To all our photographer followers. With one week left until our trip, what is one special tip you would provide an amateur for capturing better outdoor nude images? Knowing we are only using a Canon EOS-RP. Open to suggestions. 😊😊
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Golden hour is the obvious suggestion for good light, but you can do some amazing things in bright overhead light you can't do at sunset. It us much harder to shoot faces mid-day...if you do either finding shade adjacent to bright sun or backlit is best).
Overhead shots are great at midday. If there are tall rocks above the sand or water, that works great. When the face is hidden, the harsh light is great for sculptural looks on the body. I used to hate this light, but so many of my favorite shots are in it now.
In general I think about separating the subject from the background. Everyone leans towards using a low f/stop, but you call also separate with color, lighting, and texture. I like to shoot at f/8 when there is a background that would be good as a landscape on its own (look at my Sierra shoot).
1. Shooting in lower f stops like 1.8, 2.2, 2.8.
2.Keep eyes always in focus. 3.Shoot a bit underexposed while taking pictures in harsh lighting.
4.have fun, be creative, and enjoy creating more pictures.
Just a note on “only” an RP - gear is 10% of it, understanding light and composition makes way more of a difference! (I now shoot with the upgrade to the RP - the R8.)
Here are 2 images that demonstrate the difference between f/2.8 and f/10. I shot these on purpose to test my new lens! Typically I shoot at f/16 when I'm at Crater Lake or the coast with a killer landscape. I rarely shoot portraits like the first pic, maybe I need to play more!
You look great in the 2.8. I go halfway at between 7 and 8 on mine. I shoot myself like it's a landscape photo. The humanity flowing into nature is my point. Both of yours look great.
"Golden hour" is roughly the time about an hour after sunrise/before sunset. Try to avoid the middle of the day.
Someone mention a flash to fill in dark areas. If you have some kind of reflector (I have literally used the windshield screen from my car). It's better than a camera-mounted flash).
Think about the light, the pose and the “so what” factor. The camera is mostly not as important as the composition, I took some of my favourite photos using an iPhone.
For it to be great it should be interesting, and often less is more. Edit to help if needed, and cropping can improve an image.
For example, in this image the time of day was chosen specifically for the low sunlight and the position of the model and camera to be able to get the effect that I wanted. This was taken with an iPhone…
As a fellow Canon user (EosR7) I am discovering that the lens choice can be more important than the camera. I recently bought a couple of fixed-length lenses (35mm f1.8 and 85mm f2), and the results are encouraging. I found the kit lens that came with the camera doesn't do so well in low light.
Pay attention to where your natural light is coming from. Doing self portraits, I keep an eye on where the sun is on my body as I move - one good trick is to peek at my shadow - if it has both arms and legs then the camera probably does too.
Here's an example when I really had to pay attention to the light - I couldn't move the camera/tripod out into the surf, closer to the sun. See how I've tried for full frontal lighting despite the camera angle. Does that make sense? I'm bad w/words, I think in pictures.
Try things, try all the ideas & make mistakes. Shoot as much and as often as you can with intent.
There is no shortcut to seeing the light and learning to capture it.
And have fun.
Bring a white diffuser, the bigger the better and a tripod to keep it in place.
Use it when the light is hard to create a unique soft light on your muse.
This was taken that way 😊
First find the light. You'll have a better hit rate if it's soft. Try shooting in open shade where the model faces the light but stands in the softer shade.
You can also play with shadows - here's my mom demonstrating! Yes this is backlit, so I used Lightroom to boost the exposure on her. Alternatively you could use a flash to light your subject.
Fun thing, with flash you can turn day to night, because you have full control over the ambient light by using a fast shutterspeed, it can appear dark but the flash will always get you correct exposure for the subject… like here. So its like having to exposures at the same time.
Golden hour for the light is amazing, can get tricky with the shadows though. Rule of thirds for the subject in more scenic shots. An off camera separate speedlight can do wonders to highlight and separate a subject. Planning the composition and try to avoid stuff that may interfer in the image etc
Angle from above makes the model not so impressive and looks mostly strange to me. Like capturing a thing quickly on the run. Hope you get what I mean.
It should be in line with the most important part of picture. In a portrait it's the face. But an Emporer must be always taken from a bit more down to make him impressive 😉
Only using a Canon EOS? Lol..Kevin, you could be using one of those cheap, disposable cameras found on the table at weddings and still capture gorgeous pictures of Corin. 💪🥰
My best advice is: "slow down." Imagine what you see in your viewfinder as an oil painting. Does everything look like it was added to the composition *on purpose*? If not, adjust your frame to exclude it, add a fill light to remove the shadow, re-position your model to fix it, etc.
This doesn't preclude improvisation, of course... just that creating each initial set-up should be done with some care, and then improvise from a good base.
I don't know whether or not your camera can be used to record high quality video but almost all of my photo's are screencaptures taken from short videoclips. I use my iphone to record videoclips in 4k 60fps and afterwards i can easily pick a good screencapture from that footage.
