I received confirmation that seven of my thirteen entries in the Tzipac Eros award 2014 have been accepted for stage two judgement.
I have entered images from different shoots in 2 categories: Erotic/provocative and Fine Art.
Garden of Eden, not yet published here, is one of the selected images.
Final results of this contest to be expected end of august, I will certainly keep you informed about it.
More info on the contest organisation here:
http://www.tzipac.com
a series of color images I took at the house with the wonderful garden, in Ronse.
Sabine saw my work in the ‘Kunst omhulst in Villa 99’ exhibit, and she tracked me down on Facebook. Per return, I saw pictures of her garden and I immediately fell in love with the beauty and romantic feeling the garden expresses. I had a first shoot with Anna O. in the garden itself, and now her house interior was decor for this shoot with Tatjana. Sabine is a painting artist herself, and very open minded for these collaborations. Thank you Sabine, for having me at your home that day. Tatjana is a non professional model, but very experienced in model shoots anyway. She was really open to work with, and a lovely personality. We were so indulged in the shoot that we had to hurry to catch the train at the scheduled time.
Rain all afternoon, so we didn’t have the possibility to shoot in the garden that day, but the interior of the house proved very adequate for a ‘natural beauty’ shoot.
Make up: Heidi H.
Hair: Nathalie R.
Lingerie was willingly provided by Tutti-Passi, woman friendly pleasure shop.
Hope you like this small selection of images.
I will soon show a second series of black and white images from that same shoot.
Images taken with Canon 5D II and Sigma 50 mm f1.4 DG Art and Canon EF 100 mm f2.8 Macro IS L. In the first and second image I used a strobist flash off camera to get some additional light. It is bounced on a reflector, right side from the camera.
Hope to see you again soon, don’t hesitate to leave a comment, ask questions or whatever.
Ludwig
A couple more film images from the shoot Tatjana at Sabine’s house, Kodak T-max 400 on Rolleiflex 3.5
Model: Tatjana DN
Make up: Heidi Huys
Hair: Nathalie Renard
This is the first model shoot where I used the 60 years old Rolleiflex camera and it did just fine.
I found the square aspect ratio from the middle format Rolleiflex a relief to work with. No more hard decisions on shooting vertical vs. horizontal.
Sabine’s husband is collecting ‘snail houses’, we made good use of them. 😉
thank you for reading,
Ludwig
From the shoot Tatjana at Sabine’s house, Kodak T-max 400 on Rolleiflex 3.5
Model: Tatjana DN
Make up: Heidi Huys
Hair: Nathalie Renard
Many thanks to Sabine V. for letting me use her home as a setting.
I’ll do another post soon with a little more information on the camera.
thank you for watching,
Ludwig
Styling and photography by me.
Make up and model: Anna Orlova
Limited edition prints available.
Table Top Nude II
Soon more images from the shoot with Tatjana, and also a series of analog images from that shoot.
thanks for viewing!
I’m currently developing a series of images I did with Tatjana. She had coffee first.
Model: Tatjana D.
Make up: Heidi H.
Hair: Nathalie R.
Lingerie: Tutti-Passi.be
photographer: me, Ludwig Desmet
Image taken with the new Sigma 50mm Art, developed in LR5
soon more to come.
thank you for watching
Well, kind of anyway.
Model & Mua: Anna Orlova
Photography: Ludwig Desmet
Styling: me
Limited edition prints available
Garden of Eden
for a nice long hot weekend!
Ludwig
I will continue my single image posts until I run out of stock :p
Result of the ‘At the Mansion’ shoot with Anna O., in Ronse Belgium.
Styling and photography by me.
Make up and model: Anna Orlova
Limited edition prints available.
Table Top Nude I
It is ok to like 😉
About the technique, I still work mainly (if not only) with natural light. This image has been made with the help of a tripod, because of the relatively long shutter speed, and in an attempt to keep a clean, frontal composition. I have multiple images of this session, but I think this one best expresses the beautiful shape of Anna’s body. No light source except the window light. Some light is bouncing back from the wall just behind me.
