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| There are many venues where you can locate a suitable subject to photograph, whether for beauty, fine art nudes or general glamour.
The initial and most straightforward place to investigate will be a well known agency for models, where you are likely to find serious models that are suitable for your particular assignment's needs. This is my favoured option most of the time and how most experienced professional shooters look for models.
As an alternative there are Internet sites where models and photographers often get together online. These are well known websites where individuals post pictures, make connections and try to improve their books etc. This is definitely not my favourite method of looking for models, since I usually feel they are far less reliable overall and often not aware of normal business conventions; making up their own rules as they please.
The most common difficulties with Internet models are last moment cancellations or just choosing to disappear without warning, which could leave you on the day with the conundrum of an expensive studio and stylist etc. but no model to shoot!
For fine art nudes don’t ignore venues such as schools of dance where you can often find very interesting potential models. As dancers they will tend to be in amazing shape and move with a relaxed femininity, which can assist you to create some genuinely special photographs. In most cases the photographs can actually be better than those obtained with experienced professional models.
Gymnasts or other athletes are also very much worth thinking about given that they are often justifiably confident about the shape and condition of their body, so they are less likely to be afraid in front of the camera.
For glamour photography, some shooters look for possible models at strip clubs or through glamour workshops however once again I would always choose to find a professional model through a good agency wherever possible. There are lots details you need to get right on the day so I would always prefer the less tricky option rather than risking a novice.
Regardless of where you search for a model and whomever you work with, always try to have a polite and friendly but above all professional manner in your work with other people. As a final point, always make sure that any model you wish to work with is not under 18.
nude photography
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| Some photographers like to have a vast number of lenses covering every focal length possible from extreme wide angle to long telephoto. In practice however, this is usually a sign of gadget obsession rather than real need and most will find that shooting with just a couple superb quality lenses is a preferable idea.
When photographing a naked model, the majority of photographers will try to create an photo that is visually pleasing without distortion or unflattering effects. With a far off scene such as a naked model in the landscape it is perfectly possible to employ a wide angle lens, but as you move nearer that same lens is likely to cause undesirable distortion and this is particularly prevalent with low cost lenses. When taking pictures in an indoor location using a full frame 35mm camera, I try to work with lenses no wider than 35mm at most and even that is not ideal most of the time.
Perhaps surprisingly to some, one of the best lenses available for photographing a naked model is the often discarded standard 50mm lens, which is usually the cheapest choice in every camera maker’s lens line up, but always of top notch optical quality, suffering from almost zero distortion or chromatic aberrations.
When photographed in relative proximity the female nude will frequently appear a little more curvaceous than in reality with a 50mm lens however not in an unflattering or exaggerated fashion and the same rule would apply just as much to glamour photography. This is approximately equivalent to the 80mm lens on a medium format Mamiya, which is my preferred choice when photographing nudes or glamour images, since I generally prefer the less elongated proportions of medium format pictures.
Another useful lens would be the 85mm, though frequently thought of more as a lens for portraits all the major camera makers such as Canon and Nikon etc. produce an optically excellent version which can be employed in just about any situation to good effect. Rather like the 50mm lens it also generally has a wide maximum aperture allowing the photographer to simply blur the background if needed.
One alternative option that should not be ignored is a top quality zoom lens, such as the Canon 24-105L for example, which covers all the necessary focal lengths for just about any requirements while removing the need to change lens every 30 seconds during a shoot. There was a period when zoom lenses were not really thought viable for high quality professional photography however nowadays the better lenses are truly excellent and very convenient. Lenses with built in image stabilisation are also useful for hand held photography in dimly lit conditions. There is a very useful book on nude photography by Ashley Karyl available at http://www.nudephotopro.com
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| Not many photographers have thought of using candles as lighting in their nude photography; however it’s a very interesting source of light that produces a very special and unique effect. Quite naturally you will find that candles don’t create much light, so you will require a good number to raise the overall light luminance to a reasonable level and be prepared to shoot with slow exposure times, so a tripod is almost essential and a cable release would also be useful. You can also use the mirror lock up facility if you have this facility on your DSLR. Make sure those candles are placed in secure positions where nothing will catch on fire!
