“The sun rises not to be mediocre, but to shine; so should you.”
– Matshona Dhliwayo –
from the session with Riona.
hair and assistance: Nathalie
2,5s – f/11 ISO 200
Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG Art
I had a hard time figuring out how to pose Riona in the bathroom, but once I decided to get her feet warm in the bathtub, things all became simple. See this link for a behind the scene’s movie from this shoot: BTS with Riona Neve.
Not only is Riona a charm to work with, she also has a wonderful figure, and we worked out some fine poses in this setting.
These are my favourites from this series, I hope you like them as well.
The light is not modified in any way, there’s the large visible window at the left side, there’s a similar window right from the bathtub. This semi-back light gives a very fine definition of the volumes on the body. The windows are tinted slightly green, I left the image colours to reflect that in the final developing. It matches well the green curtains and wall colour.
image settings below,
cheers,
ludwig
Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG A
1/30s f2.0 ISO400 – beware of camera shake!!
from the same series as ‘Cyperus Papyrus’ with Kate_Ri as a model.
• Rainforest Girl •
I started experimenting with painted edges, I think I like the result in combination with this image in a ‘wild’ environment. I posted this image to FB with the question to like it, in order to support a ‘natural behaviour towards simple nudity’, … I’m still having a problem with the hypocrite attitude of ‘general society’ towards nudity, where facebook will not stand posting nudity of any kind, where I see that cases of abuse and incest are daily matter in the psychotherapist practise of my wife, where porn industry has never ceased to increase, but where a bare nipple is subject to scandal … I still don’t get it, at least I hope YOU like the image.
1/60s f2.0 ISO800 Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50m f1.4
thank you for watching, for following, for your support
ludwig
I decided to make some more film material for my followers and for use on social media lately, and this was an excellent occasion to give it a first try. A real behind the scenes movie of one of my latest shoots. No mise-en-scene, no repeated scenes, … just the real thing. Nathalie was both assistant and camera-woman, so filming got interrupted at moments. The quality is not superb (very dull and gray day, and bad light, mediocre camera), but nevertheless I think you might enjoy watching this.
Attention, the video contains shots which depict a beautiful woman nude, … some might rate it 18+, I think it is fit for all ages 😉
Ludwig Desmet – fine art shoot with Riona Neve
If and whenever you think this is interesting material, let me know. If you would like to sponsor my work, you can give me a sign also or drop a coin on paypal info@renderhouse.eu 🙂
The images from this shoot will follow soon on this blog, so be sure to check in again soon.
thank you for visiting,
ludwig
one more before Christmas …
a tribute to feminine beauty, to art, to nature
• my body my double •
See you next week with an overview of my year in photography, some numbers and memories from 2016. Happy Christmas everybody and take care!
Ludwig
image details: Canon 5Ds with Canon 17-40mm f4 – 1/50s f4.0 ISO200
shot on location in the Brussels area, model and make up: Kate Ri
with Rubia
These images were taken on a ‘available light’ workshop with Sacha Leyendecker in Köln.
He has a great available light studio, and gives plenty workshops throughout the year. Be sure to check his site here. Main goal of this one on one training day was to review my habits and to try to learn some more about light usage. I made use of the available -lockers-on-wheels for this setting and Rubia acted perfectly as a stand in worker. All images Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG A. All images f1.6 at 1000ISO, varying shutter speeds.
Model and make up: Steffi Rubia Stringsi
photography by me
thank you for watching.
ludwig
a single image post.
beautiful Kate in the botanic greenhouse.
“Cyperus Papyrus”, named after the plant flower
Model and Make up: Kate_Ri
Styling and photography by me.
Plant stem kindly provided by the gardener who was pruning down several plants at the time of the shoot.
Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG A – 1/200s f1.4 ISO400
Thank you for looking.
ludwig
as a final setup on the Sacha Leyendecker workshop (yes, I can still learn a lot too) we had a mattress and some white bed linen and a very enjoyable – wasn’t it Rubia? – down bed cover.
