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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. |
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...
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(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...
- My
monitor isn't calibrated,
- I'm
not skilled at determining
the appropriate exposure
for digital photography,
and
- 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
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