Black Pumps Challenge!

Welcome to another installment of our site’s attempt to establish a photo style for promoting cool shoes and other stuff. We have a lot of fun in the process of shooting this stuff, but it’s actually pretty hard work. Just know that this fashion-industry-insider-turned-photographer is working hard to develop an unmistakable “FMS style” that will help brand us as we become gain more readers in the future.

So Sugar and I got off to a more organized start for this, our second formal shoot (my third, overall). I originally was going to go with another “story” – as contrived as they are – to work into the photos. Quickly, I decided to scrap said story – which was going to be shot around a “sogaeting” (Korean-style blind date) in which I would have shot Sugar getting ready for her date, primping in the bathroom (as if!), going out, having dinner while absent-mindedly dangling her shoe, walking out together, taking a taxi, etc. – because it would have turned into a huge production.

As it turned out, scrapping the story was a good idea, since we had such trouble finding a shoe we both liked that was under 30,000 won (about $30).

The shoe search took nearly two hours, as there was nothing worth buying in the Ehwa area. We moved on to Hongdae, where we wandered around again for a while without finding anything. There’s really not much interesting at the lower price ranges, at least you can find in the standard $20-30 cheapie shops.

We were just looking for something that looked OK enough to shoot, while yet being a pretty plain shoe that actually posed as somewhat of a challenge to shoot, i.e. we didn’t want any shoes that were really crazy, sexy, or cool, because I could really use the challenge of making a pretty unremarkable shoe look good; any model under the lens certainly needed this challenge as well.

We had picked out a pretty cool shoe from a small shop in the middle “boutique” strip area near where the cars all like to park. It had a nice “line” as a traditional-but-a-little-saucy black pump, and had a cute little bow in the back. Unfortunately, the store seemed to be all out of the cool shoes in Sugar’s size (245), so we went with the lesser of couple evils. It was $30, so we couldn’t complain. It would do.

We then moved on to check out the new department store in Yongsan – IPark – to buy what would be some $11 black stockings, because my philosophy is that an entire project can be brought down by the element-of-lowest-quality; I’ll be damned to find all of our photo and modeling efforts for the day brought down by some stank, convenience store, stitchified stockings.

So after having met at around 2:30 and finally having everything together by around 6, we were ready to shoot. I had already decided to hit the Harue coffee shop, which I heard about blogging around, and fancies itself as high class because of all the expensive furniture and velvety interiors. I thought it would be a good environment in which to shoot a “classy” kind of photo – and the waffles there are great, I heard.

As you can see, the goal was more of trying to use extreme angles to make things more interesting. When shooting from a normal height (meaning anywhere that doesn’t involve in me eating the floor), the model’s legs just come across as flat, uninteresting, as just…legs. When shooting flat, you just have a picture of someone’s from the waist down. Ain’t interesting. There’s also nothing being emphasized in the picture. What’s the center-of-gravity for the image? The answer to that should always be “the shoes.” And now that we were shooting pumps, the importance of the foot’s appearance goes away, with the main remaining element responsible for advertising the shoe being the legs of the model.

Now, Sugar’s strength is in her feet, which are certainly accompanied by some attractive legs. Still, Korean standards are extreme, following the general principle of “the skinnier, the better.” The reaction to the previous photo shoot with the “Long as Sin” model is testament to this fact – most Korean women whom I asked to compare the various shoots all responded with a “I would kill for those legs!” This, despite the fact that I thought that model to be perhaps even problematically skinny, lacking a lot of curves and being certainly devoid of any muscular definition. Still, even after mentioning such things, most Korean women countered with, “Anyway, they’re pretty.”

Interesting.

And what I thought when shooting Long as Sin was that she would be much improved by hose and heels, which would also have hidden her less-than-camera-ready feet that day. I do have the sinking feeling that her extremely skinny legs would make her feet look extremely large, but given the extreme angles I’m using, that might not matter. We’ll see when we get around to shooting her.

Extreme!

In any case, my skills in the most recent shoot were spent emphasizing the shoes in different positions while also making Sugar’s legs look as thin as possible. She’s got really attractive legs, but they seem to have the habit of looking really different depending on her stance, and best when in motion, from the side, or from behind, actually. You will certainly notice this in the photographs to follow below.

Immediately below is another borrowing from fetish photography, in terms of this being a popular pose in the genre – “dangling.” It’s something that men notice – and I strongly suspect that most observant women do as well – and is something that is as apparently absentminded as it is purposely playful.

After shooting with flash for around 30 minutes – and after overhearing the people at a nearby table complain about us – we were asked to stop shooting. So I totally forgot to make room for another iconic shot that is a staple standard of fetish photography, which I will utilize for the good purposes of our site a late time.

You’re just gonna have to wait on that one.

We also got a few outside shots as well, but these didn’t turn out as well as I wanted, so I only ended up with a very few to choose from.

I didn’t like many of the straight, front-angle shots of Sugar, and it didn’t help that the black pumps were boring. But the pumps weren’t supposed to help by being boring, right? Right. So it was a useful exercise. I did like the motor scooter and the city feel, though.

I don’t know – I may be making my expectations artificially high, but I do want to get more experience behind the camera and become more efficient at producing a higher ratio of usable, interesting shots during the valuable time I spend with the model and my camera. I don’t have the luxury of being satisfied with my shots. I’ve got big plans for this site.

Still, some of my “urban” shots seemed to work, while also highlighting the shoes in context. I really like Sugar’s legs in the shot below.

I also like these low-angle shots of Sugar in urban action. Note the ajussi to the left staring at her. I think it lends a bit of a cool effect, especially as Sugar towers over the viewer and every other picture element, even as she is being gazed at by this man in the background.

Yet, she is the one with the power. Such is the power of low-angle shots, besides the utilitarian use of it in fetish photography, which uses wide and often low angles to emphasize specific parts. It also makes you look taller, which always helps.

I think I’ll be making sure to use Sugar in high and slim heels, leggy skirts and dresses, and for close shots. I also think she’s really good at modeling sandals. Plan to see the model from “Long as Sin” here soon for a comparison and a point of another hopeful improvement in my technique.

And thanks, Sugar, for all your hard work that day. Give those legs a rest!