thomasholmphoto

Sequence and recovery

I heard a podcast the other day about working memory, and it reminded me of several cases during workshops where someone didn’t think through the best sequence (which is what working memory is all about):

I once did a workshop with Zoi (image above) in a massive studio apartment.

Walking around the apartment, one of the participants loved the shower and suggested that we start shooting a set there.

Once you know, it’s clearly not the best idea:

Shooting in a shower...

Nat In Control - BTS

Nat Damsgaard in the control tower.

Roarie in Denmark

The first time I shot with Roarie, we did some location and studio shots, which are among the ones we created.

I still love the first studio shot; the streak of sun gives it an edge, whereas the other two are nice but nothing more.

I still love the first of the outdoor images, and from memory, it's one of the first images I entered into some competitions (where I won some gold medals).

The anemone flowers in the outdoor images are short-lived in Denmark, usually in mid-April...

An Evil World - Redux

After booking Zsan for the private Light workshop (will be published in a few days along with light setup), I decided to get back in the studio again and personally get a bit more time to shoot sculptural images.

I usually strive to make sculptural images ethereal, but here I went for a more explicit mode just to try it out.

I love the figures, but I don't think the more explicit version has staying power, but I'd love to hear your opinion.

Light is similar to what I set up ...

An Evil World.

Also, from the 6-day Solo Studio Light workshop I did in Early December, Zsan in a setup to make sculptural images.

Sculpture can be many things, but in this setup, I aimed to make her mimic a statue chiseled from marble.
I achieved this with some very carefully controlled light that is directional but soft at the same time.
You can see the setup in the short BTS movie.

It’s somewhat more elaborate than normal, but it's also very versatile.

Feel free to guess, but ...

From Kullaberg with love - BTS

Cassie is doing her mountain goat impersonation 😅

From Kullaberg with love

In early summer last year, I persuaded Cassie to come with me to Kullaberg, Sweden, to shoot in the nature there.
I’ve previously published a set with her from that trip, but I’m sure you’d like one more.

And a cool BTS movie can’t hurt either. 🧐🧨

Stay

Some years ago, I rented a studio apartment at Stay CPH to conduct a workshop with Nonokollar, or Naomi Kappel, as she was then known.

They had these almost square sofas, and I had the idea of joining two sofas to make a “pit” for Naomi to Frolick in.
The daylight from some massive windows combined with the abstract furniture, making for an interesting set.

In the last image, one of the participants asked if I could do something “fashion,” so I placed a flash straight ...

Emily's Moon - Multicam BTS

The exquisite Emily Moon is doing her best to brighten my Birthday - and your day.

Emily’s Moon

Or is it Moons, in plural?

One thing I do know is it’s Emily on my Chesterfield, and she does it justice.

Natural light from a window, with a couple of flags to remove window light where I don’t want it.

The +1 Hour Multicam BTS movie has more details.

Today is my Birthday, so I thought you’d all enjoy this 10-image superset - so I left it open for all tiers, enjoy.

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, a...

Dharma gone fishing

I’m not a fan of pantyhose, regardless of type, and I think it’s mostly because I find the band on the stomach weird.

Dharma wanted to shoot in these fishnets, understood my reluctance, and promptly produced this mini corset as a solution.

The set was shot with my trusty old 57” Zeppelin deep umbrella with a diffuser and a couple of styrofoam plates to create a negative fill on the shadow side.

ƒ8 1/160

Backlight

Backlight

These two images from the archives, with Carocalossi and Rosa Brighid respectively, share one property:

It’s almost identical light on both.

Try to rotate the second picture counterclockwise mentally, and you'll see.

In the first, the light is a bit further away from the model, so it is not in the picture and, therefore, also a bit harder.

In addition, I’ve done what I can to eliminate stray light in the shadows by setting up flags and styrofoam fo...

D Genvievre on Eames

This model, with her fair skin and blond hair, has the look of an angel, but conversely, she also has an exhibitionistic streak and few inhibitions.

Here she’s posing on my Eames Chair, lit by a 57” Zeppelin Deep umbrella with a soft grid to keep as much of the light as possible away from the background while still giving a soft directional light on the model.

Also, a couple of black Foamcore boards on the shadow side to provide negative fill.

The last of these, i...

Depani looking out

Depani Malika has an intriguing look.

And I don’t just mean her boobs; there is something about her face and ability to convey emotion that hits home with me.

Unfortunately, she’s a 10-hour drive from me, so we only got to shoot once. I’m hoping for another opportunity, though.

ƒ 4 1/80 sec

As always if you want to see more of any model just search for her name in the search field - there are 11 other posts of Depani.

