Page created June 4, 2006
Sitting date:  April 12, 2006

 

I first met Natalia late last year when she came through town.  I was quite impressed with her natural abilities.  Not only was she beautiful with radiant skin, she moved with the grace of a polished dancer.  I jumped at the chance to work with her again when she returned this Spring.  

 

 

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Ah, but all things don't always go as planned.  As it turned out, Natalia wasn't feeling all that well on the day of our sitting.  But she was a trouper -- it's not possible to postpone a sitting with a traveling model, and she knew how much I wanted to work with her, so she was determined to push through her discomfort.  For my part, I was determined to give her a mellower sitting.  We certainly weren't going to go back into the shower. 

 

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When I first met Natalia late last year, I was quite impressed by her unique personal style.  Well, she had more informal attire this time, but it was still uniquely stylish.  I was particularly taken with her worn out jeans, her scarf, her arm warmers. 

 

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Okay, enough admiration of Natalia's t-shirt!

I would describe my typical pace during a sitting to be "languid", and today, we move even slower than usual.  Still, we are here to make some fine art nude photographs, so we get started. 

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I like how Natalia's face is pressed into the inside of the t-shirt.  

A technical note:  the technical objective of any photograph is to reproduce the appropriate tonality for the image, and this is especially true for B&W photography.  When I'm printing images on photographic paper, I can take the print out into the kind of light where it will be displayed, and I can determine whether I've got it right.

But with digital images, it's more difficult.  For one thing, my monitor isn't calibrated (and it's old & not all that good).  And the real issue is that I'm not all that good with digital photography...

 

(Technical Note, continued):  With film photography, >95% of the technical quality of the image is determined by the exposure & development of the negative; you simply can't make a good print from a bad negative.  Fortunately, film negatives have great latitude, which basically means that all you need to get a good negative is to get it "close enough", and a reasonably skilled photographer can compensate for small mistakes in exposure & development.

I presume that the same is true with digital images -- getting the exposure right is critical.  However, digital cameras react to light differently than how film reacts.  

So, I'm stuck a little -- I'm not as skilled at determining the right exposure for digital images, and I'm not as skilled at post-processing the digital images. 

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(Boy, she's taking her own sweet time getting that shirt off!  No, actually, I'm the one asking her to take her time).

So, the triple whammy is that...

  1. My monitor isn't calibrated,
  2. I'm not skilled at determining the appropriate exposure for digital photography, and
  3. I'm not skilled at digital image post-processing.

So, I'm still experimenting with my post-processing, trying to compensate for my deficiencies in calculating the right exposure.

You'll find that I experimented a bit with post processing for the images from this sitting.  In general, I'm being satisfied with a little less contrast this time.  And for some reason, the "auto-processing" commands of my picture editing software work fairly well for many of these images.

 

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The t-shirt is off.

I've already noticed that our sitting is low-key.  Natalia was definitely more enthusiastic during our first sitting, but hey, we all have off days.

I'm enjoying the light & the shapes Natalia shows me. 

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I do ask Natalia to keep those jeans on.  I love the ripped knees.  I've been exploring this kind of image (topless model with jeans still on) off & on for the past few sittings.  (See Kira's sixth sitting & Yulia's third sitting).  I particularly like the Yulia ones.     

 

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Letting the model keep her jeans on gives us the freedom to try some different poses.  For 95% of the images I make, I'm interested in making fine art nude photography & not something that is more, umm, gynecological in nature.

So, if the model is totally nude, she needs to be a bit more circumspect -- e.g. she needs to keep her knees together.  But let her keep her jeans on, and suddenly, she can sprawl without being provocative.  

And if you let the model sprawl, suddenly you get more of a glimpse of the model's personality.

 

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Okay -- here's an example:  the same images, and two different post-processing.  The image above is my own hand processing; the image below is the automated post processing done by my photo editing software.  Which looks better to you?

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She may not be feeling well this day, but Natalia could be the poster child for youthful vitality. 

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There is something so serene about this image.  It's one of my favorites.  I love the subtle light on her face, and how the main & highlight light are balanced.

 

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Despite not feeling well, Natalia starts warming up & moving around.   

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So, it's time to ask Natalia to move around a little.  I like this light in this little setup, so we stay here, but for starters, I ask Natalia to stand up.  Natalia does request some images of her with her jeans, so we leave them on.

This sitting continues with More Worn Out Jeans

 

(Remember -- feedback is always appreciated) 

All images (c) 2006 Looknsee Photography

Natalia #2 Out Takes

Over 100 more images from this sitting are available in the Out Takes Galleries, which are available to those who have made a donation to the upkeep of this web site.  See this FAQ question for more details.

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