I tried to create an atmosphere of comfortable well being in this series. Rubia is a professional model and she understood the idea well. The advantage of professional models is that they know very well how to move to have a good looking pose, the downside of it can be that they are very hard to be photographed as their real personality. They often get some kind of ‘model layer’ that gets in front of their person. This was not the case with Rubia. We had a long talk before the shoot, that helps to get barriers down. We both got very relaxed before the shoot started. I rather have the habit of giving quite some direction to my models, Sacha asked me to try to let Rubia do her own thing, easier said than done, this set is the result of a mixture of ‘self induced posing’ and ‘directed posing’. See here for the technique used to create the high key effect.
Bad lighting conditions (dark) which means high ISO settings, but a nice set after all.
Bedroom mood
All images Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50 mm f1.4 A DG
1/60 f2.2 ISO 2000
Thank you for watching, come again soon,
ludwig
hi there,
this below image had quite some succes on Facebook and different groups I published it onto. Actually people were asking about the way I did the high key development.
It was a rather straightforward and easy process, a little explanation below.
The lighting conditions where not good, NOT. 🙂
I needed an ISO setting of 2000 to be sure to have sharp images, that’s at least way over my usual limits. (I rather keep ISO settings below 800) You’ll see that the image has some noise in the shadow areas (like the throat area).
the original image looked like this: quite even light conditions, although the light was a little directional (from the left), there were no hard lights, no deep shadows.
I work in lightroom, my settings:
exposure: +2.10 / contrast: +40 / highlights: +67 / shadows: +36 / blacks: -42 / Clarity: -11 … that was about all I did. The image looks like this now:
next I added some light using a local brush with + exposure, to get rid of the remaining bed sheet shading. No big secrets, just add plenty of exposure to make things white.
At last I added some noise reduction to get rid of too much grainy noise in the shadow areas. …
I hope you like the image, I certainly do.
The image was taken at a private tuition day with Sacha Leyendecker.(http://www.sacha-leyendecker.com) The model is Steffi Rubia Stringsi, from Brussels. The image was taken in an available light studio in Köln, Germany.
see you soon.
ludwig
to tell you that a lot happened lately
I officially announced my www.renderhouse.eu customers that I will stop providing rendering services for them from januari 31, 2017. I am still looking for someone willing to continue this service, so my customer base is for sale. (3D rendered marketing illustrations and animations)
Hopefully this decision will free some space, energy and time for more photography in the nearby future. I have no idea where this will lead me to, but It is my absolute will to spend more time developing photography projects, continue giving my classes, and maybe start doing some workshops on a more regular basis.
It has not been an easy choice, since Renderhouse still provides a good income, but as you know I have been inspired a lot by the Holstee manifesto (see this post) , and I still think it is a good way to prevent boredom, burn-out, depression and other mental blockades.
…
next to that, I had the opportunity to work together with some afro-models, both great personalities to work with, one more experienced than the other, but they both did great and had a great story to tell.
I love this image, so does she.
• kamaliza •
Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50mm A DG 1.4
1/60 – f1.6 – ISO 320
thank you for watching
ludwig
a first one from a series of analog images I did with Ava
too hot outside, we fled for the cool interior of the chateau. The atmosphere was great, the castle was quiet, Ava was feeling comfortable. Some of the main ingredients for a great shoot. The models, although more accustomed to getting undressed than any other person, still prefer a quiet, unbothered atmosphere. There’s nothing more disturbing than people hopping in at unforeseen moments. A kind of understanding builds between model and photographer (and eventually assistants, make up artists etc …) and this makes intimate pictures possible. Thank you Ava for your confidence, and for being my model during this shoot.
• La dame du château •
model and make up: Ava Lacour
Hair and assistance: Nathalie
Shot on location in Tournai, Belgium
Rolleiflex 3,5 TLR on Kodak T-Max400 film.
all images © ludwig desmet
thank you for watching.