Today’s Post by Blue Moon Staff
Nudity is a state of fact; lewdity, to coin a phrase, is a state of mind.—Paul Outerbridge
It used to be that the number one question that we got from potential clients was about nudity. Here’s a typical question we have received:
I’m a modest person and don’t want to pose nude; do I have to? No. If you look at all of the photographs on our blog you will see many with no, partial, full or implied nudity but all of these choices were made by the client—not the photographer.
There are several ways for you to approach being photographed nude for the first time but first let me tell you a story: Several years ago, I was approached by a young woman who wanted to appear in Playboy—back when that was a thing. When I asked if she had every posed nude before, she said “no,” so I explained the posing system that I use and she went into the dressing room to change. When she came out she was totally naked, she replied, “What the heck, I might as well go for it.”
The method that we typically use for clients who want to warm up to nude photography starts with the clients initially wearing whatever she wants, similar to the photograph that’s above left, although it might be argued that the sweater she’s wearing leaves little to the imagination.
How I Made this Photograph: When I worked with Zoe, I was lucky enough to photograph her three different times and this image was made during our second shoot together, when she was still a blonde. It was made in my former home’s kitchen that has a North-facing bay window that provided beautiful natural life. The camera used was a Canon D60—not a 60D—with an EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM lens (at 28mm.) That lens has been discontinued but you can still pick up new copies from Amazon or used ones from \ eBay. The available light exposure (no reflectors were used) was 1/80 sec at f/5.6 and ISO 400 with a plus one-thirds stop exposure compensation.
During the session the subject is free to “play” with her clothes, removing or moving parts of them and that’s what produced the final image at right. During this process the subject is totally in control of what happens and they can stop the moment that they start to feel uncomfortable. This subject ended up doing full nudes later on but that was her choice not ours.
