Take better nude photos tips

How To Take Better Nude Photographs

How to Photograph Nudes, Thinking About Nude Photography

It is easy to take better nude photographs. Anyone, even the best at something, can always get better at it. All you have to do is acquire more knowledge, practice, and maybe have a bit of inspiration.

1.2 trillion photographs are taken worldwide per year (statista.com). Before the introduction of mobile phone cameras ninety five percent of these billions of photographs where taken in horizontal format; compact cameras are ergonomically designed to be held that way. Now that eighty five percent of the population uses a smart phone to take photographs ninety five percent are vertical because that’s the way they hold it.

Out of 1.2 trillion how many created rather than taken? How many are composed, and I don’t mean just with the subject fitted in to the frame? Let’s guess at 10%, good composition is subjective anyway. So out of that billion or so how many are well composed?

Improving Your Photography

The last thing you want to be as a creative photographer is normal.

But then maybe you do? A lot of well composed, sharp, correctly exposed photographs sell. Do you need to be creative in all of your holiday photographs? Before you start learning new techniques, drooling over the latest DSLR or planning trips abroad ask yourself, Why Do I Take Photographs – Do I have a concept?

Which Camera Do I Need?

When I started photography in the 1970’s there were about 10 billion photos taken a year. Most of those were taken on cheap compact cameras or instamatics and ended up in a shoe box. Pros had larger format cameras and shot on transparency film. Now you can take a high resolution image on (some) smartphones. So Is My Camera Any Good?

Nude woman with vintage camera

Remember – Better nude photographs are made by the photographer, not the camera.

Which Should I Learn First Composition or Technique?

Study the first and learn the other as you go along.

In the 1970s 80s and 90s it was easy to win competitions – all you had to do was make a good print or take a correctly exposed transparency and enter to stand a chance. If you wanted to get published you sent some sample prints, phoned, phoned again (and again) and often went to see the publisher. At the end of this process I often walked out of the office with between a hundred and a thousand pounds worth of sales (worth about twice that now) and a client who bought work from me on a regular basis after that. Now there are photographs of everything all over the internet.

Have a Concept – An Idea

Dispirited? Don’t be. How many of the photographers thought about the lighting, adjusted their viewpoint, waited for the subject to move to just the right spot, went back when the weather was different?  Better nude photographs appear if you think about the image you are creating. Try and have a concept of what you wants to say. Read, Take Better Nudes – Have a concept

The nude is just another subject. Master techniques that allow you to take pictures when others can’t, when the subject is backlit, fast moving, against a cluttered background.

When you take a good photograph PRINT IT, frame it and exhibit it. Show it to your friends, people whose judgement you value, good photographers, artists, tutors, the person or people in it. Listen to their comments, even if they are just being polite or you disagree these are far more valuable than, ‘great capture’ or ‘brilliant,’ online


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Creative Nude Photography shows you how to go beyond the norms of conventional glamour. The book contains sections on the concept, but is it art plus practical advice on finding models and camera techniques. The final section shows examples of creative nude projects

Want a hard copy to read? Printed edition available here


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