thomasholmphoto

Regina Duo’s

I’ve shot a lot of duos with Regina Piil over time, and here are some of them.

At the risk of repeating myself, I want a connection between models when they are in the frame, if at all possible, and Regina always delivers.

Models who can project emotion are awesome, especially so for duo work.

The first was shot with my 50mm 0.95. The second with a Lomo Petzval 85mm. Third I used a Zeiss 16-55mm APS-C (24-70mm equivalent, and the last was with a 24-70m Sony G.

Holm’s pebberfruit

For this, I was obviously inspired by Edward Westons Pebbers and wanted to see if I could photograph a model and turn her into something that looked completely different.

What do you think, does it work?

Btw: The light is daylight from a studio window above the model.

Container Acrobatics

Georgia does her thing whenever you give her something to climb on/in/at.

Which, by the way, is always a great idea: If a model has something to interact with, you'll consistently achieve a much wider range of possible poses and angles than if you place her in a location with nothing to interact with.

I’ve seen so many people say, let’s start with something easy: stand in the middle of this background. Making something inventive like that, when all you can do is stand, is very hard.

Just a light touch

CB Modelling from our first shot.
Here she's lit with a 57” Zeppelin and flagged down to create good contrast in the background.

Intimate Chaiselongue - Teaser

A single of the four-image series that just dropped in the Photographers and Vault tiers.

Intimate Chaiselongue

Belzen is making my studio, Chasilong, and Ottoman much more attractive.

All of these images were captured in daylight from my studio windows, with a black flag positioned on the opposite side to enhance contrast.

I used my reliable vintage Canon Dreamlens 50mm ƒ0,95, likely set around ƒ1.2 to ƒ 1.4, to achieve a very shallow depth of field. I appreciate the effect it creates in the background.

En Garde

The two duos, Poppyseed Dancer and Lilith Etch, were photographed during a road trip in Sweden amid Covid.

These two shots are from Hovs Haller and Kullaberg.

And before anyone gets upset about traveling during COVID-19:

Sweden adopted a different approach from most countries:
They isolated the elderly and frail (although, in hindsight, not very effectively) kept the rest of the country open, and asked for voluntary prudent behavior.

In short, travel was allowed in Sweden, and hotels and Airbnb were open, but not so in Denmark.

An unscientific observation:
Tallying up the results of this strategy is beyond me.
Death tolls were statistically higher in Sweden, possibly because of ineffective isolation of elderly in homes how then infected each other and could not get treatment).

And many deaths in Denmark, where we chose to halt most hospital treatments for a year and a half (including some cancer treatments), led to an increase in other than COVID mortality. Shortly after Covid, there was also a sharp increase in older people dying from the flu.

Poppy & Lilith - BTS

The setup of one of the shots just published.

Contorted Shibari

A couple of months ago, I collaborated with Tom Knox over three days. On the last day, Ylva and a lot of rope were willing subjects.

The light on the first four is my 57” Zeppelin with a diffuser and grid, flagged a bit further down to keep light away from the background.

The fifth and sixth is a 60x180cm Lightmotiv lamp, well flagged in.

One of the challenges here was to make the rope look tight while allowing Ylva’s movement,. Which is the opposite of what you typically do in Shibari.

Contorted Shibari - BTS

Just Ylva warming up, and from this, it should be evident why we had to make some special bindings that did not constrict her too much.

Contorted Shibari - Teaser

A couple of the images from the Shibari set I did with Ylva the contortionist.

A pile of Rope - Ylva Shibari BTS

A very long movie from shooting a couple of the sets I did with Tom Of Sweden Shibari of Ylva.

Look me in the eyes

I lit this model with a silver beauty dish very close to the camera but a bit off to the left of the camera, and used a silver reflector below to reflect a bit of light up and create more sheen to the skin.

Here are a couple of tips when trying to deconstruct light from an image:

Start by looking at the eyes: How many dots are there and how do they look?
Are the highlights round, square rectangular, octagonal, or flat from below (which means floor or reflector)?

Are the highlights hard/round flat or do they fade from the center?

Where are the shadows (on model and background)?
If they are as you see in this image, with shadows on both sides of the model, and it's not a ring flash (which would cast shadows around the model), the light is closer to the model than the camera, so the camera can see parts of the model the light does not illuminate.

