Cheesecake vs. Cheeseycake

A glamour photography pet peeve of mine is when cheesecake becomes cheeseycake. Usually, this is a result of props, wardrobe, pose, or--in worst-case scenarios--all of the above.

Possibly, the #1 pose transporting an otherwise decent glamour or tease shot into the realm of cheeseyness is the finger in the mouth thing. Here's a tip and, again, this is all my personal opinion: Resist the urge to have the model put her finger in her mouth and adopting that supposedly coy, come-hither, Lolita-like expression. It is, for the most part, over-the-top, cheesey, and cliché. That's not to say I haven't been guilty of it myself although, more often than not, when the model "goes there" herself I ask her to not... go there that is.

What makes this pose even cheesier is when models are not only over 18 years of age--as they should be or, if nudity's involved, must be in a whole lot of glamour and tease photography--but they are WAY past 18 years of age.

For the most part, nothing says amateur more effectively than this pose or poses similar to it.

When it comes to props and/or wardrobe, here's some cheesey stuff that usually rolls my eyes: Angel's wings and the less-often-seen devil's horns or tails, schoolgirl outfits (specifically, on models well-past their schoolgirl prime), cheap faux Roman or Greek statuary, mottled muslin backgrounds, and wardrobe and props that are obviously mis-matched or lack authenticity in terms of their time-periods or historical eras. I know there's more and I know them when I see them but, unfortunately, I just got up and I'm still sipping my first cup of coffee and my brain's a bit foggy and no other examples are coming immediately to mind.

So let's all make the world a better place for this legitimate artform known as cheesecake photography and try to apply a less cheesier sense of aesthetics to our work.

The cheese-ily posed and attired model at the top of this post is Kelly.