkommentierter Besipielbilder liefert er neben gelungenen Beispielaufnahmen auch Hinweise in Textform dazu, und das durchaus stellenweise mit gewissem Wortwitz.Ein weiterer Abschnitt des Buches behandelt den Einsatz klassischer Requisiten, Tipps zum Aufbau eines Fundus der immer wieder genutzt werden kann, ohne dass die Bilder dadurch eintönig oder immer gleich wirken würden. Erstaunlich was so ein Kofferset alles kann ;)Es folgen Hinweise zur Raumgestaltung, zur Auswahl einer Location bei Außenaufnahmen und Beispielbilder mit detailiertem Lichtplan. Insbesondere die Hinweise zur richtigen Beleuchtung der Szenerie fand ich sehr hilfreich, als Hobbyist ohne fotografische Ausbildung bemerke ich beim Einsatz mehrerer Lichtquellen oft eigene Schwächen, da sind die schematischen Darstellungen eine wertvolle Hilfe.Ein kleiner Teil des Buches behandelt die Boudoirfotografie, im Prinzip ähnlich aufgebaut: Posen (mit Verweisen auf die bereits davor behandelten PinUp Posen und Ergänzungen), Requisiten, Beleuchtung, etc. Eine schöne Ergänzung, thematisch nahe genug, aber dann doch nicht nur mehr vom Selben.Ein Kapitel zur digitalen Bildbearbeitung (der Autor verwendet Photoshop und Lightroom, darauf basieren dann auch die schrittweisen Erklärungen) erklärt das nachträgliche Einfügen von passenden Hintergründen, oder kleinere Retuschen. Nichts Neues für erfahrene Bildbearbeiter, aber für Laien sehr verständlich erklärt und Schritt für Schritt bebildert.Den Abschluss machen kurze Vorstellungen bekannter Fotografen mit Beispielgalerie. Dabei werden Unterschiede in der Interpretaqtion des Pin-Up Themas gut sichtbar, und man erhält einen Eindruck wie unterschiedlich ein "klassisches" Motiv doch umgesetzt werden kann.Fazit: Das Buch behandelt das Thema PinUp Fotografie sehr ausführlich und verständlich, es finden sich jede Menge hilfreiche Tipps und Tricks zur Bildgestaltung und zum Aufbau der Szenerie. Dabei ist das Buch, gute Englischkenntnisse vorausgesetzt, für Einsteiger ebenso geeignet wie für Fortgeschrittene, denn auch wenn man die Kapitel zu Blende oder Bildbearbeitung überspringen kann, die Beispielbilder und die Hinweise zu Posen und Requisiten sind mir den Preis des Buches schon wert.

The cover on this book is beautiful and when you open it up and flip through the pages you quickly realize that everything about it is pure eye candy. I salute the author for the sheer artistic effort. The title of the book is shoot sexy and everything about it is sexy. I found the book motivational and it had a lot of useful information as well. The models are attractive. There were 2 things I wasn't particularly fond of. Although the backdrops and models are nice, I found the lighting in the pinup section to be very very flat (not unlike ring flash). If you want to show off curves, flat lighting is not the way to go. I really liked the more natural settings. Some sets looked very artificial to me, too fake. I found the lighting in the boudoir section to be so much better at showing the beauty of the female form. The added shadows made all the difference here. Although there is lots of information on creating ones own pinup or boudoir photography session, I thought the information was scarce. I feel the author could have gone more in depth in many sections. Perhaps in following books he will go through each section with more depth. It's certainly one of the most beautifully designed book I have ever seen.