Canon 5D II – Canon EF 24 mm f1.4 L II – 1/10sec – f3.5 – ISO 100.
Ludwig
Another Single-Image post.
From the project ‘late night at The Mansion’
Photography: Ludwigdesmet
Model and Make up: Kelly Denauw
Accessories: Tutti-Passi.com
ludwigdesmet.wordpress.com
The Invitation
Limited edition prints available.
One single image today.
Result of the Mansion shoot with Anna Orlova, in Ronse Belgium.
Styling and photography by me.
Make up and model: Anna Orlova
Limited edition prints available.
I have to admit that I did some tricky stuff on this one.
Post processing and 3D image manipulation/rendering by me.
thank you for watching!
ludwig
One single image today.
Result of the afternoon shoot with Anna Orlova, in Ronse Belgium.
Styling and photography by me.
Make up and model: Anna Orlova
Dog (Nono) and garden: Sabine V.
Limited edition prints available.
In Control I
Click for bigger image.
thank you for watching,
Ludwig Desmet
Hi,
I had another shoot at the mansion some weeks ago. Anna is a international nude model, and from time to time she is working in Belgium for a couple of days. I had the possibility to work with her for a short day in Ronse. We did a shoot at the mansion before noon, had a break at my place, then had a second shoot in what I want to call ‘the garden of eden’, a new location I discovered lately, in Ronse as well. I will show you the results of this cooperation in multiple posts. First part is called the Salon, one of the bigger pieces of the Mansion, on the ground floor, and now almost renovated completely. The owners of the house are slowly gathering furniture that fits together with the interior, and we were lucky to find this lovely small bench.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to buy some more gear, and I wanted to further expand my low-light possibilities. I have had a hard time making sharp images several times in these ‘mansion shoots’ due to low light conditions. The lenses I have are good, are having the benefits of wide open apertures, but none of them features image stabilization. I have decided to try on the Canon 100 mm f2,8 L IS for this reason. It is one stop slower than my 135 mm, but it provides 4 stop image stabilization, so I gain about 3 stops in shutter speed, provided that my subject is not moving. I have managed to keep Anna stay in place. 😀 Another benefit from this lens is its macro capability, so no more struggling with minimal focus distances. This lens focuses so close I can get a single eye filling the frame.
I think you’ll be able to figure out which images are with 100 mm lens, all the others are wide angle, with my 24 mm.
About the NSFW in the title, If you are offended by the nudity in my images, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to, but I think it is tasteful and beautiful, so I will very probably post more (covered) nude images in the near future.
I hope you liked the images. There’s more with Anna to come soon.
best, Ludwig
Hi there,
I’ve been wondering for a while now if I should start promoting my model shoots commercially. Yes I have done some shoots that have made me gain some money from them, but mostly my ‘natural beauty’ shoots are initiated by myself. I have the location, I look for a model, we get an agreement and an appointment, and we get together.
We discuss shoot contents over some moodboards I have at hand, and I shoot under my own command.
That last sentence is the most important reason for me not to start too fast shooting commercially. (By commercial, I mean privately ordered beauty shoots, not publicity work or fashion or anything else) The fact that I can decide on the style, the make up, the model and the location is a big plus for creating my own style. Whenever I’m working in any kind of assigned shoot, I’m no longer the sole decision maker, and I’m afraid that that could interfere with what I call my own personal, slowly getting defined style. As soon as the model starts interfering, and even saying “hey, but I would like an image like you made with that other girl” I’m not longer the boss of my shoots, and I will no longer be able to decide on anything I want (as far as I’m not interfering with the limits of my model of course).
