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

lighting 73

Light painting

Keeping my shutter open for 30

seconds at f/22, i lit the model with

a flashlight. the pose has to be easy

to hold completely still, so lying down

is a good option. however, it is

important that you are in constant

motion yourself—if you keep your foot

in the same spot for even just a few

seconds it will show in the image.

Tall shadows
i wanted to create shadows that would seem
to tower over the model, so i put my lamp on
the floor and used a metal rack to prop it in
position, pointing upward toward him. l chose
an energetic pose and placed the model close
to the wall so the shape of the shadows would
show up well against the dark background.

Colored lights

red and green gels (colored acetate filters)

are the basis for this image. i positioned the two

spotlights opposite each other, either side of the

model. Because the red light was stronger than

the green i had to make some adjustments to

match the light intensity. Another way to do this

is to move the model closer to the weaker light.

Graphic silhouette

With a single softbox you can create wonderful,

sharp silhouettes. i asked the model to turn his

head to the side, since a profile works much

better in silhouette than a face-on pose. using

a softbox in this way is great for creating the

perfect white background; a larger one would

have provided even more possibilities.