Given that your exposure time will almost certainly be several seconds, it’s vital that you find a position for your model that is comfortable and allows them to stay fairly still or you risk having photographs with unwanted blurring from the model’s body movement. It’s that slow exposure time though with the gentle movement of the candlelight that gives us the special final effect.
When preparing your setup, take some time to look at the different lighting effects as you move your candles into numerous places and study the variations between shadows and highlights. After you find the correct look try a couple of test images to check how the picture looks and check if you need to make any changes. Because candles have a rather warm colour balance you will probably wish to do a custom white balance with your digital camera using a white card.
A handheld light meter can also be used for measuring brightness in different areas of the image. Precise measurement of the illumination is vital to avoid lost highlights or shadows with not enough detail and if you have a computer available you can download some test images to check them using Photoshop before you continue with the main shoot. You should always shoot in RAW mode if you have this facility available because it will produce superior quality files and permit you to make more enhancements at a later stage while retouching.
After you have taken your images and copied them on a computer you now have the possibility to work on the final effect where you can decide if you wish to have the picture in colour or black & white, along with other changes you can make to noise levels, contrast and other areas. One of the amazing benefits of working with candles is that the lighting is very flattering to female skin, so that should reduce the amount of skin retouching you need to do. Why not have a try and see how wonderful candlelight can be for producingprofessional nude photography images.
nude photography
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| By its very manner, Black And White digital photography is an artwork that takes quite a bit of time and experimentation to dominate as it requires dealing with a issue of challenges. Whilst there’s no real colour to play with, lights, contrasts and framing become exceedingly important in achieving great photographic results and in the era of digital photography, post processing will help you achieve the desired result.
But as a first step, you should exploit of your camera and its capabilities to shoot images that are pre-maximized for the black & white transformation process to be finalized by your photo processing software. Here are 5 rapidideas to do that:
Always shoot in RAW and rather in color – since it gives you most mastery and most material to use and work with in post processing. Even when you shift to black & white from your camera settings, shooting in RAW will maintain all data - including colors - and will make your post processingwork easier.
Always shoot with the lowest viable ASA – to avoid increased image noise that inevitably occurs when converting your images to black & white. Even if you adore the feel of film given by granulated images, you can invariably create this effect during post processing, but it’s incredibly hard and time consuming to get rid of it.
Make the most of low contrasts – it’s said that gloomy, dour days add an additional something to your captured images, lending a sense of softness and mood to the end effect of your black & white picture.
Use the available light carefully – shadows, highlights and variable tones will make all the difference in a black and white photo.
Use framing carefully – to bring out your most important element that will grab the viewer’s attention in your black and white image. Use foregrounds and backgrounds to create depth and give more substance to your main subject.
These of course are just a few short tips to introduce you with Black And White Digital Photography.
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| Digital Photography is relatively young. (2 decades to be precise) compared to its film peer and has without question brought photography to the people by the respective formats and platforms available.
Digital cameras are simpler to use. Indeed you can pretty much open the box and start shooting without even picking up a manual should you wish which could not always be said for film cameras.
The contemporary digital cameras and lenses are packed with technology that help you avoid some of the pitfalls of Digital Photography such as histograms to check for any exposure problems and image stabilizers to help avoid camera shake, ensuring sharp images even in less than ideal light.
Most people feel that after the inital investment of buying the camera and lenses that their photography is now cost free but that is not the always true unfortunately. Even after purchasing further accessories like software, tripod, bag, memory cards, extra lenses etc. you still have to think about long term safe storage of your images.
In the days of film, negatives or transparencies where actually very easy and inexpensive to store but with digital photography this can be a little more complex if you really want to safeguard your valuable photos.
Ideally you want to keep your images at the very least in duplicate form, perhaps one set of files on DVD kept somewhere other than at your house and another set of the same images on an external hard drive. This ensures you have a copy securely maintained against unfortunate events such as fire, theft or flood at seperate places with an extra set usefully on hard drive available for swift retrieval when needed.
So digital photography, although a fantastic new medium does have a few extra costs that may not be immediately obvious and we have not even started to speak about computer equipment which can require a whole lot more money depending on how serious you are about your photography.
I'm talking about printers, ink a good quality monitor and the calibration tools required to make certain that what you see on screen will match any prints that you may wish to produce. The new high resolution digital cameras also require higher quality more costly lenses than cameras from the time of film.
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