Nude (In)cognito – the exhibit

beauty, exhibition, Personal Pictures, projects

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

Nude (In)cognito – portfolio exhibit day

Personal Pictures, projects

Hi there,

today was an important day for my photography career.

I had to present my work Nude (In)cognito to the jury for final evaluation.

I’m still impressed with the arguments they brought, severe, focusing on details, questioning the approach, etc. …

I hope I will finally get the official degree of photographer next thursday – proclamation day.

Tomorrow the exhibit is open for everyone, I would be happy to welcome you all to see my work, and that of my fellow students. There’s really good work to be seen.

Adress: CC Meulestede, Meulesteedsesteenweg 515, Gent.

as an appetizer, one of the images I selected for the book. (not for the exhibit, those images remain secret till after the exhibit)

see you soon,

Ludwig

Justine autumn shoot

beauty, Personal Pictures

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

My Nude (In)cognito project – NSFW

exhibition, Personal Pictures, projects, Uncategorized

hi,

My project nude (In)cognito is running to an end now. In about a month we will have a group exhibition with all portfolio projects from end module students in the photography classes at KISP.

I have photographed 11 women in a studio session, and there’s one to come. Overall I’m really happy with the outcome. I have had women from the age of 22 and women aged +50.

I have been charmed with their motivations and their fears, I have listened carefully to what they thought about posing nude, how they feel about showing their body to the outside world, and how the personal situation is playing a big role in their decision to take part in the project or not to do it. And I am even more convinced than before that we do not live in a free society. I would like to thank all the persons that have responded to my request. It has been quite a gift to receive so many reactions, I’m sure this project will not see its immediate end after the exhibit. There’s so many people out there to be photographed.

The date for the exhibit is set at sunday Jan 19th, and the exhibit will take part at CC Meulestede in Ghent.

I yet have to decide on the presentation of the images, the video and the book. I will certainly make a book for the exhibit to be able to show some more work. I will most certainly not be able to show enough pictures to have every model represented, so a book will give me the opportunity to have all ‘models’ presented at the exhibit.

Photographing sculptures

assignments, Personal Pictures

Hi,

last summer I was asked by a belgian sculptor, to photograph some of her works. She’s working on ceramics and sculpting mainly. you can find her new site here: Sylvia Hens (the site is currently being rebuilt)

She had especially requested to work with existing light, and to try to emphasize on the emotional expression of her works, I was not sure I understood her completely, but she assisted during the shoot, and she was very happy with the results we achieved together.

So all the images are taken with available light, sometimes with the aid of a small reflector. The reflector could even be a simple sheet of white paper.

All exept the first two images were taken inside the lovely house of the artist, with little light. I made very good use of my tripod to prevent camera shake.

I hope you like the images, make sure to check out the website of the artist.

see you soon.

Ludwig

Natural Beauty at the Mansion – The book

beauty, Personal Pictures

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

Justine at the Mansion

beauty, Personal Pictures

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

Black and White – publishing announcement

contests, Personal Pictures

This was in my mailbox today, actually I already forgot that I’ve sent in some images.

——————————————————

Congratulations! Your entry in the BLACK & WHITE Single Image Contest 2014 has been selected for a Single Image Award, which means that one (or more) of your images will be published in the Special Issue #101 of BLACK & WHITE magazine scheduled to arrive on newsstands mid-December. You can be confident your work stood out in a way that deserved this special attention. Once again, congratulations!

All of us at BLACK & WHITE Magazine

——————————————————

Now you can (as well as I, because they haven’t told me which image was selected) guess which image will be published:

from top left to Bottom right:

Casa Battlo, which won an award earlier in the french contest ‘Grand Prix de la decouverte 2012’

Eline Growing Wings, currently on display in the exhibit in Ronse

Dispute

Queen of sheba, which was earlier in the final selection for the contest ‘Skin – The Darkroom Gallery’

Cook, from the series of professions I started a while ago

Urgent message, an image from my short Paris visit, when I went to the official result presentation for the ‘Grand Prix de la decouverte 2012’.

