Lighting Practice

Maybe or maybe not the most exciting collection of photos. I have these studio lights I don't get ot practice with much while I'm traveling everywhere. I am familar with my constant lights for self portraits, but have started trying out both my new camera and a new alienbee I bought from a friend. I had an easy lighting setting up I use to use a lot, but wanted to try out some different ideas for other concepts. Despite my angles changing, I mostly just changed the lights. I added the same bnw filter to all these photos to help bring out what the lighting is doing. I did have to toggle some of the settings on each because otherwise the filter would create completely black or white photos. In this you can see how the lighting must change my skin tone slightly, so that the filter picks it up differently in various set ups. My camera angle remained mostly at the same point. I love a wide angle lense lately, but I do wonder what the distortion is. I can try a lens that is suppose to be true to what you see, but I think there will always be a slight distortion based on the angle of the lens. In these I feel like I probably look the most accurately proportioned although I wouldn't say it is always the most flattering. My torso is very long in relation to my legs. I don't know what the normal is. I also notice how much my body changes in the lighting, angles, etc. Part of these photosets make me wonder how much my body changes every few months versus how I pose with the camera. I've always believed that on my form a few pounds gained or lost is pretty apparent because I have an otherwise thin figure. I have noticed that even at my thinnest of 127lb and at my thickest 145lb, I can still create a lot of the same shapes for the most part. I was talking to a friend about how we can see these body changes as a positive. They can be annoying because it is hard to always understand what my body will end up showing up as during a photoshoot, but I could also see it as an opportunity to have a new body to play with, and therefore new shapes to work with, during various shoots. I need a systematic way of capturing these differences so I can better use them. I have never been a very muscular person. In my family we don't grow muscle easily. I'm considering a gym memerbship though. The more I use my body the more I regard it as precious. I need it, and I need it to be its healthiest. One of the benefits of nude modeling is watching how my health seems to affect my body's display. I can tell when I'm feeling pretty good versus when I'm not getting enough sleep, eating poorly, etc. It has given me a lot of perspective on my habits and priorities. Do I want to do things that aren't as healthy for myself? I think about it a lot as I watch my older relatives struggle with knees, feet, and back pains. I sit in a car a lot! And I often check my posture now to remind myself to stretch and work out my back, hips, and legs more often. I wonder how this project will look in another few months. How will the shadows change?

Had a request for a special lighting project for next month's set. Looking forward to testing it out!