I'm more of a painter than I am a photographer, but I frequently use reference photos. The one tip I would give is to make an effort to take photos either early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The warmer tones and the low angle sun really help how skin looks in photos.
Lighting. Always the lighting to consider outdoors.
Muted light is the easiest - to avoid deep shadow.
Perhaps some fill-in flash to reduce shadow - particularly in bright light.
Changing the angle can change the feel of a photo to. We always see things at eye level, so a photo taken from lower or higher than eye level can make for a more interesting image.
If you changed the pose in this photo and shot it much closer to ground level it would be a whole different image.
What one person might think is good can be subjective but here's some suggestions.
Use a low f-stop (f/1.8, or as low as it will go with your lens) and switch camera to use spot metering (if using semi-auto modes).
Use a reflector to bounce light back on your subject.
Well, it's subjective, but a lower number f-stop has a shallower depth of focus meaning the background will be more blurry. That in turn draws the viewer to the subject as they will be sharp and clear.
It really depends on how much you want to include of the environment.
2/2
Have the camera set at a shutter speed say 200th and let the computer do the rest. Don't poise the model just let then free & picture then behaving naturally in as many frames as the camera will give you. Oh, and the longer the lens the more you loose the background.
Good luck and just be free.
Firstly thank you both for promoting naturist photography.
With all the suggestions so far I imagine confusion has set in.
I will now add to that: Take the camera off single shot and onto high speed continuous or whatever Canon call it (Nikon user). 1/2
Through the many years shooting for H&E magazine I haven't had a raw image quality the only loss was shooting jpeg images. I admit I use Nikon so don't know about the Canon, I do know that some snappers use different makes for different jobs.
The only way to see is to try.
1/2
2/2
I think the mistake a lot of photographers shooting outdoors make is not to trust the camera. In many ways the camera knows best so let it do the work by selecting one setting either speed or fstop and let the computer determine the rest.
Your style will come through in the end.
While not being a great photographer myself, I think the most important thing is to be able to see the person, the way the final picture will look. When taking a photograph, care needs to be taken to look at what will distract from the final image. Does that tree grow out of the subject's head?
Lots of great advice about camera and light. For composition, I would focus not on "just" the nude, but the nude in the landscape. Then you get more out of a trip to new surroundings than if it is all beautifully blured at f/2.0. Look for patterns and lines, and try placing the nude in diff. spots.
Love the RP! I have an FX3 since I also do video, but I still take my RP out most of the time as it’s fantastic with great color profile. I find shooting with prime lenses works best with the camera. I have Rokinon cines, so the EF adapter is necessary in that case, but not too pricey.
The kit RF lens is a bit hard to capture the dynamic range, if you have that one, but not too tough with a little finesse. Shadows are your friend for 3 dimensionality and try to bounce hair light instead of having it directly behind subjects. That allows the body to be lit without blown out sky.
The biggest thing I’d suggest is to focus on that 3 dimensionality in separating subject from background. We can always focus on interesting ways we’re lighting subjects and experiment, but it’s hard to make those efforts show with a flat image if they’re blending into the background.
Comments
2.Keep eyes always in focus. 3.Shoot a bit underexposed while taking pictures in harsh lighting.
4.have fun, be creative, and enjoy creating more pictures.
Portrait style? Wide aperture, less than f/4. Be careful not to narrow too much. Make sure eyes are in focus.
Let ISO float on auto to compensate for exposure. Set max shutter speed to 1/200 to avoid blur.
Someone mention a flash to fill in dark areas. If you have some kind of reflector (I have literally used the windshield screen from my car). It's better than a camera-mounted flash).
For it to be great it should be interesting, and often less is more. Edit to help if needed, and cropping can improve an image.
There is no shortcut to seeing the light and learning to capture it.
And have fun.
Your camera should focus easily on eyes.
If possible shoot at sunset or in shade middle of the day, or sun behind you to avoid hard shadows on face.
Use it when the light is hard to create a unique soft light on your muse.
This was taken that way 😊
Muted light is the easiest - to avoid deep shadow.
Perhaps some fill-in flash to reduce shadow - particularly in bright light.
If you changed the pose in this photo and shot it much closer to ground level it would be a whole different image.
Use a low f-stop (f/1.8, or as low as it will go with your lens) and switch camera to use spot metering (if using semi-auto modes).
Use a reflector to bounce light back on your subject.
It really depends on how much you want to include of the environment.
Have the camera set at a shutter speed say 200th and let the computer do the rest. Don't poise the model just let then free & picture then behaving naturally in as many frames as the camera will give you. Oh, and the longer the lens the more you loose the background.
Good luck and just be free.
With all the suggestions so far I imagine confusion has set in.
I will now add to that: Take the camera off single shot and onto high speed continuous or whatever Canon call it (Nikon user). 1/2
The only way to see is to try.
1/2
I think the mistake a lot of photographers shooting outdoors make is not to trust the camera. In many ways the camera knows best so let it do the work by selecting one setting either speed or fstop and let the computer determine the rest.
Your style will come through in the end.