OK. You asked for it, so here are some tips on shooting nudes. First of all, I'm going to assume that you're a guy shooting a girl. Just to make it easier from my own POV and avoid all this he/she stuff. Secondly, I'm talking something reasonably 'artistic' here. Not full-on, open-crotch, 'Pervert's Weekly' stuff. Thirdly, this is nothing to do with photographic technique. Everyone has, or should have, their own ideas on how to shoot a nude. This is about how to find a model, do the shoot, and not get arrested. Maybe she'll even come back for more. 1. Finding a nude model This is slightly more difficult than finding a regular clothed model. I'd suggest either approaching your regular models first, or if not, trying local art classes/art school for some of their models who might do it. At that point, you may have to pay, but you could propose a deal where the girl gets a set a pictures that she can use to get more work. Alternately, you have to find a model in the regular way, by asking girls you meet. This is a problem if it's your first nude shoot, because you have no pictures to show. The best way to get around this is to explain it's your first shoot, show the pictures you do have, then produce magazine pictures that approximate what you want to shoot. Usually, if a girl sees some nice nudes, even if they aren't yours, she'll be at least interested. And if they're black and white shots, they'll be considered more 'artistic' than color, (don't ask me why, but it's true). Thing to remember is that ALL women (and men) with reasonably good bodies are quite proud of them, so the idea of being shot nude isn't that repulsive to them. You might want to point out that, at the very worst, in 20 years time, they'll have fantastic pictures to look back on and show to their kids. Don't laugh - I always tell models to keep their pictures. In years to come, they'll want to look back, and if they don't keep them, they'll never find the magazines again. If you do show magazine pictures, make sure they're reasonably tasteful - not from 'Big Juggs Monthly' or anything - and DON'T show full-frontal nudes. Backs, hips, breasts are all ok. You might want to do full-frontals, but it's better to work up to that in stages. I've found that, for some bizarre reason, many girls will agree, if their face isn't in the pics. So, it might be good to show cropped shots of body parts, or faces in shadow. 2. Preparing for a shoot A lot of this depends where you're shooting, what season it is, and what country you live in. Let's assume you're shooting at home, or anyway, indoors. Outdoor nudes are very tricky because the model will be uneasy in case some rubberneck is watching, so let's leave that out for now. First thing is to tell the girl how to dress before she arrives. 'Say what?' I hear you cry. 'She's going to be taking her clothes off, so who cares?' Ah, but... what will you do when she undresses and there are big red marks all over her body from the elastic in her panties and bra? I'll tell you what you'll do. Wait an hour until they go away, that's what. So, to avoid an hour of embarrassing small-talk, explain this to her before she comes, and tell her to wear loose underwear that won't leave marks. Also, suggest that she might like to bring a dressing-gown to wear between shots. If not, have one ready anyway. The thing about being nude is that you always feel vulnerable. You know yourself that when you come out the shower, there's always a nagging sense of vulnerability until you actually get into your boxers/panties/whatever. So, just because someone's agreed to be photographed nude, doesn't mean they like standing around naked for the entire afternoon. She can come on the set wearing the dressing-gown, slip it off, and slip it back on again between shots. 3. The day of the shoot It goes without saying that you should already have an idea of what you're going to shoot. Lights should be set up, equipment ready, film loaded, light readings taken. Personally, I wouldn't be too ambitious. Stick to 2 or 3 ideas and do them well. You definitely want some music too. If your big passion in life is Thrash Metal, you might want to give it up for a few hours. Something fairly subtle is called for if you want to get a good atmosphere. Make sure the room is warm and that you have an extra fire of some kind around. Women are ALWAYS colder than men, and nude women are always colder than anybody, so she'll want to hang over a fire, almost guaranteed. (It's a psychological thing too). If possible, don't work in either total darkness (too creepy), or in glaring white light (too clinical). The model will arrive and you can spend a bit of time discussing what your going to do. You might want to ask her to get into the dressing-gown straight off to let her skin loosen up and lose any marks, Show her your pics/magazines/whatever and let her relax. When she's ready to change, you'll have a separate room for her (won't you?) where she can undress in privacy, do her make-up and, if necessary, hide out till she's psyched up for it. 4. Shooting I'll assume your model has done her own make-up, and that there are no spectators gawping in the background. She'll come out in her dressing-gown, and you have everything done and are ready to shoot. Fine. Now, DON'T say 'Stand over there and get nekkid!'. Use a bit of elementary psychology and don't start with full-frontal nudes. Get her to wrap the dressing-gown around her waist and start out shooting breasts, back, neck, or something. Then you can work up to the full monty. Same goes for full nudity. Don't go for legs open stuff. Show a bit of taste and have her curled up or standing semi-profile. Incidentally, it never does any harm to compliment a model. It doesn't need to sound cheesy. Just something like 'You have such great eyes/hair/skin'. An old room-mate of mine, who later became a really big fashion photographer (Corrinne Day, her name is) used to always find something positive to say to the model when she was shooting. Even if a girl is built like a truck and has a face like Spielberg's ET, she probably still has terrific nails or legs or something. Everyone is beautiful. You just need to look for it. When shooting, the first rule is NEVER EVER touch a nude model. If you want her to take up a position or pose, demonstrate what you want. And don't walk up and stand next to her if you can avoid it. Invasion of personal space is a no-no with nudes. Same applies with light-readings. If you use a hand-held light-meter, tell her you have to take a light reading before you walk up and shove this weird appliance between her legs. It's also a good idea to tell models what part of their body you're shooting. Remember, they have no idea what lens you're using, so you can say 'I'm cropping this above the waist, so it doesn't matter what you do with your legs'. And on the subject of lenses, it's not such a hot idea to use a 24mm wide-angle. Long lenses like 105/135 are a lot safer. especially if you're going in close or cropping body parts. 5. Effects As I said, this is not about technique, but there are a few simple things that can be used to improve a nude shoot. One is an ordinary household fan. Remember in the 80s, all those cheesy Revlon ads with the hair blowing in the wind and looking great? Well, you won't want to hire a wind machine, but a normal fan will usually do the trick. You can get some great head-back-hair-blowing-free profile shots with a fan sitting on a chair. Just make sure to set the damn thing to blow WARM air, not cold. Another good one is oil and/or water. Coconut oil is the best and it costs next to nothing. Get the model to rub it on her skin - it looks great. And you can find yourself one of those hand-held plant spray thingies, and spray (warm) mist onto her skin. With good lighting, the effects can be spectacular. A word of warning - If you go for oil/water, do it at the end of the shoot, not the beginning. Make sure you have a towel handy and a shower available. Don't touch the oil yourself or you'll be cleaning it off your cameras for weeks. And if you're using water, make SURE you do it well away from lights and cables. You do NOT want Kentucky Fried Model on your hands. You can also use pieces of net, gauze, silk, etc, especially with a fan. You'll want a stool or something for the model to sit on. Offer to take a break every now and again. Have food and drink around, but I wouldn't offer alcohol, unless the model asks for it. Some of them need a bit of courage. You just don't want her to think you're trying to get her wasted. Oh well, there's lots more which I can't think of offhand, but that should do to be going on with. I find nude shoots are not that easy to do, but it's mainly because you have to spend a lot of time getting a girl's confidence and walking on egg-shells. With any normal shoot, you can just get on with it and not worry whether she's going to storm out the studio or call the cops or something. Nudes are delicate. If you have any adolescent visions of Playmates smiling seductively at you in your front room, forget it. You'll be so busy trying to make sure everything works, you'll hardly notice she's naked. mac