In this case, the shadow is also fairly diffuse, so it can't be a small light source, and again it has to be close to the model.
In the image above it's. 70cm silver beauty dish.
If you have this kind of reflection in the skin it's almost always a silver reflector or umbrella. If a silver umbrella, there will normally be visible steps in the shadow transition.

If the skin is more even, with less specular highlights, it's a white beauty dish, a white umbrella, or a diffused softbox of sorts.

If the light illuminates a very large area it's usually a very big modifier, that will cast a softish shadow. The harder the shadow, the longer away, or smaller the light is.

If the light is constricted to the model, it's usually some form of spot, such as a snoot, grid/honeycomb on a standard reflector, or perhaps a Fresnel spot or even focusable spotlight.
The clues are in the shadow hardness and transition.

Alternatively, the light was "flagged" either by using barn doors or external flags to clean up the spill light and constrict the light to only reach what it is supposed to reach.
Or both.

So let's test your abilities, and see if you can deconstruct the light setup in these images. Hints:
Only one lamp was used on each, and a black "negative fill" flag was placed on the shadow side on the first and last image. And an extra clue: the ceiling height on all three images is around 3m or 10'.

Feel free to comment on your findings below.

#1 Aja:

#2 Wiana Model:

#3 Laetitia

Chesterfield tanning

CB Modelling airing her private parts on the Chesterfield sofa in the studio.

When I shoot anything with an exotic twist, I only do it if the models are entirely on board:
I want some emotion from them, and in my experience, they must want to do the images, not just do it to please me.
Otherwise, they rarely can live into that moment and project emotion.

There are exceptions, of course, but a lot of models who frequently shoot erotic imagery tend to have a “dead” expression on their faces.

Open-leg images where the model's face appears to convey they are thinking about their grocery list don’t appeal much to me I'm afraid.

Chesterfield Tanning - Teaser

Just a glimpse of the 🔥 full set of Cassie that just dropped in the Photographers and vault tiers.

Georgia and Wiana gone caving

From one of my Lanzarote workshops. Nothing much to say about this other than a sky full of light behind the camera framed by dark rocks all around, above, and behind the models, creating this beautiful directional light, and making them stand out beautifully.

I don’t know precisely what they are doing (Jitterbug maybe ;) ?
They do, however, have a form of connection which is one of my main criteria when photographing duos.

Dancing on Volcanoes

Nausicaa Yami from my first visit to Lanzarote, teaching a private 1:1 workshop.

The time of day these were shot was not ideal (midday), and the range of motion possible for the model was severely limited: Many of the rocks in Lanzarote are sharp and brittle as glass. So I found a couple of stones by the sea and placed them on the ridge so she could move a little.
I never published them before, as I didn’t like the light much.

So please don’t judge these too harshly; see it as a learning opportunity of why I prfer shoting early and late in the day.

Dancing on Volcanoes - BTS movie

Nausicaa Yami doing her thing during a private 1:1 workshop on Lanzarote.

Forbidden garden

Some time ago, I was invited to shoot at a content day (search"content day" if you want to see the other things). I met Kimberley, with whom I had done some private shots 10 years- and a lot of weight ago.

In short, the available locations didn't at all appeal to me, so I went to the hallway and selected my 50mm ƒ0.95 to suppress an otherwise uninteresting background and left all her scars intact (from various obesity operations) and only smoothed the skin a bit.

I love her face, Not too sure about the tattoos, but I understand why she got them.

If you are on Discord - ALL TIERS - you should check out the bonus material.

Don't know how to connect your Patreon with Discord (or set up a Discord)?

Read this guide.

Sunset yoga

An old set I just edited with Katya Clover.
The scene was terrific, but I needed something that could work as a silhouette, so I asked Katya if she had any ideas, and she suggested doing a few yoga poses.

Since we pushed the shooting limit to past sunset (9 pm), all nearby restaurants were closed when we came out, so we had to drive for 40 minutes to the closest open place and then 40 minutes back to the Airbnb where we were staying.

It was worth it though also bearing in mind the next morning was foggy and rain.

As always if you want to see more of a particular model. like Katya Clover here, all you have to do is hit the tag or search for the model's name and everything where she is mentioned will show up. I always tag models.

