Lights, Camera... Nude!: A Guide to Lighting the Female Nude for Photography

Lights, Camera... Nude
!

A
Guide to Lighting the Female Nude
for Digital Photography

Formatted for Kindle

www.nudephotoguides.com

Front cover model: Hope Splawn
Back cover model: Narzahni Crumbie

Made in the USA. Charleston, SC

First printing 2010. Copyright © 2010 by A.K. Nicholas. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means — graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, information storage and retrieval systems — without written permission of the author.

Unauthorized duplication or distribution is prohibited. If you downloaded this document, you may not physically or electronically copy or redistribute it other than for personal use.

Although efforts have been made in the preparation of this material for accuracy and prudence, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for errors, omissions, inherent risks, or the unintended consequences of reliance on the material herein. The reader assumes all responsibility for safety. Use the material in this book at your own risk.

Author/Photographer
A.K. Nicholas

Editor
s
Tia Sukin, Ph.D.
George Nicola, Ph.D.

Copy Editor

Michelle Lovi

Development
Editor
s
David Roark
Shelley Doyle

Models

Jessica Anglin
Toni Callahan
Jacqueline Connell
Narzahni Crumbie
Anna Faulling
Ashley Gastrich
Sarah Hyder
Terra Jean
Lauren Keil
Aurora Lenk
Lauren McCants
Kaitlyn Piotrowski
Sarah Sink
Hope Splawn
Michelle Waters
Ariel Williamson
Lexi Wilson
Elizabeth Winters

An older artist, a relative of mine whom I greatly admire, once admonished me not to reveal too much of my techniques to others. She worried that I may lose my distinction as a photographer if others mimicked my techniques.

Contrary to her advice, I think a photographer's work is distinguished by hard work and creativity, and these traits cannot be merely copied. Although creativity and imagination may not be learned, I believe they can be developed through practice.

The techniques in this guide are not the traditional “textbook” way of learning nude lighting – there are already plenty of books to teach you to light textbook nudes. These are my techniques for lighting nudes; some of my methods follow traditional rules and some do not, and I honestly don’t keep track of which do or don’t.

I do hope you will learn from my techniques, and through hard work and practice evolve these techniques into something that is uniquely yours.

Lighting the nude model is distinct from lighting in other types of people photography.

This book is to help those who have tried some nude lighting, but are struggling to create interesting images. The serious photographer who is new to nudes will also benefit. This guide is about reaching that next level and making nude models look their best and most interesting.

This guide is about lighting the nude, so I’m not going to make you sift through a lot of lighting techniques for non-nude modeling. There is a lot you can learn about general lighting that is not covered in this guide.

This guide deals with lighting the whole figure in most cases, or at least three-quarters of the model’s body. Don’t look for information about lighting close ups of the face. Knowledge of portrait lighting is helpful, but not essential to begin shooting nudes.

You also won’t find more than a brief explanation of general lighting concepts. I’m assuming that you already know some general photography; this isn’t intended to be your first photography book, or encyclopedic. As much of the book as possible is devoted to lighting the nude. A list of suggested topics for further study, such as inverse square law, can be found at the end of the book.

This guide demonstrates lighting for photographing a beautiful model to bring out her best and most fascinating features. There are plenty of books that tell you how to hide your subject’s flaws; this is not one of those books. You won’t find any tips for making regular people look slimmer, taller, or more beautiful.

What you will find are illustrated examples and step-by-step instructions for creating photographs of beautiful nude women.

In this guide I have retouched minor flaws on the models (stray hairs for example). I have also corrected some minor defects in the backgrounds or defects from lens characteristics (chromatic aberration for example). However, because this is a collection of images to illustrate lighting, I’ve avoided any retouching that pertains to lighting effects (such as shine on a nose or forehead). Although such lighting defects can easily be removed with post processing, I let them remain in order to preserve as much information as possible about the lighting. Just as no model is perfect, no light arrangement is perfect and you will want to retouch most of your images—though post processing is a topic for a whole other book.

Each lighting setup has one or more example photos and a diagram of how to place the studio equipment. Because the characteristic of each studio is different, and your equipment will vary, the diagrams are a starting point from which you will want to make minor adjustments.

Lights are numbered, and other set elements are identified by letters. Next to some lights is a height measurement signified by an up/down arrow (↕) indicating the number of feet above the level of the model’s lowest body part (usually the floor) to the middle of the light. Also you will find a distance measurement signified by a left/right arrow (↔) indicating the distance from the front of the light to the closest part of the model.

Model: Sarah H.

Before you jump in and start taking a bunch of nude photographs, take some time to set up your studio lighting; to stack the odds in your favor. Lighting is my top consideration in nude photography once I’ve found the right model.

Studio lighting allows the ultimate control over illumination, and with most nude photography taking place in the studio, the majority of the examples are indoor lighting.

Location lighting is the most enjoyable for me, combining creative challenges of a non-studio setting with the control of being indoors.

If you intend to use wardrobe and props with your nude — you may also want to develop fashion and still life lighting skills.

In this section I will explain some of the concepts that are used in the lighting diagrams that appear throughout the book. This is not an exhaustive explanation of all lighting concepts, and topics for further study appear at the end of the book.

Contrast ratio, in the context of nude photography, establishes many aspects of the image including mood, compositional elements, and how much detail of the model is revealed. In this book I express this ratio with two numbers in this format: main:fill.

In two-light portrait photography a ratio of 3:2 is traditional; but in nude photos a higher ratio like 2:1 (main light twice as bright as the fill light) or even 4:1 often yields more dramatic images. It’s a matter of preference and style. Lighting that obscures the model in shadow is often viewed as more artistic, while lower contrast images can risk looking pedestrian. Don’t worry too much about the math, the following images illustrate the various ratios between main and fill lights.

Photo 2: Contrast ratio 3:2

Model: Hope S.