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

72 exploring techniques

artificial lighting effects

even in a very basically equipped studio you can create

a great variety of lighting effects. All you need is one or two

lights, a few basic accessories, and a little imagination.

the lights don’t even have to be special studio lights—there

are plenty of interesting effects that can be achieved with

just ordinary household lamps—even with just a flashlight—

so there’s no excuse not to have a go. it doesn’t have to be

complicated or excessively time consuming, either. All the

images here were realized in a two-hour session. however,

a cooperative model and good preparation is essential.

Projecting a pattern

the effects can be stunning, but the technique is simple. For these images,

i cut some shapes out of a piece of black card and got my assistant to hold it in

front of a spotlight so that it cast patterns of light and shadow over the model’s

back. the closer the card is to the model, the sharper the pattern will be.