Sunset Yoga BTS Movie (timelapse)

Here is a timelapse of the sunset yoga movie with Katya. Back then I didn't have enough storage on my phone so had to do timelapse. But here is a hint: you can pause and manually navigate back and forth at your own pace.

Quid pro quo

I was visiting a town in another part of the country for some days in 14’, not long after I started shooting nudes. So I made a casting asking if anyone felt like shooting some art nudes.

Marlene, in the pictures here, worked as an exotic dancer and asked if we could make a trade: some promotional photos for her, and she would model for whatever I wanted to do.

She got what she wanted, and so did I.

I don’t think she cared for the art nudes, and I didn’t care for the promo photos, so it was a fair trade.

I shot the promo photos in my hotel room using a large white reflective umbrella, and the outdoor images were all in natural light.

Fun fact:
She only brought stiletto shoes and the boots from the promo pictures, and she had a bit of a hard time hiking in the stilettos.

Morale:
Always remind a model that she needs to bring sensible footwear in case you need to walk on unpaved roads.

Lava Tube Sirens - BTS

Yup, you also get to see me toples in this movie (it was hot AF)...

Lava Tube Sirens

I found this lava tube the last time I was in Lanzarote, and while I was there, I obviously had to take a group shot.

Once again, there wasn't much light, so ISO 640 1/160 sec at ƒ2.8.

I could have used a bit more depth of field, but you play with the cards nature deals you.
I love the light in this though.

Zebra Canyon - BTS

Roarie walks into Zebra.

Zebra Canyon

Roarie yum in Zebra Canyon up near Escalante in Utah.

The “Zebra” stripes and all the black Moki rocks (look for the round holes or bulges) on the sides are unique highlights of that particular canyon. The difference between the blue and red hues arises because one side primarily receives light from the sky and has a slightly glossy sheen, while the other side gets warmer light. And I did of course enhance colors a bit.

Getting there is about a 30-minute hike from the car, and often through a bit (or a lot) of icy water, and a VERY narrow canyon, so bringing some water shoes make sense.

Fun fact: Roarie is standing in a massive pile of bird droppings, as a bird had made a nest right above her, and that just happened to be the best spot. 🤷‍♂️

Shot at 26mm at ƒ2.8, 1/100 sec at 400 ISO.
Slots are often very narrow and rarely have much light.

Staircase suspension

Wiana, the endless sinner, and I spent a couple of days at a rented water tower in Sweden shooting a lot of 🔥😈🧨 images, including this set.

It was Wiana's first-ever suspension, and we turned the set into a little role-play scene, adding something more to the mood than a standard suspension with just one model.

The light here is a 145cm matte silver (Balcar) umbrella positioned to the right, in this otherwise entirely white room.

I had to darken the background slightly to make the images more moody.

And yeah, full suspensions will leave rope marks that remain for a while.

For the Photographers and Vault tiers, you want to check out the bonus material on Discord, and of course, the 105-minute BTS movie from this shoot (yeah, tying rope can take some time).

Don't know how to connect your Patreon with Discord (or set up a Discord)?

Read this guide.

PS. If you are not on any of these tiers, remember you can upgrade (and only pay the difference between your current tier and the next one) anytime. And on the same note, you can also downgrade your tier at will.

Staircase Suspension BTS movie

Full-length video (107 min) from doing the staircase suspension. Including getting a phone call in the middle from a model. Incidentally ,I sent her a snapshot of what we were doing and said I was a little tied up, and could I call back later 😎

Riel Life On or off

I recently had the pleasure of shooting with Emma Helena; these are the initial images.

The set was lit with a Fresnel spotlight, using barn doors to slightly restrict the light on the sides, and a 60x80cm softbox with a soft grid on a boom illuminating the background, especially the right side wall.
This setup helps the corner stand out and creates a more defined room feel.

This is also the first set I made after removing the foot panel and redoing the walls in a darker color than they previously were.

Rigmor’s Ringflash

Just a leftover from the New Year's special with Rigmor, which I thought was too good to pass, so here you go. While this is a ring flash, it’s a bit special because the ring flash features a honeycomb grid that keeps the light centered and the background dark.