photo.net/learn/nudes -> photo.net/learn/nudes/
Bryan F Peterson A correct exposure is a simple combination of three important factors: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Since the beginning of photography, these same three factors have always been at the heart of every exposure, whether that exposure was correct or not, and they still are today--even if you're using a digital camera.
It doesn't have to be literal This is a composition that was hiding inside a larger image. What you see at right is about 1/5th of a 6x6 negative that contains the model, a beach, some rocks, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
" The model and room both have to be bare to show the bleak poverty of the unemployed PhD. Here's another image that was completely planned before the camera was picked up. It was during the 1992 presidential campaign when women's rights groups were upset by the Republicans' rhetoric. It would be better if the red, white, and blue footprints had been made with smaller feet.
The camera was a tripod-mounted Yashica twin lens reflex (6x6), valued at approximately $100. In 1993, I tried to duplicate the picture with higher-tech equipment, starting with a $5,000 Rollei 6008, elaborate studio strobe system with softbox, and motorized seamless paper background. The room light was too bright to adequately judge the outcome with the strobes' modeling lights. Sometimes a brain is more important than a fancy camera.
Handstand Motion Most nudes are static, heir first to the tradition of painting and then to the limitations of early cameras. But with $30,000 of studio strobes, why not show the body in motion? Richard Avedon keeps his models constantly in motion so that he never gets a frozen deer-in-the-headlights look. To ensure that the light on each model stays constant as he or she moves, Avedon has assistants follow the models around with lights at the end of booms.
It is tough to find anything actualy wrong with the picture on the left, a standard studio photo made with a seamless background, medium format camera, and softbox. However, the right hand "environmental nude" has more character.
"I checked a few different sources for info on the 3 graces, and all I could find is that they are continually anointing mortals, making them appear extremely beautiful and immortal to their pursuers. But I couldn't find why there are three of them or why they are called "graces". I think there is some conflation with the Erinyes, who hounded Orestes after he murdered his mom, but then he sacrificed to them and they became Eumenides, and at the same time he sacrificed to the Graces. They are benevolent goddesses - that much I can say for certain."
Chinese Takeout "Nothing Beats a Wet Beaver" That's the motto of the MIT men's water polo team. We did a fund-raising calendar (September 1998-December 1999) of these beefcake-y guys.
The line between art and pornography is fairly thin, but it is there. At right is a photo taken for an undergraduate photography course at MIT A couple of professors loved it.
Infrared Photography Handbook and then trying out a few rolls of B&W IR film (example at right). It was never easy to take infrared photos casually because you'd have to focus in two steps: turn the focus ring until the image appeared sharp in the viewfinder and then take move your eye to the top of the camera and turn the focus ring a bit so that the infrared focus mark lined up to where the focus ring had been. Different wavelengths of light require different focus positions for the lens. All of the visible wavelengths are close enough in size that you can pick a single focus position and not have too much distortion from this effect, which is why photographers don't typically think about it. It should be very easy indeed, since the CMOS and CCD sensors at the heart of a digital camera are inherently sensitive to near-infrared light. Unfortunately, the manufacturers put a filter over the sensor to screen this out and limit image formation to visible light.
they rip out the filter, tweak the camera so that it will autofocus properly in infrared, and return it to you after a day or two. Life is much easier than in the old film days because you don't have to tweak the focus manually after making the image sharp for visible light, and you get an instant preview. More Practical Tips Every now and then someone sends email asking "How do you get women to take their clothes off?" The answer is that the world divides into two classes of people: those who like to be photographed and those who don't. Those who like to be photographed think they have beautiful bodies. Naturally, if they look good in a picture clothed, they'd look better without all those ugly clothes standing between their beautiful body and the camera. If you therefore find some folks who have survived the constant assault on their self esteem by advertisers, the challenge will be to get them to keep their clothes on.
the challenges in nude photography are very similar 3 Rent or buy a camera with full manual controls and a fast fixed focal-length lens. If you've invested the time in arranging a venue and a model, you don't want to rely on automatic exposure.
If you're using digital equipment, your photos will be secure on your camera's memory card and on your personal computer's hard drive. Thus, any nude images will be viewable only by you or, if your system administration skills are sub-professional, by Bill Gates, most American 13-year-olds, half of Russia, and the US Government. If you're using film and using commercial labs for development and printing, you risk criticism. Big photo labs generally will develop tasteful nudes with no questions asked. The customer service department at Kodak's stated their policy as "if there is only one person in the picture, we're definitely not going to have a problem with it." There are laws in some states requiring labs to report photographers who bring in images of naked children. More than a few serious photographers have had unpleasant, expensive, and prolonged dealings with government authority stemming from what you'd have thought were easy calls (eg, a San Franciscan who took his 8x10 view camera to a nudist colony and photographed families with their consent).
This covers over 100 years of nude photography, right up to the repulsively hairy body of John Coplans, whose self-portraits definitely constitute one of the nastiest things one can do with a 4x5 view camera (actually his assistant takes the pictures;
I do a bit of freelance work, and I have done some work with IR at nighttime activities, such as dances, when a flash would blind everyone. I had quite good luck placing a #87 IR Gel Filter (Kodak) over my flash, an old Vivitar 283, set on auto in the "yellow" range. I was surprised to find that the flash read the IR light as if it was a regular flash. I got shots from about 50' in to about 15' (and no one was blinded). Of course any closer and people's skin began to take on a strange appearance.
I have found through my galleries that the images which sell best are ones without pubic hair. For some strange reason -- prints displaying pubic hair seem obtrusive to the viewer, while the hairless versions are much more collected. Perhaps we can learn something from 17th century painters? Also, as far as shooting black and white of models, I use a red filter over my lens and dark haired models for some of my work with great success. The red filter "whitens" the skin tones and greatly conceals skin blemishes and discolorations. Photographers just starting out may want to try this outdoors against grass -- the grass turns very dark and contrasts well with the white skin tones of the model. Of the hundred or so gallery sites I've visited so far -- yours in the best organized and most informative.
You are one of the only artists I've ever read, that are truly able to write - to convey the emotion of their artwork into language, not just art. My mother is an artist (not starving, I'm happy to say), and I've learned a lot about art over my eighteen years of life. At least enough to know that you are a "genius" I use the term loosely, only because people throw the word around way too much, and the true esse...
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