I’ll bring you more news as soon as I get some.

everybody at the newsstand mid december 😉

best,

Ludwig

Male model – Urban style

beauty, Personal Pictures

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.

Sofie’s wedding – reportage style

assignments, Personal Pictures, wedding

Its not gonna rain, its not gonna rain its not gonna rain.

It rained all day. 🙁

I was really fortunate to be able to photograph this wedding of Sofie and Dries. I know Sofie since quite some years now (she’s our boy’s optometrist) and last year she asked me if I could assure her weddings pictures.

I do not especially promote myself as a wedding photographer, but whenever I’m asked to do one, I’ll make sure to fit it into my planning. Wedding photography is a hard job, getting up early, make sure you capture all the important moments of the day, and often stay up late in the evening. This wedding was a bit of an exception, since Sofie only wanted coverage from 10 am, till about 9 pm.

Wedding photography is often also fun, because people are in a good mood, there’s a lot of emotions, a lot of old friends coming over etc. etc. Later in the day, as the tension fades, happiness is becoming the main feeling of the event.

I love treating a wedding day as a reporter, and this is what this post is about. Not the average couple and family shots, but all the things happening in between important moments.

Enjoy a look behind the scene’s on the wedding of Sofie and Dries, a typical Flemish wedding day.

thank you for watching,

ludwig

Ines at the Mansion

beauty, exhibition, Personal Pictures

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

Beautiful Tuscany

landscapes, people, Personal Pictures

Well, vacation is long over, and almost forgotten (almost)

Luckily someone invented photography a couple of hundred years ago.

I don’t want to write a lot of words on this post, only this. The evening we wanted to pack the car for our trip to Italy (2 and a half weeks Tuscany), it broke down.

So no large wagon with rooftop luggage trunk, but only a small Toyota Yaris. This meant a total review of the luggage, which meant I had to leave half of my photo equipment at home. No tripod, that was the biggest drawback for me. But anyway, no other solution possible, and a big challenge for taking landscape images. Normally you want to use closed apertures, meaning long shutter speeds. Well, not possible this time. I had to crank up ISO settings from time to time, which you normally do not for landscape work. To give you an idea, first image: ISO 160 – 17mm – f11 – 1/8th of a second. Last image, ISO 800 – 50mm – f3.2 – 1/25th.

Hope you like the images, I could’n leave the dog out, having its daily portion of ‘gelato’ like everyone else.

happy viewing,

thank you for looking!

My photography is becoming -me-

Personal Pictures

Just a quick post this early morning, but one I feel like I need to share.

I had an interesting discussion yesterday, with a mom of a class mate of my youngest son.

She saw a huge panorama print hanging on the wall in our living room, and was overwhelmed with the beauty of it (says the humble me 😉 )

We were discussing about my work, and I told her I have my work currently exposed in a beautiful interior and furniture warehouse (www.pinehouse.be)

I was talking also about the upcoming exhibition, and about the fact that the new exhibition will feature only beauty portraits, not landscapes.

In the discussion, while talking about the different subjects I have tackled so far, it became suddenly clear to me that although the subjects can be totally different, the images are always an expression of the same -me- .

Be it a landscape, a still life, a beauty portrait or something else, I think I’m starting to get a common denominator in my photography and that is – the way I see things – . I am touched by the beauty of a misty forest, a wandering gaze in the eyes of a model, or a fascinating detail in the urban environment we are living in. I am by far not a landscape photographer pur sang, I am not a fashion photographer by far, or an architectural photographer, but I start to express myself in a personal way.

I have wondered for a while now which subject appeals to me the most, well I still can’t decide on that, but it won’t matter as much anymore. I’ll probably keep photographing different subjects all the way, and find beauty in all of them. One of my great inspirations is Jean-Loup Sieff, probably because of his wide portfolio of subjects, and hey! they quite match my preferences.

Nathalie M. at the Mansion

beauty, Personal Pictures

Still working hard at the mansion, doing natural beauty shoots whenever I find the time.

