Nude

[Shannon]

This is my first attempt at photographing a nude. The image quality isn't too good, but am trying to improve in photoshop...
Any opinions / suggestions?

[Peter_AUS]

Hi Shannon,

I'm glad you posted that this was Nude as there are people that might look and be a little taken a back by this shot.

I think the pose is good, DOF of the model is a little off, the White Sheet is going to be hard to meter using the camera meter.

What camera, settings, lighting etc did you use for this shot.

I have found http://www.photosig.com a great place to look for resources on nude photography, you might like to have a look in there, check under photos, then by category and there are many topics in there for viewing, seeing what others have posted and regarding lighting setups and the rest.

Welcome to the forums good to see another Aussie making it to a great friendly community of fellow photographers.

[Shannon]

Thanks for that - I used natural light - late in the day from my window and used the in-camera meter in my Pentax MZ50, with a 300mm Tamron lens. Didn't write down my settings (due to laziness and running out of light!) but a a fairly wide-open aperture due to low light... and Delta 400 pro film - first time i've used this but was hoping for speed with finer grain.

[Sean Dempsey]

was it difficult to set the timer so you could go pose before it took the picture?

[Shannon]

This is not me.

[gahspidy]

I think this is very good aside from the grainy texture which does not suit a nude shot like this very well, IMO. I think you should try to apply a soft focus to the entire image and see what that looks like. That will clean up the grain , for one thing. Also, I tried cropping out the left side, where her wet hair is falling off the side of the bed, and some of the bottom. It helped bring all the attention to the subject and bring her more into the frame. Just my thoughts . . .

[mtbbrian]

Yes thanks for posting "nude" in the title..
We don't get a lot of nude photography here, and people often look from work.

There seem to be good skin tones, I like how the hand reaches almost out of the frame.

I hope to see more from you.
Welcome to PR.com!
Brian

[Young Shooter]

Nice shot but bad contrast try to adjust that in photoshop

[JimK]

Was the model laughing? Maybe it's just my imagination... The only objection I have is that something is poking into the sheet from behind in the upper right corner, it kept drawind my eye to it.

[paulnj]

the extended hand bothers ME..... not a negative though

I'm glad to see that this is a TASTEFUL IMAGE!!!!!!!!

nothing wrong with the human form, and don't let anyone tell you posting such is distasteful( and i'm sure nobody here will)

[Sebastian]

Hi.

To me, nudes were always study of the human form. In this regard, the hand coming towards me is grotesquely out of propotion to the rest of the body, and I find that it distracts very much from the rest of the image. It was a good idea to try, I just don't think it works for this image.

Also try to keep the background smooth. Wrinkles can have a positive efect if they add something to the image, in this case I think they just distract.

[PuckJunkey]

Not a bad first attempt. I would say a couple things bother me about the composition, though. For starters, it looks like the woman is laughing / giggling, which is completely understandable if it was her first nude pose (who wouldn't be a little bashful?). It almost looks like she's hiding her face.

IMHO the best nudes are usually the ones where the subject has some type of solemn or quieted expression on their face. Sort of at peace with the whole thing. So probably with time this person will become more at ease in being photographed nude and will allow for the at-ease thing to happen.

Another thing is that her hand (the one that is reaching to the lens) is distracting. I'm not sure what alternate poses could improve that while keeping a similar overall look, but the hand and arm seem to pull my attention away from the rest of the frame. Also, the white space that is created between the arm and the hair falling off the bed is another reason to reconsider where the arm should be. Maybe keep relaxing her arm a bit and moving the camera back and to the right a little would help?

The lighting does need a little more softness / some contrasty spots on the sheet (i.e. dark and light in the same image).

Still, thanks for sharing this. I was wondering if nudes were allowed in the forum and would've felt it a shame if nobody ever posted any. I think we all can discern pretty clearly what is a tasteful study of the human body, and what is a study in eroticism (which I think wouldn't be appropriate for this particular site obviously).