Today’s Post by Blue Moon Staff
Nudity is natural but not until a person accepts and loves who they are.—Jolene Blalock
We consider ourselves feminists here at Blue Moon and read the feminist blog Jezebel on a regular basis. Not too long ago their post entitled “Nude Paintings: Hot or Not?” quoted Wall Street Journal writer Julie Lasky, “like a lot of people in the 1960s and ’70s, my formative decades, considered nudes socially progressive.”
So Jezebel asked: “Are nudes back? When Los Angeles designer Isabelle Dahlin remodeled a home in Los Feliz, California, she found a moody portrait of a bare-breasted woman in her client’s collection. The work, she said, was a “refreshing departure” from the craft-based art pieces she had been dealing with up to that time.
By happy coincidence, the formative decades for my photography were the 1960s and ’70s too. And as it turns out that one of the first boudoir portraits that I shot was during the late 1970’s for a couple who wanted a large portrait of themselves nude to hang over their bed.
And yes, we do couples and sexy friend shoots. Many of the portraits people want to frame and hang on their walls are made in black and white because the image seems abstract and some people feel it’s more artistic. On the other hand, if you prefer something more personal, the image should definitely be in color.
How I made the above portrait: Lighting was two Paul C Buff DigiBee DB800’s and one Alien Bee B800 light. Background was the hand painted Carbonite muslin from Silverlake Photo. The camera used was a Olympus Pen F with Oly’s 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 II kit lens. Exposure was 1/200 sec at f/11 and ISO 400. The original file was converted to a DNG file using Adobe DNG Converter and that did the trick at the time, converting ORF’s into portable DNG files I could use with my older version of Photoshop. That file used the Glamour Glow filter from Color Efex for a soft focus effect along with a tiny bit of warm tone for a final touch.
If you’re a model, know a model or would like to give nude modeling a try under very safe and fun conditions, please contact us via the Contact tab above and let’s schedule a test shoot. After the shoot, we’ll hand you a flash drive (or CD) of every photograph we make that you can use, however you like.
