Photography Techniques: Using A Compact Camera for Low-Key Boudoir Photography

Following on from my high-key tests here, I wanted to see what it was possible to achieve with a compact camera in a darker setting. Once again I will examine the photographic techniques arising from shooting in parallel with a Canon A590 compact camera and my trusty Canon 40D.

Next door to the east facing bedroom I used in the first test, I have another bedroom which faces west. As it was nearly 6pm by the time we finished there, the sun was getting low and shining in through the west facing window.

Creating the Shot

My first step was to draw the curtains almost all the way across to give me a narrow strip of golden sunlight to work with. This reduced the overall level of light in the room, but as you can see in the first shot, the light is too strong on its own - we need something to balance it a bit.

With the 40D I was able to use an external flash gun with a Lumiquest Ultrasoft box fitted to give a fill light - but the light is too flat, it is illuminating the wall behind too much and it isn't a technique I can use with the compact.

The only solution to a problem like this is a reflector. The next shot shows the result of adding a large reflector to the right of the model, bouncing light back onto her.

Notice that now we turn the model to use this as the main light source and use the strong window light to add detail to her hair and along the silhoutte of her arm etc.

Notice also that the overall tone of the picture has become warmer as we are no longer using any fill flash.

The Compact Camera

Once again, the procedure for setting up the compact was quite straight forward. There is only one addition step you need to take for this low-key setup:

1. Select Aperture Priority mode
2. Turn off the flash
3. Select the maximum aperture (remember that there isn't much light, plus I want to throw the background out of focus as much as possible).
4. Set Exposure Compensation to somewhere between -1 and -2 stops, depending on how dark the scene is. This particular shot was taken at -1.7ev.
5. Frame the shot and verify that the shutter speed is at least 1/50th of a second (I was aiming to shoot with a focal length of about 50mm), increasing the ISO if necessary.

Conclusions

Once again I think this test shows that compact cameras are perfectly capable of taking boudoir photographs, even in these more difficult conditions. With the simple addition of a reflector and some exposure compensation a whole new range of possibilities is opened up to the amateur photographer.

The picture to the right is the un-treated image as it came out of the camera. Exposure details are ISO160, f/4, 1/125 second, -1.7ev compensation.

You can see how close the reflector has to be - oops!

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