Art Light, Page One

Here's a test shot from the next setup. I felt that it was a little dark, so I made some adjustments to the lighting & the exposure. Still, I do like this first image. I don't know what it is about Kristin, but when I work with her, I am inspired to create some "master art painter" lighting.

See -- here's after the minor lighting adjustments. The background is a bit lighter, and the spotlight on the back wall (behind her knee) is more diffused. Still, some more adjustments are needed, and we work them out as we go along. And to me, that's what these sittings are all about -- getting started with a concept, and refining it with small adjustments & inspired ideas.

I believe that I do my best work with models who are sitting or standing -- I'm not as good with horizontal models, so I like to work on it whenever I get a chance. Here you'll see some more adjustments from the previous images on this page -- I'm closer, and for the most part, I've cut down how much floor is in the image. I like the light on Kristin's face & the various textures. Still, the image isn't quite horizontal, and that back wall isn't exactly perpendicular to the camera axis.

Still making adjustments: I like the non-standard cropping -- I do like images with radical proportions, but only if the image works.

One interesting thing is that nudes without a face are quite different from nude images that include the face. Once a face is allowed into the image, the image is most often a nude portrait, but a nude image without a face is more of an abstraction.

This image is also rare for me -- there is no face, but the entire nude image, from head to toe, is included. I like this image.

I should have also mentioned that I like Kristin's legs & hips, so I ask her not to change that. However, she's free to move her arms & head. I don't like this image quite as much as the one above it -- there's something about her head & neck that looks a little more strained to me. Still, I'm liking the light.

One measure of the ability of a model is how well she can move, find unusual shapes, and make them look natural. Kristin does this well.

Just for a break, I've cropped this image more generously, including more of the bench under Kristin. I guess I'm including this image here for variety. Choosing a cropping is one of my strengths, and when you look at this loose cropping side-by-side with the tighter cropping, I think you'll agree that in this case, the tighter cropping is more interesting.

Now I remember: during Kristin's first visit, she had a cold, and when I got her to lie down, she would wind up with a coughing fit, so we didn't keep her on her back for very long then. This time, she was perfectly healthy, and she spent a good amount of time on her back. Still, it was time to move on, and I let her move around more.

Many photographers choose their cropping when they compose their pictures. I don't. My first camera was a viewfinder, and I was never exactly sure where the edges of my image were. So, I got in the habit of including a little more than necessary in the image when I made the exposure, and I would crop the image during post-processing. Most of the time, I would wind up using 95% of the recorded image, but sometimes, I would see just a small part of the image that was of interest to me. This image is a case in point -- below is an alternate cropping of the same image -- which do you prefer?

For the most part, I'm enjoying the tight cropping that includes Kristin's entire figure -- that was working for me. But when she rolled over onto her side, I asked her to dangle her arm. This made a wider cropping necessary, but that's good. This light celebrates the textures, and Kristin's figure is superb, too. One nit, though, is an old posing nit of mine -- I don't like it when a limb is pointing at the lens. Look at Kristin's right thigh -- it is pointing almost exactly towards the camera lens, which makes her leg look a little stumpy. That's what being a photographer is all about -- you've got to see everything, and you get to see everything during post-processing, but it's best for you to see everything during the sitting, so that you can make adjustments as you go along.

I must have noticed this nit during the sitting. Below is the next exposure, and Kristin has changed the position of her legs.

A minor change to her left arm, and I can go back to my preferred tight cropping.

I do like to have models stretch. One note: normally, I like to set up a concept & then explore all relevant variations. I would have loved to have Kristin to posed facing away from me, on her side like this, so that I could photograph her back, but Kristin has a tattoo on her shoulder blade, and I have a definite, unshakable policy against photographing tattoos. So, we'll have to do without.

I didn't want to keep Kristin horizontal for the whole sitting, so I ask her to sit up for a few more exposures.

I usually ask models to remove all jewelry, but for some reason, I didn't this time. For this sitting, I've been quite aware of Kristin's hands, and we keep her hands busy.

I'm still playing with different kinds of cropping -- here, I include a lot of space at the top of the image. Call this a sitting favorite -- I like the reflected light on Kristin's face. The image below is another variation, but I think I like this one (on the left) better.

Another cropping variation -- I like the proportions (narrow & tall), but this time, I've included space both above & below the figure. I couldn't tell you if I prefer the centered or off-centered figure, but I suppose that if I must choose, I'd slightly prefer the centered figure (this image).

I like using this soft light, and I seem to structure this kind of light when Kristin poses for me. She has such a curvy figure, and the soft shadows grant the image with a good three-dimensional feel.

Kristin excels at being comfortable while posing nude. I've only worked with her twice, but both times, she exceeded my expectations.

One last image from this lighting setup.

As much as I like this light, I think I want to push the lighting further. It's a relatively simply thing to move the light stands a bit closer to the back wall, but the impact is significant. Look at the results on the next page.

It took me a while to warm up -- I was having problems with both my eye & with the digital camera (it wouldn't fire the strobes consistently). Still, we were making some worthwhile images. I change the lighting, and we push on.

This sitting concludes with Art Light, Page Two