Faith On White

I'll freely admit I have a weakness for dark skin:

With just a bit of semi-hard light, the lushness and tonality pop out, to a degree impossible with fairer skin.

The light on all of these are the same:

Sun streaming in through two windows in an older studio but with varying degrees of clouds passing in front of the sun.

ƒ3.5-4.5 1/160

I have a love/hate relationship with this kind of light:

On the one hand, I love the var...

Light Workshop

Some 6 weeks ago, I did a 6-day 1:1 studio light workshop.

The cool thing about having so much time to work with something is that it allowed us to go into more specialty lighting.
And this setup with Wiana was one of them:

We did a Shibari set, and I wanted to make it different and give it a film-noir look, so I set up a Fresnel Spot a bit high and to the far left of the camera.

The Fresnel creates a narrow beam of light with a gradual falloff, which wil...

Light Workshop BTS

For this Film Noir look I set up a large Fresnel Spot a bit high and to the far left of the camera.

The Fresnel creates a narrow beam of light with a gradual falloff, which will vignette the light toward the sides.

However, since it is a narrow beam, it doesn’t reflect much of anything, so shadows became very dark (and often too dark).
And with the light being far off to the side, the shadows also become substantial in size.

So, I set up a second (smaller) Fresnell clo...

Steel and Concrete BTS

27 min BTS from Shooting Celia on the front end of one of the F16 shelters (you can see Georgia Brown on the back end if you scroll back two days).

Steel and Concrete

Celia looking awesome and doing a bit of yoga against the front of an F16 shelter.

As you can see, if you watch the BTS movie, I removed the oil marks from the steel in Photoshop as it diverted attention from the model.

I love how well her hair color works with the steel gate background.

Kitchen Stories

I shot this small set a year ago with Clara Sinclar in a small cabin.

I instigated the first image (booty).
Clara had an idea to sit on the kitchen table, which became the first two images. You can see the full sequence in the BTS movie.

I’ve been circling these for some time but haven’t wanted to edit them.

I still like the third better than the first two.
Overall, I find them a bit too explicit for the sake of explicitness.

But now I’ve done them, you ...

Kitchen Stories - BTS

Clara Sinclair in the kitchen (not cooking).

On Top BTS

Georgia playing Hide and seek on an old F16 shelter.

On Top

I’ve previously shot Celia on top of one of these old Air Force shelters built for F16 fighter jets. Search for “Celia” or “shelter” for more information on the structure.

This time with Georgia Brown, I did it (more) right, though:

First, we were out earlier when the sun was lower in the sky, and second, I brought a ladder.

This facilitated getting Georgia on and off easier an...

Wiana in a massive lavatube.

Minimal retouching was done on this.
It was one of those scenes where the lighting was perfect, so our only job was to create the best possible shapes and angle Wiana’s body for optimum light.

You can look forward to a more extensive series of these soon.

Dirty dancing

Kory Dark poses in a bit of freestyle ballet in a space that is, frankly, too small for her moves.

It’s not exactly art, but they have one saving grace other than the light:

This was the very first set we shot last summer, and we had just met an hour before when I picked her up at the airport.

In the second image, you can tell that she enjoys showing off, which many exhibitionists do. To me, that makes all the difference.

That moment of revelation where she divulges ...

Life, the universe, and everything

Daniella Carter is in a bit of natural sunlight from a setting of sun streaming through my studio windows.

I believe I had a couple of Styrofoam boards on the left-hand side to avoid some of the reflections from the wall there, but with the hard light, even the wall, the small wallpapered corner, and my grey curtain create some reflections.

ƒ 5 1/250-1/320 sec

Oh, the title?

Well, it is simply a pun on what some people believe makes the world go around.
Li...

Endless teasing

Two images of The Endless Sinner that, for whatever reason, got left out.

These are two excellent examples of an amazing model's ability to project emotion enticingly and make you feel like you were there.

To me, an image should have some emotional attachment

Something that makes you feel something or where you are certain the model is feeling something or having an experience, in addition to the compositional and lighting necessities.

And The Endless ...

Queen Herodiade

The light on Herodiade is not ideal as it’s coming from a very high angle, so I ensured she arched her back a little and lifted her chin to avoid the jawline creating a massive shadow on the breast.

The second thing that lets me get away with it is a light wall on her shadow side (check out the BTS movie), and not much light striking the floor would have killed the shadows on her body.

ƒ7.1 1/1250 sec

One thing about light is that once you understand how light wo...

Queen Herodiade BTS movie

One minute.

One is all you need when working with a pro like Herodiade, as you'll see here.