Lights, Camera... Nude!: A Guide to Lighting the Female Nude for Photography (13 page)

Photo 59: Another isolation on white tile board

Model: Jessica A.

Alternately, you can use umbrellas with your background lights to ensure even background illumination. You will need flags that are large enough to block any umbrella light from hitting the lens in order to prevent lens flare. In the preceding lighting diagram, a key light and fill light give more even lighting and virtually eliminate floor shadows.

With some practice adjusting the lights you can achieve near-perfect isolation without needing any post-processing in Photoshop. Beware, however, that adjusting the lights to eliminate shadows from the background will affect the lighting ratio on your model.

You can restrict the effects of each light with the use of honeycomb grid attachments, barn doors, or flags to minimize spill-over into unwanted areas.

If too much bounced light washes out shadows on the model you may want to use a black curtain behind the camera to reduce the light bounce. You can also paint your walls black or gray to control how much light reflects off them.

Lighting Setup#
1
4
Category:
Skill: Moderate
Light Kit:
Heads:
Model Zone:

This image was created with five lights: two in front of the model, and three behind. A beauty dish with grid
(
Light #
1)
lights the upper torso, while a gridded softbox
(
Light #
2)
on the floor is aimed up at the lower torso. Two strobes fitted with 40 degree grids
(
Lights #
3
, 4
)
are behind the model at the left, one pointed at her upper torso, the other at her legs. A 17”x54” strip softbox
(
Light #
5)
is behind the model at the right. Plastic sheeting, bordered by towels, contains the splashing water after it falls.

Photo 60: Water splash

Model: Hope S.

Lighting Diagram 14: Water splash

Many studio strobes (unlike high-speed low-powered flashes) can have flash durations
(See glossary, t.1)
between 1/200 and 1/3000 of a second. Some amount of motion blur will be evident with longer strobes and fast movement, as is seen in the water here.

Lighting Setup#
1
5
Category:
Skill: Moderate
Light Kit:
Heads:
Model Zone:

Photo 60: One light in studio

Model: Hope S.

Lighting Diagram 15: One light, studio

In this photograph, only one strobe
(
L
ight
#
1)
is used, fitted with a 17”x54” strip softbox. Fill light is provided by a 48-inch collapsible gold reflector
(Reflector
#
2)
. The lit
model zone
allows for moderate movement, as long as the model doesn’t step too close to either light or out of its path.
Advantages
include portability and dramatic contrast.
Disadvantages
include limited coverage and lack of versatility.

You can use daylight as it is (available light), or add fill light with a flash or reflector.
Fill flash should be off-camera for best results.

There is nothing wrong with using available light – but it requires the ability to recognize the lighting situations that are conducive to good photography, a far different task than creating your own lighting situation.

Outdoor shoots can happen anywhere you can combine suitable lighting with enough privacy to avoid interruption. For the preceding photo, the setting was a nook of the model’s back yard, nestled between trees.

Despite the challenges, shooting nudes outdoors offers spontaneous options for poses, backgrounds, composition, mood, light and color.

Model: Sarah H.

Lighting Setup#
16
Category:
Outdoor
Skill: Easy
Light Kit:1
Heads:1
Model Zone:
Large

Photo 62: Overcast day with strobe fill light

Model: Kaitlyn P.

Photo 63: Outdoor with water and car

Model: Kaitlyn P.