Lessons Learned- The Fine Art Sexy Selfie at Sugar Cookies New York

I had an amazing time yesterday at Sugar Cookies Lingerie in Chelsea!   Boutique owner,  Susanne Alvarado and I hosted a small group of NYC women for a hand’s on photography lesson!

We indulged in mimosa’s and festive cake pops from Christi and Jacki at Stick and Pop – LOVE these:

AND we managed to stay just sober enough to make fine art out of our beautiful bodies,  here are the details and samples of all the fun!

We began with my simple formula that I follow for all my shoots.

How To Create Stunning Selfies Using CURVE + DETAIL + LIGHT

1. Head to a mirror and take in your curves from the most obvious to the more subtle (hair ringlets, curled fingers) play with pushing your hips all the way to one side and then the other then lift your arms above your head stretching all the way to one side.  Notice how that creates even more curves!  Now pick one CURVE to focus on for your shot.

2. Add your DETAIL- we chose breasts as our curve and added a magenta lace bra as our detail.  Before we move onto the last element of LIGHT I have couple insider tips!

Somewhat essential: In most of my Boudoir Shoots I use an inexpensive sheer panel from Ikea for softness, texture and illumination.

For the best camera phone images I use the Camera Plus Pro App which significantly improves the quality of the front facing camera, allows you to tap anywhere on the screen to engage the “shutter”,  has customizable self timer and has pro adjustment sliders.  I’ll show you examples of the standard vs Camera Plus images below.

3. Head over to your window and lets try 3 different natural LIGHT options- front, side and back light.

For front light (set your body parallel to the window light).  The result is even lighting with no shadows.

This selfie is taken with the Iphone 4S front camera, notice the even front light.

Here is the same image processed in the Camera Plus Pro App:

We added contrast by adjusting the contrast slider to the right, then we added the vignette filter all the way to right as well.

For side light (set your body perpendicular to the window light), this gives a shadow to the far side of your body which is slimming and adds drama.

This is a sample of side light with the regular iPhone 4S front camera.

And this is the same image processed with the Camera Plus Photo App, same settings for contrast and vignette as the first image.

The last lighting scenario is back light, turn your back to the window and let the light illuminate from behind.

This image was taken with the regular iPhone 4s front camera.

This one was processed with the Camera Plus Pro App, instead of contrast but in the same edit section we adjusted the brightness slider all the way to the right which increased the highlights and gave us that back lit glow.  We DID NOT use the vignette filter it would have made the edges darker and dulled the desired effect.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  We’ll be doing this event again in early February, just in time for Valentine’s Day- stay tuned for details!