On the other hand, a little extra money from my shoots would be more than welcome. I have been investing a lot in equipment and time lately, and I would like to have some kind of ‘return on investment’ in the months to come. A problem with that is that demand for the kind of shoots I do (or even a regular prom shoot session) is virtually inexistent here in Belgium, so I’ll have to ‘convince’ my customer potential that a shoot with me, and the resulting images are worthwhile.
Anyone need a gift for mother’s day? Shoot plus pillow book maybe?
some more results from the shoot with Kim. Color images this time. Enjoy!
Hi there,
I’m planning on a series of posts with some explanation of the studio setups I’ve used for my portfolio shoots.
Here’s te first one. The model has some massage oil on her body, just very slightly. A slightly colored setup.
A triple light setup for a body shape portrait.
Model is laying down on a black velvet cloth, which literally absorbs all light. It is positioned in a infinite floor to wall shape.
1. On the left, studio flash with reflector, gridded. Gridded to keep the light from spilling all over in the studio. Reflector for those nice highlights on the body.
2. On the right, studio flash with small softbox (60x60cm) partially covered with a red cloth, for a slight color shift. I discovered that the use thin colored cloth works in a similar way as gels, and it is easy to just move the cloth a little bit (a wooden clothespin works just fine) to have a stronger or weaker effect. I currently work with some kind of very thin colored cloth pieces, like a magician would use. This second flash not as strong as the first one and aimed a little more off the model
3. just next to the camera, I’ve put an additional flash (Speedlite 580), again with a colored cloth in front (blue-ish) to slightly fill in the shaded areas.
Camera is just above the floor (me lying down).
Setup:
85mm – 1/125th – f3.2
I probably would have been better of aiming for a smaller aperture for larger depth of field, but this is the way it is 😉
hope you’ve found some inspiration here.
see you soon,
Ludwig
hi folks,
last weekend seemed like a roller coaster of happenings and emotions.
last friday evening, I’ve built up the exhibit for my ‘end of studies’ project Nude (In)cognito.
Saturday morning I had my Jury presentation at 9:30. The jury was rather severe, and focused mainly at the weaknesses of the project/the selection/the presentation.
That’s the best thing they can do, show you the possible points of attention, but it left me full of doubts and questions. Had I not worked 5 months within the idea of presenting a very good body of work?
After that we had a funeral to attend to, unfortunately. Very strong emotions of sadness and helplessness. A very good friends grandchild died after being born prematurely, and a short life of only 8 weeks. Tears and deep deep sorrow.
Saturday evening came the reception, where I had the opportunity to speak to some of the jurors, and already better rumors came my way. (about my work presented) This helped me understand the questioning I had had early that morning. A glass of sparkling bubbles and a fine meal afterwards, and then off to bed.
Sunday, at about 10 am the exhibit opened, and we literally had to search for an escape route at midday, to get some food in between. An overwhelming amount of people have come to visit the exhibition. Rightfully, absolutely. I think there were about 23 students who presented their work. I have seen a lot of beautiful work, and I’ve met a lot of enthusiastic people, both photographers and visitors.
I would like to thank all the people who have attended the exhibit, thank you for your warm reactions, your attentions and the good talks.
I hope you’ve all enjoyed the exhibit. I enjoyed it for sure. Literally broken yesterday evening, but happy after all.
I’ll include a picture of my part of the exhibit, and I will probably post some more detailed ‘making of’ articles on the different shoots I did for this project.
For all those interested in posing nude, I’m rather sure that I will continue this project, so please do contact me if you feel like taking part in this.
thank you,
Ludwig
Hello there,
I had worked with Justine before, you’ve been able to see these images from my shoot with Justine at the Mansion here.
Justine is from Ronse, so we settled a second shooting moment some weeks later. We wanted to take profit from the beautiful autumn colors that day.
Unfortunately it rained all evening. Days are short already, we met at 16:00 h and a cloudy cover made for even darker shooting conditions. High ISO time it means. All shots between ISO 800 and ISO 1600.