Awesome, excellent, wow.... I think this is probably the best set of tips we've ever seen here in this place! Seriously!

Kewl! Would you like to put this down into a Resource Center Feature? ;-) (*

Aw shucks.... come on.... I'm sure you're kidding me. mac

Oops Xposted. What's a resource center feature? mac

Okay. Click on the Resource Center link below the forum banner. There's a Feature section there for Photography-related articles written by Forum regulars. You want to put an article there? :-) (*

OK, I see it. A tutorial center, in other words? Well, the ones I saw looked totally professional. My ramblings would have to be cleaned up a bit for public consumption. Might be worth a try. But listen, I was thinking when I was running through the nudes tips that there are a bunch of other things I could post on. I like to talk (you might have noticed), but I don't want to hog the forum. Still, I was wondering if anyone would be interested in things like 'How I got started as a fashion photographer'. Or maybe, 'Shoots that were nearly a disaster and how I saved them' LOL. I have a few of those, and the pics to prove it. Or how about 'my bizarre experiences as an assistant to even more bizarre photographers' If anyone has a hankering to know what life is REALLY like as a photographer, I can sure tell 'em. mac

Please oh please.....I love those kind of stories.... I was even thinking that this laundry list of Shooting Nudes tips would make a really cool tutorial in the actual photo tuts section on the main site, way up at the top there the Main Site header, why keep it buried here where most people don't even look..... And since we've been asked to utilize that function of the site more......? Star? An idea maybe?

