Here’s ZiZi modeling an Edwardian Lace Dress. I’ve posted a few untouched close ups of the dress so you can see the intricate details in the lace. It was an amazing piece and required minimal styling to bring a turn of the century mood. I especially loved her poses with the violin.
Sometimes the vintage styled makeup and hair, along with a little color editing, can make all the difference in pulling a shoot together! The model pulled out her gun at the end of the shoot and posed with it. I think these retro pictures turned out best in black and white.
If you’re shooting silly lighthearted CheeseCake Pinup photography, the expressions are what make the pictures pop!
I recently discovered these cute pinup pics that I shot a few years ago…
This is a VERY classic, sexy sleeveless summer 1950s/60s little black cocktail dress made out of polyester or acetate with lace over the skirt. It's totally hour glass, and fastens in the back with...
I had the privilege of getting to shoot dresses from a 1935 wedding! I used the help of a professional makeup and hair artist, and also borrowed a 1930s car. It was such fun to throw a pretend wedding without the stress of actually having real wedding
This mesh dress came labeled “Bridesmaid dress from M___’s 1935 wedding”. It’s classic! The dress was blue mesh over a dark blue slip. Not using it in the 1930s wedding recreation was a mistake, but I was afraid the colors were too dark in comparison to the other dresses. Sometimes I make mistakes, and this was still just about 6 months into my adventures in teaching myself vintage styling and photography!
This 1940s dress was such fun to photograph! It has red buttons down the front and an abstract polka dot pattern. I put a smart black hat on the model. Like many dresses of the era, it was unlined and meant to be worn over a slip or under=dress. We borrowed a rolling red wooden storage box as the only prop with this simple set. I love the model’s exaggerated “cheesecake pinup” expressions! She did her own makeup and hair, too.
It was very fun to photograph this green plus sized 1920s dress! SO many times, surviving dresses from this era are petite. I’m not sure why, because plus sized women surely existed in the 1920s. I am guessing that clothing got re-purposed during the Great Depression, and worn longer. A dress made with lots of fabric could be repurposed more than a more narrow dress with just 16 inches or so across the front. I am not sure what I did with it, but I did come across one “plus sized” dress (which I sold) which was clearly hemmed from drop waist to the more fashionable natural waist of the 1930s.
Anyway, it’s always fun playing dress up!
It’s hard to beat that 1930s look, but Andrea fit this lace 1910s dress perfectly (and without a corset!). She looked so proper. I love the horizontal stripes of different lace on this dress, and it buttoned properly up the back. We just shot simple studio pictures to capture the details in this delicate Edwardian lace dress. She would have been right at home reading The Modern Priscilla!
Andrea posed in this decadent 1930s satin gown. I really love the cut, and slight flare at the bottom. Totally fit for a classic Old Hollywood movie star!
This was a fun dress to take pictures of! It was black with lace detail across the front. As you can tell, it fits the perfect 1930s silhouette fashion and shape. It buttoned up the back with fabric covered buttons.
I got this shiny red white and blue mini dress in Las Vegas a few years ago, and it fit Dezabell perfectly. She carried a matching American flag and the outfit popped.
I posed Cindy on my vintage 1950s “pinup exercise machine”, and we had a ton of fun shooting.
Cindy and Dezabell wanted to do pinup and retro, but with a naughty twist. This is where pinup sometimes blends into boudoir, but those images will never be posted ;-).
The dress was 1970s. The veiled hat is probably 1950s or 1960s. I did her makeup 1970s style, but tried to go natural. Posed with tulle and the fireplace backdrop. These came out very “old Hollywood” and romantic looking!
This was pinup model Amy W.’s last photo set at this workshop. She dressed in her own red gingham dress, red platform wedges, borrowed a cowboy hat, and posed in an old truck for a thoroughly classic retro country look.
I minimally post-processed these photos, because they looked so great naturally. What a cute modern retro photo shoot!
I am really bad with knowing makes and models of classic cars, but I know that this is another Kodachrome red car, and i think it’s from the 1960s. It matches Anita’s hair!
I was just in an increasingly humorous mood as this retro photography workshop progressed! I posed model Amilee in a vintage child’s dress from the 1950s, with a wrench, in the car repair garage. She gave the perfect helpless and silly expressions of a gal who wouldn’t know the gas tank from the radiator (I wouldn’t, either).
This cute, humorous, cheesecake pinup photography set features pinup model Amy Mooney (Shooby Duwop) posing with a classic red car against a vintage beach backdrop. It looks like she’s on set of a 1950s beach flick! Later, pinup model Amy W. joins in, and they pretend that they’re lost on the way to the real beach (it does not help that they’re in Missouri, reading the map upside down).
