Alison (NSFW!)

[WDodd]

Did another shoot with my girlfriend/model this weekend. Thoughts comments are welcome!

 

[Alpha]

While I'm generally opposed to a lot of photoshopping, I decided to edit this one in order to demonstrate what I think you should have done. The lighting on her face is perfect, but it's far too flat across the rest of her. While the skin tones are good, in a sense they're kind of distracting to me (I can't really decide why). I'm also biased toward b&w, so I desaturated. One of the great things you can do with lighting and nudes or semi nudes, is lighting the chest from the side. This makes for more interesting shadows, and also tends to make boobs looks bigger. I threw in some artificial lighting approximately where I would have placed a light in real life. Made for some nice vignetting (if that's your thing).

PS steps: Desaturate, Sepia tone, artificial light.

 

[cal_gundert05]

I have to disagree with Max on the lighting issue; I like the lighting on the torso/chest but not so much on the face. Were you using just natural light? Was it from a window near your girlfriend's feet? That would explain why the light "dies" (in my opinion) around her head.

Good job :thumbup:

 

[Alpha]

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. While in some cases, such as fashion photography, flat lighting on the face is a good thing, as a general rule it is to be avoided when photographing nudes. Granted, this isn't some sort of inviolable law, and is certainly subject to the photographer's own preferences, I think it almost always makes for a more interesting shot. Most of the literature written on nudes agrees.

From Charles Hamilton's "Photographing Nudes":
"A frontal, head-on light shows little if any dimensional qualities. As the light is moved in an arc around the nude, modeling effects are gradually increased until one half of the figure is in highlight and the other is in shadow. At this point modeling and the consequent illumination of dimension is at the maximum."

 

[EOS_JD]

Looks a little under exposed to me. A refletor would have helped throw some light back into the shadow areas.

 

[RMThompson]

A. You're a lucky guy.

B. The photo is good, but I like the idea of more dramatic lighting as well. If this is a lingirie shot, it works well, but purely artistic, I would try to balance the light with something behind her, and use a slightly faster shutter speed to decrease the front light a bit. As noted above, the side lighting can be very dramatic as well, lining the model.

Of course, some of the lighting tricks are to hide flaws in the model (Ive had to use some in my work, see my flickr below), but in this case, I don't think your model HAS any flaws... so your safe no matter what.

 

[WDodd]

Were you using just natural light? Was it from a window near your girlfriend's feet? That would explain why the light "dies" (in my opinion) around her head.

Good job :thumbup:

Looks a little under exposed to me. A refletor would have helped throw some light back into the shadow areas.

It was natural light there was a large window right at her feet. It was kind of a tough situation because we just did this in her bedroom as kind of a spur of the moment thing. I would've like to have a reflector to try a lot of different things with the light.

Also, EOS_JD I'll have to look but I think I might have a shot in the same position that I tried to overexpose a little just to see what would happen I'll have to check it out when I get home.

A. You're a lucky guy.

B. The photo is good, but I like the idea of more dramatic lighting as well. If this is a lingirie shot, it works well, but purely artistic, I would try to balance the light with something behind her, and use a slightly faster shutter speed to decrease the front light a bit. As noted above, the side lighting can be very dramatic as well, lining the model.

Of course, some of the lighting tricks are to hide flaws in the model (Ive had to use some in my work, see my flickr below), but in this case, I don't think your model HAS any flaws... so your safe no matter what.

Thanks a lot.

 

[EOS_JD]

It was natural light there was a large window right at her feet. It was kind of a tough situation because we just did this in her bedroom as kind of a spur of the moment thing. I would've like to have a reflector to try a lot of different things with the light.

Also, EOS_JD I'll have to look but I think I might have a shot in the same position that I tried to overexpose a little just to see what would happen I'll have to check it out when I get home.

Adding a reflector will add more detail to the right side of the image. I can see it was natural light and perhaps if she was lying the other way round it would be nicer. you can use a voil curtail to provide a nice diffuser effect on the window.

I'm just starting to experiment with flash and light just now.......So take what I say with a pinch of salt. I'm certainly no master of light!

Cheers
Jim

 

[WDodd]

Adding a reflector will add more detail to the right side of the image. I can see it was natural light and perhaps if she was lying the other way round it would be nicer. you can use a voil curtail to provide a nice diffuser effect on the window.

I'm just starting to experiment with flash and light just now.......So take what I say with a pinch of salt. I'm certainly no master of light!

Cheers
Jim

I think the lighting has definitely been the most challenging thing to learn since I started getting into this seriously. I wish I would've had a reflector or something more so that I could mess around a little bit more.

 

[Alpha]

Posing and lighting are the two most elemental aspects of nude photography. Learn them well and you can produce some masterful shots.

 

[EOS_JD]

You can use anything to bounce light in. Tinfoil from your kitchen , a white sheet, anything really

 

[WDodd]

You can use anything to bounce light in. Tinfoil from your kitchen , a white sheet, anything really

We actually thought about that but weren't quite that ambitious. Next time for sure.

 

[Nix]

just a personal tip. with her laying like that it makes it appear as though one of her breasts is extremely smaller than the other. i know this is just the position she is in, but you might want to correct that to get rid of the "lop sided" look... just my .02

 

[Black Magic Studio]

Well I'm glad no one can agree, because it lets me feel free to throw in my own completely different opinion Regarding the light, the light on her face seems cooler than the light on the rest of her body, and therefore I prefer the way the rest of her body is lit.

However, I am just a tiny bit unsettled by the mood of the photo. I was thinking it is because the daylight suggests that it is the middle of the day (I know, I'm brilliant) even though the outfit suggests more of an evening setting. But I know that can't be right either, because I've seen lots of photos with outfits like that in window light. Those photos have all seemed ... less contemporary in their backgrounds and surroundings. Here we have a plain wall and what might be a fairly modern pillow and comforter. Clearly, I don't know what I'm talking about, and I shouldn't even be posting this, but I feel like anything on the wall behind her, like a framed painting, would improve the photo. You could probably even edit one in. The bottom line is that somehow the light and the outfit and the setting don't quite mesh perfectly in my (evidently troubled) mind.

 

[xfloggingkylex]

^^^^^^^^^^^
Whats wrong with being sexy (best spinal tap voice)? in the middle of the day?


I myself try to do it whenever I can :lmao: