Lights, Camera... Nude!: A Guide to Lighting the Female Nude for Photography [Paperback]

A. K. Nicholas (Author, Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 18, 2010

Use Light to Photograph Nude Female Models
This guide shows you how to use light to photograph nude female models and create various moods and effects. From the plainspoken to the artistic, each lighting configuration is diagramed in painstaking detail. Learn the art and skill of using light and controlling shadows from the author of True Confessions of Nude Photography. For those who loved the lighting section in the first book and want even more, this follow-up book concentrates purely on Nicholas' nude lighting style with updated images, text and diagrams.

More than just studio lighting. From indoor to outdoor, studio to location, you'll learn what can be achieved and how to make it work for you. From just one light in a small room, to elaborate creative setups, everything is described.

Shoot Great Nude Photos
Photos you can actually create yourself. If you think that great photos require expensive lights, an enormous studio, and a team of assistants, this book will debunk that misconception. You may be surprised at how many ways you can shoot great nude photos you'll be proud of without breaking the bank. And there's plenty more you can accomplish if you do want to invest a few well placed dollars on some moderately priced equipment.  This book doesn't promise that learning is easy or quick - your results will be based on your level of effort, but it is  easier and quicker with a guide.

18 Lighting Setups with Diagrams
There are sections on Equipment, Lighting Exercises, Lighting problems, Outdoor lighting, Studio Lighting. The lighting setups include the use of softboxes, umbrellas, snoots, gels, booms, diffusers, parabolic reflectors, water nudes, and a beauty dish. Techniques include isolation, backlighting, accent lighting, and fill light. Lights Camera Nude! includes an 18 lighting setups and over 80 example photos as well as a link to online bonus material exclusively for readers.

18 models, 80+ example photos, 100 pages, approximately 14,000 words of text.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Preface

An older artist, a relative of mine whom I greatly admire, once admo­nished me not to reveal too much of my techniques to others. She wor­ried that I may lose my distinction as a photographer if others mi­micked my techniques.

Contrary to her advice, I think a photographer's work is distin­guished by hard work and creativity, and these traits cannot be merely copied. Although creativity and imagination may not be learned, I believe they can be developed through practice.

The techniques in this guide are not the traditional "textbook" way of learning nude lighting - there are already plenty of books to teach you to light textbook nudes. These are my techniques for lighting nudes; some of my methods follow traditional rules and some do not, and I honestly don't keep track of which do or don't.

I do hope you will learn from my techniques, and through hard work and practice evolve these techniques into something that is uniquely yours.

Overview of the Book

Lighting the nude model is distinct from lighting in other types of people photography.

This book is to help those who have tried some nude lighting, but are struggling to create interesting images. The serious photographer who is new to nudes will also benefit. This guide is about reaching that next level and making nude models look their best and most interesting.

This guide is about lighting the nude, so I'm not going to make you sift through a lot of lighting techniques for non-nude modeling. There is a lot you can learn about general lighting that is not covered in this guide. This guide deals with lighting the whole figure in most cases, or at least three-quarters of the model's body. Don't look for information about lighting close ups of the face. Knowledge of portrait lighting is helpful, but not essential to begin shooting nudes.

You also won't find more than a brief explanation of general lighting concepts. I'm assuming that you already know some general photography; this isn't intended to be your first photography book, or encyclopedic. As much of the book as possible is devoted to lighting the nude. A list of suggested topics for further study, such as inverse square law, can be found at the end of the book.

With regard to models

This guide demonstrates lighting for photographing a beautiful model to bring out her best and most fascinating features. There are plenty of books that tell you how to hide your subject's flaws; this is not one of those books. You won't find any tips for making regular people look slimmer, taller, or more beautiful.

What you will find are illustrated examples and step-by-step instructions for creating photographs of beautiful nude women.

With regard to retouching

In this guide I have retouched minor flaws on the models (stray hairs for example). I have also corrected some minor defects in the backgrounds or defects from lens characteristics (chromatic aberration for example). However, because this is a collection of images to illustrate lighting, I've avoided any retouching that pertains to lighting effects (such as shine on a nose or forehead). Although such lighting defects can easily be removed with post processing, I let them remain in order to preserve as much information as possible about the lighting. Just as no model is perfect, no light arrangement is perfect and you will want to retouch most of your images--though post processing is a topic for a whole other book.

How to use the diagrams

Each lighting setup has one or more example photos and a diagram of how to place the studio equipment. Because the characteristic of each studio is different, and your equipment will vary, the diagrams are a starting point from which you will want to make minor adjustments. Lights are numbered, and other set elements are identified by letters. Next to some lights is a height measurement signified by an up/down arrow indicating the number of feet above the level of the model's lowest body part (usually the floor) to the middle of the light. Also you will find a distance measurement signified by a left/right arrow indicating the distance from the front of the light to the closest part of the model.

From the Back Cover

From the Author of True Confessions of Nude Photography

If you've struggled to break through to the next level with nude photography, lighting technique can be the place to start. Once you've found the right model, lighting is the most important aspect of nude photography. Taking time to set up your studio stacks the odds in your favor.

The techniques in the book don't require a world-class  equipment budget.

This guide shows you how, on a modest or moderate budget, to control light and use shadow to add interest and impact to your images.

This is not the traditional textbook way of nude lighting - I believe sometimes you should follow the rules and sometimes not.   Instead, I will demonstrate how I configure my lighting and explain why. I encourage the reader to experiment rather than simply mimic.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 100 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace (December 18, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1456390074
• ISBN-13: 978-1456390075
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #99 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Lighting

More About the Author

A. K. Nicholas is an American photographer who has spent over twenty years recruiting and working with beautiful models. He comes from a family of artists and has traveled to more than three dozen countries in South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Orient, and India. His first figure shoot occurred as an art student, and quite unexpectedly. After asking a classmate if he could photograph her, she entered the studio and fully disrobed, assuming that is what he had intended.

Nicholas had his first commercial gallery showing at the age of nineteen. Since then, thousands of his photographs have been sold through art exhibits, been licensed through stock photography agencies, appeared books, articles, advertisements, and other publications. Nicholas began teaching advanced photographic techniques while still in college, filling in for several weeks during a professor's absence. After his education, he continued to teach photography both in public institutions and privately. He does not currently offer any regular instruction or workshops and instead concentrates on shooting. Nicholas has written books and articles, including how-to's for nude photography and pictorial books that explore and celebrate beauty.

In his writings he draws upon an art degree, a Master's in business, and experiences as both a professional photographer and a freelance artist. You'll learn from his twenty years of successes (and even some mistakes) with hundreds of nude models.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly Detailed Diagrams - Beautiful Models, February 3, 2011

By 

Cynthia L. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lights, Camera... Nude!: A Guide to Lighting the Female Nude for Photography (Paperback)

The lighting diagrams in this book offer a wealth of information on how to set up your lights, background, model, and even position your camera. Most books of this nature are a collection of great photos, with a few anecdotes about their creation, and little more to give you a clue as how to reproduce the results.

The author mentions that some adjustment will be necessary, because no studio situation is exactly the same, including equipment. Speaking of equipment, the author tells you what kind of equipment to get and divides it up into various kits based on cost. And another nice thing about these photos is that they were created without the aid of mega-expensive, could-have-bought-a-car-for-that-price photo equipment. So we might actually be able to make photos like these on our own.

If the book stopped there, it would be worth reading. But it provides much more; there are plenty of words in this picture book, but not too many. It starts by telling you about lighting the nude in general -- which is a little academic but I suppose a necessary evil required to benefit fully from the rest of the book. And in addition to the lighting diagrams there are these little photos with circles that show you where each light is aimed, these tie the lighting diagrams back to the sample photos.

The book is also nicely organized into sections on indoor, outdoor, location, and so on. Each lighting setup has a difficulty level and corresponds to a set of equipment.

There are little tips and tricks throughout the book, like putting up black cloth on the wall behind the camera to avoid washing out the model. I wouldn't have thought of doing that.

There is also a couple of pages of problems and solutions at the end of the book. There are some very nice photos using water, and the models are very attractive.

This book is a great expansion on the lighting section in the author's other book True Confessions of Nude Photography: A step-by-step guide to recruiting beautiful models, lighting, photographing nudes, post-processing images, and maybe even getting paid to do it. There are a couple of repeat photos, but most of the material seems to be new or revised and it is 100% on lighting.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Instructional for Lighting, February 7, 2011

By 

Michelle7 "Editor of Michelle7(dot)com" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lights, Camera... Nude!: A Guide to Lighting the Female Nude for Photography (Paperback)

Nichols has hit another home run here. Much like in his previous book, "True Confessions of Nude Photography", he presents what might be seen as a difficult subject and shows how simple things can be. The subject matter of this new book is lighting techniques for shooting nudes. He goes over general concepts at first, but then dives into explaining what the various lighting devices are and even provides what different lighting kits and equipment configurations can do for you. Studio and location settings are explained in a very-easy-to-understand manner. It's refreshing in that Nichols does not try to overwhelm the reader with too much information or impress them with his wealth of knowledge and experience. He just lays it out simply and concisely.

All the but the most advanced professionals will benefit from reading this book, and the best part is that it won't take that long before you're lighting your models like a pro.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was looking for, December 16, 2011

By 

Rune - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lights, Camera... Nude!: A Guide to Lighting the Female Nude for Photography (Paperback)

Sure, the book tells you about different lighting scenarios, but the pictures have low quality. I hoped for more professional artistic pictures, not snapshots and explanation on where the light is coming from. To basic to fully enjoy.