Some images are developed in an even darker style, just to emphasize on the vulnerability of my model of the day.
Justine is really easy to work with. She’s not afraid of rain or cold, and is happy to be able to be part of it.
Thank you Justine.
Hope you like them, see you back soon.
Ludwig
Well, it’s finally here.
I’ve made a book to accompany my latest exhibit, to be able to show some more of my work, next to the 10 images on show.
Quite a bunch of people have signed in to reserve their copy, and today the pre-orders arrived by parcel service courier.
The book contains a selection of the best images from my series ‘natural beauty’, shoots done between oktober 2012 – september 2013.
It is a large square book (30x30cm), 66 pages, hard cover, premium lustre paper. The book has been composed in Lightroom, printed trough Blurb.com
It has a printed dust cover and features about 65 large images.
This is looking quite cool I think, my own work, published in a pile of books.
I’ll be happy to hand a copy to all the people who have been so kind of ordering one.
People who would like to do a back-order, can still order the book HERE, straight from the blurb.com book-store. If you order now, it will arrive soon enough for your christmas tree 😉
I’m quite busy now with my Nude (In)cognito project, but I prefer not to show anything before the actual presentation, which is on jan 18th.
I’ll make sure to update with some other nice images soon.
Come again.
thank you for reading
Ludwig
I met Justine a couple of weeks ago. She was keeping an eye on an artwork in a temporary exhibit walk in the city of Ronse. I asked her if she would like to be a model for my series ‘Natural beauty’ at the Mansion, and she was really enthusiast about the idea. She visited the exhibit at the Mansion a couple of days later, together with her mom. We fixed some shooting days soon after.
The Mansion is still my number one location for these shoots, it is beautiful, it has a lot of possibilities, nice light and what is new these latest weeks is that it gets furnished again, giving it a new feeling of life.
We had a very dark gray day making it extra difficult shooting inside. Wide open apertures and long shutter speeds.
All natural light. Canon 5D II and Canon 24 – 50 – 85 mm lenses.
Enjoy the images.
thank you for watching.
Soon to come, Justine autumn shoot
Hi,
It took a while since my last post, sorry for that. The exhibit is running fine but it is taking a lot of my time in-between classes and jobs. I get good reactions, I sold about 10 limited edition books for now, and we have two more weeks coming. The exhibit ends on nov. 17th. Hurry if you still want to get a look inside this wonderful early 20th century house. Contact if you need more details, but you should be able to find them in my earlier posts.
A while ago I did another model shoot, this time for a male model. Not my usual thing, but when people ask me, then – why not? I permitted myself some developing styles I normally don’t use. A male model can have some more contrasty – edgy style developing than a female model (in my opinion of course) We worked in different locations, some of my usual ones, but also outside at the Ronse train station. Actually I can work about everywhere as a photographer, especially if my model is fully clothed, outside is fine, even in colder weather. The model is Bjorn, thank you Bjorn.
I hope you like the results. If you have any questions or remarks, pls drop a line.
I love it when I get people in for a shoot that have absolutely no experience with modeling. They are so much easier to talk into a ‘natural behavior’ than the wannabe models that stick to the 10 poses they learnt by heart. Two weeks ago, Ines came to the Mansion. She travelled for about three hours by train to get here. Thank you Ines, for doing this effort for this shoot. You were a wonderful model, fun to work with, a beautiful, smooth skin and very open in conversation. All these things make her into a real ‘natural beauty’. She confessed she had gone trough about every post in this blog, before she decided to come to Ronse.
The Mansion is in full preparation for our upcoming group exhibit I talked about previously. This means a lot of works still going on, and a big rush to get the ground level ready for the exhibit, but also some new furniture items arriving now and then, and that is of course of great use for my photography.
I hope you like the images, one image from Ines will also be shown in the exhibit itself. I’ll make sure to post some images when the exhibit has opened.
thank you for reading
ludwig