Yeah, kewl. Methinks it makes a better feature article, too. On Nude or Portfolio Photography in general. Like a series, perhaps? C'mon mac... you can do it. :-) Hehehe (*

Have been looking more closely at the resource thingy and it's see it's not just strictly tutorials. I also see you and michelle are the mods, which I didn't know. That explains your interest. Well, I won't promise spectacular results, but here are some subjects I could deal with. How I got started as a fashion photographer. - Interesting for anyone who's into fashion or wants to get into the biz. How to get the best out of models. - Tricky subject, but maybe worth a try. What would you learn by being an assistant photographer?. - Very interesting (I'd say) and probably not what most people would imagine. Shooting CD covers and musicians in general. - General interest Shoots that went wrong and how I saved them. - IMO, very instructive. Since photographers are paid to get results, not give excuses, it's worth knowing what the reality of shooting can be. How professional photographers work - A bit of info on equipment, lights, dealing with make-up artists, etc. I dunno how much this sort of stuff would help people here, but I'm willing to give it a shot. I also have pics that could illustrate some of these things. mac

I'm pretty sure most everyone will benefit from these. I'd be happy to read up on this more than some things outside this particular forum... (sigh) The supplementing images will be a great plus, too. Send your articles over to starshuffler@renderosity.com, if you feel iffy about hogging the forum hahaha... :-) Those topics will make good features; 'How to get the best out of models' can fit in the tutorial category (which you can upload using the tutorial link in the main header above). (*

OK. Sounds fine to me. Give me some time and I'll get it together. I'm nearing the end of a majot poser project which I can't neglect, so I'll do them in stages. Things do get buried pretty quick in the fora, so maybe it's not a bad idea to keep them apart. What format should they be in? I'm pretty good with html, so that would be no problem. mac

Actually I can work with a simple .txt format, as long as you indicate which pictures go where. For the tutorials, they're pretty much do-it-yourself. We will approve it for you if all else is okay. :-) Thanks, mac! (

And if you don't want to take the time to do the tutorials for the Main Tutorial area, I can do it for you. It's simply a matter of transfering text over..... I'm currently in the process of doing this now with the other articles and tutorials in our Resouce Center, so no problem for me, really.

okey-doke. Text it is. mac

Mac - Thank you! 'chelle isn't too far off. This is great info. It's informative as hell, makes sense and the way you wrote it almost makes me feel like we're just sitting around shooting the breeze about photography. One of the best ways I learn. I really appreciate you sharing your experience with the rest of us. And you talked about naked females, so Jordy will be happy ('course I think Misha passed out after you mentioned "Big Juggs Monthly"). :) -=>Donald

Hey Don, how'd you know? That's one of my favorite publications! Right up there with "Glass Blowing Quarterly" and "Bottles & Jars." Love how the light plays off those smooth curves. Too bad about Jordy though, when the heading said "Finding a nude model" he thought they'd already have their clothes off. [Good material, mac. Welcome to the Forum.]

Whoa, hey guys, I AM here, y'know!!!! Bloody Ell, you have SUCH a low opinion of me!!!!! Anyways, I thought nude photography meant ME not having clothes on. It accounts for more wide-eyed "Oh My God!" expressions and a little excessive drooling from the models, but hey, I can live with that....... Seriously tho', thanks mac - I'm especially interested in that CD cover idea at the moment, and also if anyone knows how to get access into the Book Cover market...... I'll go back to sitting on the side bench and gettting insulted...... (",)

Re book cover market, Jordy, it helps to know writer friends who have upcoming material for publishing. That's how I got my first stint with the book cover. The rest is word of mouth. :-) (*

sarcastic mode on Gee, thanks Shufty, hold on a week while I find the daughter of a rich publishing magnate to impregnate.... that should get me in there ok..... sarcastic mode off rofl..... oookaaay.... and for those of us who DON'T have friends like Shufty?!? (",)

Jordster - We only tease because we care. :) hehehe As for your thoughts on nude photography ... ummm, I was going to ask where you keep your light meter, but then I decided it was better if you didn't say. :) -=>Donald

I hate to say it, jordy, but starshuffler's right. I got my first CD cover through the make-up artist I worked with. Her friend was a singer and needed some promo shots. So I did a set of 'smiley' color shots for her, then finished with a wild black and white for me. They liked the B & W so much, they used it for the single, then gave me the cover to do. Gimme some time and I'll try and jot down some of this stuff along with dodgy pics to illustrate it. mac PS Are you a real 'geordie' or is it just a nick?

wow- listening/reading, captivated by the conversation giggling @ JA i mean with :D welcome mac! looking foward to reading more of your experiences! & seeing more of your work- skims through the forum, looking for mac images- caught the fireworks one i've been neglecting the forum for too long...

disco Cynlee

Cheers mac - guess I will have to shack up with that publishers daughter then..... ;) Aye, I'm a proper Geordie. Born and bred up here, and proud of it. Only thing I'd change is the weather ;) (",)

cynlee. If you're a glutton for punishment, here's my site. Currently 3 yrs old and about to be updated with all my new shoots. jordy, Well, I'm (was) only a coupla hundred miles past you, in glasgow, but I live in the italian alps now. Don't remind me of the weather! Argh! mac

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