How to Do a Pin Up Style Photo-shoot at Home

by CreativeCate

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Intro: How to Do a Pin Up Style Photo-shoot at Home

Hey everyone! I’ve been getting a lot of questions and requests for more info on how to take and edit your own pin-up and vintage style photos so I decided to get it together and do another pin-up photoshoot with some friends and let you all get to see how its done! I made a video of the shoot so you can really see how I do all this in my own house. We had SO much fun and I am THRILLED with the results! Check out the video (its a bit long I know, but I wanted you to be able to really see how it all works so you can feel confident enough to try it yourself), and some of my previous pin up posts and invite some friends over and get crackin! Seriously guys, this is NOT hard and you CAN do it yourself. And your guys are going to LOVE it!


Thank you so much Sabrina (who by the way is the dark-haired brunette and the mother of THREE!), Vanessa, and Melissa for being my models! You guys did FABULOUSLY!

This photo shoot was a very PG shoot (due to the fact that I knew I’d be posting it online for all to see) but feel free to spice it up as much as you’d like for your special Valentine!

FYI: All the outfits and props were things from my own closet. A lot of the things in the pics are from thrift stores (its safe to say that at least 70% of my entire wardrobe consists of thrift store finds) and I highly recommend hitting up your local thrift stores before your shoot for some awesome vintage (or vintage-inspired) threads.

STEP 1: Vintage Calendar Girl Style

I really wanted to do a calendar tutorial just to show the range of outfits, props, and poses you can use so I will also now give you a list of my calendar themes month by month.

January: Think snow, ice, sledding, etc. You could also do a little cocktail dress and hat with a noise maker and confetti for a New Years theme. Sabrina dressed in fishnets, a black pleated skirt, a fur collar, a red hat, and teal cardigan, with a gold belt and red shoes. *TIP* Keep the clothes fun and colorful to make the pictures pop. We had her pretend to be chilly.

STEP 2: February

February: This ones easy! Think Valentine’s Day of course! You can do a cupid thing with wings and a bow and arrow, or just get real sexy in a little number, or go with our theme like Sabrina and cut out hearts from construction paper. We put Sabrina in my vintage red and white polka dot dress, black thigh highs (got them at Target), and peep toes, and took pics while she cut out hearts. I’m in LOVE!

STEP 3: March

March: You could do something more inkeeping with the holidays like a St. Patrick’s Day theme, but we wanted to get more “housewifey” stuff in there (because like myself Sabrina is a housewife) so we had her hanging laundry on a clothesline. She wore her mom’s old vintage skirt and my yellow thrift store cardigan with pearls of course. We also turned on a fan and pointed it at the clothes so they looked like they were blowing in the wind a bit.

STEP 4: April

April: Think rain! ”April showers bring May flowers” right! You could also do an April Fools theme and have a little prankster thing going. We went the rain route because I happen to have an adorable polka dot umbrella and kahki trench coat. Melissa is an actress and it shows! She had the CUTEST facial expressions!

STEP 5: May

May: Think SPRING! We took Sabrina, stuck a vintage floral dress on her, put an oversized flower in her hair, and gave her a basket full of tulips. And look what loveliness happened… Also, I think flying a kite would look ADORABLE or chasing butterflies…there are so many ways you could work it.

STEP 6: June

June: Summer summer summer. There are TONS of things you could do with this! I knew I was using a bathing suit shot for August so I wanted to do something that had to do with travel. I happened to have an old red suitcase that I had to buy at Goodwill in Idaho to haul home a bunch of baby clothes last time I went to visit my family. It worked great for these next shots.

STEP 7: July

July: We went for a 4th of July “all american” theme. There are tons of things you could do with this theme, especially if you happen to have an American flag or an actual sparkler or something. I, sadly, did not, but we did good despite lacking those things.

STEP 8: August

August: This is where Vanessa donned my vintage inspired floral bathing suit and struck some real pin up poses for us. She looks AMAZING I must say.

STEP 9: September

September: Its beginning to feel like fall! And the kids are headed back to school! YAY! We went with a school teacher theme here and put Sabrina in a pencil skirt, belted cardigan, fishnets, and cat eye glasses (from the Dollar Store). I love love love how cute these turned out!

STEP 10: OOops! Missed October! on to November!

October: We actually FORGOT October. I know. LAME. But heres some ideas for you: Think pumpkin carving, halloween costumes, apple picking, or playing in leaves. Those will all be adorable.

November: Think COOKING and Thanksgiving. We went for another housewife look with my apron and kitchen and cleaning stuff. (I’ll have to post more pics of these soon) but for now… (I love Vanessa’s face in this…this is exactly how I feel about dusting.)

STEP 11: December

December: CHRISTMAS of course. Think presents, decorating a tree, baking cookies, making gingerbread houses, mistletoe, or just put on a hot red dress and a santa hat and call it good! Sabrina looks DIVINE in this one don’t you think!

STEP 12: Now GO DO IT YOURSELF!

And there you go! I have given you plenty of ideas and inspiration to go do your own! No excuses now! Go be cute and have fun.

P.S. I did all the editing of these photos on Picnik. Visit See Cate Create for more great tutorials including Pin Up photo editing tutorials and posing/prop ideas.

28 Comments

MissDaisy 12 years ago

Very creative... I like it very much :)

Avatar_I_Am 12 years ago

Very Nicely Done.
Looks a bit like 1940~1950 Classic Pin Up like the GIs' hung up, and somewhat like the aircraft art that went on bombers!
msero & rnewberry really need to develop some CLASS.

msero 12 years ago

And where's exactly the "instructable"?

rnewberry 12 years ago

Huh. Don't know what pin-ups *you've* been looking at.

mazinggrace 12 years ago

Maybe these pictures are not as Riskee as Elvgren but I am sure the ladies want to save those for their men. It was a great tutorial though,

mazinggrace 12 years ago

He is an amazing pin-up artist dating back from 1937. I would consider him the most famous of the artist depicting the early centuries pin-ups. His work is amazing!

http://www.gilelvgren.com/GE/

KI4WLG 12 years ago

Do you think this would work well as an outside shoot? Or would it be best to stick to inside so the light can be diffused?

agis68 12 years ago

beautiful pics and excellent idea.....

dedwards13 12 years ago

I totally did something like that for my boyfriend for a Valentines gift. Here are some samples... http://nimbidesign.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/pin-up-style-photo-shootperfect-valentines-gift/

I love pin-ups, and have a calendar from a pinup painter artist, and these remind me of his work, and now i totally want to do a calendar!! thanks for the tutorial!!

1337pino 12 years ago

Wow, that July picture is just...WOW. O_O

I think I'm in love.

onemoroni1 12 years ago

I feel like I just went to a model photo course. Much better than a book. I have done B&W and have my own dark room. I feel inspired to get it going again. I feel you get a more honest print doing it old school, but digital is instant gratification, waiting to afford a full frame sensor camera. Great instructable, this is what it's all about.

mazinggrace 12 years ago

That is awesome, I wish you lived near Houston! I do not know any friend who would help me do this.

CreativeCate 12 years ago

I DO happen to live near Houston actually! :) In the Cypress area. If you are interested in doing a pin-up shoot with some friends, you can visit my photography site www.caterawsonphotography.blogspot.com and see more of my work along with my pricing and contact info. I'm so glad you liked the tutorial! Thanks everyone for such sweet comments! So motivating for me to keep posting! I'll be sure to answer y'alls questions asap. :)
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