Mona and Fresnel

This, with Mona, is from one of the first workshops I set up teaching art nude in photography around 10 years ago.

In this particular workshop, we had 12 people (and four models); this was the first lighting demo.

I set up a white background and two lamps (a fresnel spot on Mona, a honeycomb lighting up the background).
I gathered all 12 photographers, 10 men, two women around, had Mona stand in the background, and asked her to drop her robe.

She did, and immediately, 10 men looked anywhere else than at the model.

Many men do this, I guess, as a defense mechanism, as they are literally afraid of doing something wrong if they look at the model.

I explained that if you want to make lovely light on a nude model, you must look at her and notice how light falls and shadows form.

I understand that it may feel weird and possibly offensive to study someone's nude body intently.

But two factors are in play that should be taken into account:

• The model has (hopefully) agreed to be photographed nude and has considered that she will be seen nude for a prolonged period.

• It is impossible to create flattering or beautiful light without looking to see how it falls on the model. And the models expect you will make her look great in the pictures (or she would likely not agree to be photographed).

So, the model, by extension, wants the photographer to examine closely the effect the light will have on her body because that is the only way she can make herself look beautiful.

A word on most of my BTS movies, playing directly into this:

In almost every case, I can spend a long time setting everything up until I’m satisfied. Because I know 99% of all models prefer me to spend even an hour setting up a good image over jumping too fast into shooting and creating something mediocre.

And the last percent of models?

Well, those are the ones who expect to receive all the images, ideally edited and raw versions, within a few hours after the shoot and who will ignore any agreements about crediting, editing, and cropping.

Frankly, I don’t care what that percent of “models” think; I’d rather not shoot with them.