It is a common misconception that better technique, better equipment or luck will help you take better photographs of nudes. It won’t, but good ideas will.
I recently took part in a critique where a photographer put up a technically perfect but aesthetically boring picture of a nude. He commented that he had no concept or message when taking the picture but would like to do more ‘artistic’ work. I suggested that if he worked on having the former then the latter might naturally flow.
The Concept
I always try and get my students to have a concept or reason for taking a picture. This doesn’t have to be a highly intellectual artistic message which will emphasise the need for world peace. It can be as simple as documenting a walk or taking a portrait that tells the viewer something about that person.
Think about a simple holiday snap. The reason for taking it may simply to provide a record of the place you visited, which is perfectly valid, but as soon as we add the idea of showing that it was really pretty or a complete dump, what a good time we had, the people we met or even how much we drank, the dynamics of our picture taking change. We are trying to produce a picture in response to our feelings about a place and convey an idea. As soon as you as a photographer start to work towards a specific theme or concept the creation process becomes much more interesting and creative.
The concept does not need to be complicated. It does not even need to be an original idea, but having a plan, an idea of what you want to capture can help you to get good results from a shoot. It also helps you convey to the model what you are trying to achieve.
Concepts can be simple; to show shape, textures and form of the human body. This means you have to think about lighting, poses, do you want the model to be anonymous as in the picture above and composition. Or maybe more abstract as below. You can easily experiment with both in the same shoot.
They can also be complicated. Here I wanted to show my reaction to the abandoned house and try an create some ghostly images. With this in mind I shot pictures of the empty rooms with the camera on a tripod. With the camera still fixed the model walked through the rooms. The fixed viewpoint made it easy to overlay the images in Photoshop.
Does this help you take better photographs of nudes?
Unfortunately it doesn’t prevent you from producing a picture that the majority of viewers think is crap but, and it’s a big but, if you are happy with the result and it conveys or shows what you wanted to show then stick with it. Monet, Van Gogh and Cezanne didn’t get rave reviews at first. If it is not, then have another go.
Because digital photography is an instant process many photographers think that, with luck, they may go out and take that award winning picture today, although they are not quite sure where or what of. Most artists have an idea, work on sketches and then create various canvases to explore that idea. Great photographers do the same. Read an interview with a landscape photographer. They will say that they scout locations, think where the light will be at different times of day, examine what they want to convey about the landscape and then make several visits until they achieve the result they want.
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
So How Much Technical Knowledge Do I Need?
Any artist must first learn their medium; you wouldn’t expect sit down at a piano and compose a sonata or pick up your kids water colours and paint like Rembrandt (who painted mostly in oils by the way). But the elements of composition and lighting are as important as technique. Read Nude Photography Composition
Photography is a technical process so you must learn elements of your craft in order to be able to capture everything you want to in your chosen medium but digital cameras are able to handle a lot of the technical aspects of photography for us. We have a greater chance of success in recording a given subject with a high degree of technical accuracy and can therefore start thinking more about creative ideas earlier on the learning curve than our predecessors.
Ironically the freedom modern cameras give us means that some photographers think less about the artistic creation process due to its technical ease when we actually have more time to think about concepts, ideas, composition and all the elements that make a great photograph.
Simon Pocklington is a qualified adult education tutor. Find out more about Photography Tuition
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- Beyond Glamour Photography
- The Concept – Take Better Photographs of Nudes
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- Photographing Nudes – A Different Point of View
