How to shoot bird's eye view, model on bed

Hey guys,

I've been doing some boudoir shoots lately with a model on a bad. I noticed I found it difficult to shoot a model from directly above, looking down on her as she lays on the bed. My best attempts come from me standing at the foot of the bed, on a short ladder, with me holding the camera out as far as I can in front of me aiming down.

Any other more efficient and effective methods?

That is the kind of shot where a jib/crane rig with a remote monitor kind of shines. Assuming you have a camera that works in live view with a monitor attached and can rig the controls up.

Good CStand with boom arm. Sand bagged and safety cabled. Spigot with tripod thread. 5d Mklll and Camranger, use iPad to monitor and capture.

Piece of cake.

Hang from the chandelier.

i put my 6D on the end of a grip arm on a c stand, and control with iPhone, EOS Remote app, and built in wifi quite often. The arm is 40" long so it wouldn't get you to the center of a big bed, but might come close.

Otherwise, as said, a boom arm on a c stand or other beefy stand will work fine. You can find some info on boom arms in the small flash and studio lighting forum.

tzalman wrote in post #17525088
Hang from the chandelier.

i can see that you go to higher caliber hotels than I do.

LOL

Perhaps find a way to elevate the bed to about a 30 degree angle???

that.... that's actually pretty genius! haha. I'll consider it next time!

If you try tilting a bed, then do be careful with how you're raising one end. First off, many frames are shockingly easy to bend or break if you apply force in odd angles on them. They're designed for taking a load down through a flat mattress set onto a level floor. (Also many feet on frames won't play nicely with flooring if they're tipped. Humans don't weigh much in the grand scheme of things, but we weigh enough to do some awkward damage if you try putting it over too small of an area.)

Also, watch out for tipping hazards. With the bed at an angle you've lessened the effective force the upper end has to counter wight over a pivot. Sitting on the lower end of the bed then becomes an easy way to flip things if they're not supported well.

Personally I think the effort required to angle a bed is probably a lot more than the effort required to setup and use a decent boom arm rig.