Pascal Baetens. Nude Photography. The Art and The Craft. 2007

66 exploring techniques

daylight indoors

Daylight creates many opportunities, even indoors—all you

need is a room with a window. Direct sunlight is interesting,

but may be too contrasty with the shadows inside the room.

i prefer to work with the light from a north-facing window,

which creates enough contrast to play with light and

shadows without the problem of burned-out highlights

and areas of solid black shadow. these images were taken

with direct sunlight in the room, but i positioned the model

either directly or obliquely in front of the window and used

a reflector when needed to throw light back onto her.

Another way to cope with direct light is to shoot in early

morning or late afternoon, when the sun is not so bright.

Light reflected from below

the light is reflecting on the lower part of the

model’s breasts and belly. Because of its

unnatural direction, this kind of light gives

an artistic look.

Light reflected from the side

the model’s face is not catching much light

as the top of the reflector is out of the sunshine.

Moving the model or the reflector would solve

this, but the shadowed face adds mystery.

Light reflected from above

the reflector now creates a natural effect,

as sunlight mainly comes from above us.

the reflector softens what would have been

hard shadows on the face, belly, and arms.