I never prepare these shoots I must tell, I prefer working into the magic of the moment, and taking instantaneous decisions based on the conditions of that day, based on the mood I am in, and the model I am working with. The results are varying of course, but always a true result of a spontaneous collaboration. The mansion is still being renovated, and some places are unusable, while others are near finished. I can’t but express my feelings of joy for being able to expose my work in the mansion soon. I will try to show the images in the same place they were taken, to make a direct link with the building and the atmosphere that reigns in every room.

enough talking, here are the images. Thank you Nathalie, for being my model that early morning, thank you to the owners of the place, for letting me in.

All images with Canon 5D mark II and Canon 50mm f1.4, Canon 85mm f1.8 and Canon 135mm f2 L. Processing in Lightroom 5.

Thank you for watching, come again soon!

ludwig

My Nude (In)cognito project

Personal Pictures, projects, Uncategorized

Portfolioproject end module photography

The last part of the degree in photography at KISP exists in a portfolio project from each of the students. He/She needs to develop his/her own project, during the last 5 months of the training. This happens under supervision of an internal mentor (KISP-teacher) and an external mentor, free of choice. The final works will be presented in an exhibit open to the public, and judged by a panel of professionals in the field.

Vision

The sixties from the last century, and in particular the late sixties, are book-marked as the era of ‘sexual revolution’. Contraceptive medicine had led to a great self decisive power within the feminine part of the population, in the possibility to prevent pregnancy, and sexuality could be experienced a lot less restricted.

About 40 years from that date, we see a huge amount of pornographic material, freely available on the internet, a quantity still growing at an amazing speed, with new adult sites emerging every day.

At the same time we can experience a sexualisation of general media, and in particular in TV advertising, entering our homes every day. A woman looks slim and her body shows no signs of ageing, she is always available, expresses sexual lust, and is being exploited in this manner.

This message has gained a very high level of tolerance, and is rarely critiqued.

In very high contrast to this stands the reality of an everyday individual. When I, as a photographer, contact people for modelling in an artistic nude photo session, then their first concern is the possible reaction they will get from relatives, partners, employers or colleagues.

The individual freedom of being naked, and being able to express yourself in nude art, in a feeling of confidence is clearly not a general state of mind. The taboo about the personal body of each individual has clearly not disappeared, maybe even become stronger than in the late sixties.

Mission

Provide an answer to the still existing taboo about personal nudity, and carefully try to respond to the will of individuals to express nakedness, by photographing them in an artistic way, be it anonymous or recognisable, AND to give a place to their doubts, their feelings about nudity and their fears for the reactions from other people.

Goal

Photograph at least 10 individuals in an artistic nude photo session. The images can be anonymous or clearly identifiable, to the choice of the individual. From each session a selection will be withheld for possible publication/exhibit in the portfolio project. When I have enough candidates, each person will only have one image presented. When I have more than 10 candidates, it is possible that no image of a particular session will be used, the judgement for the final exhibit lies with the photographer.

Next to the exposed pictures, a separate panel will be composed, with a testimonial from each photographed individual, as well as from some people that have given testimony of their inability to pose nude. They will be joined with a portrait of the individual. The name used in conjunction with the images can be changed by each individual.

Practical matters

The shoots will take place in the studio of the photographer, and will take a minimum of two hours, preferably longer because it takes some time to familiarise, discuss eventual questions etcetera. Models can bring an accompanying person, or someone to do make-up or hair.

Sessions can be booked on wednesday afternoons, fridays or in the weekend. Dates to be discussed.

A contract will be presented, in which the individual passes the rights for publication to the photographer. The choices below are to be made by each individual.

… gives the right for publication for image numbers:

…………. / …………. / …………. / …………. / …………. / …………. / …………. / …………. / …………. /

O for exhibitions -> this option must be ticked.

O for printed books/reproductions

O on website O blog O facebook-page* of the photographer (*if not against facebook rules)

O on websites/printed matters for promoting an exhibit or a book

O in specialized photo magazines

O with proper name (first name)

O under nickname: ……………………………………

Conditions

What should a model have/respond to:

A model must be at least 18 years old, and be able to prove this with a identity piece.

A model should be self confident and be fine with posing nude.

A model should be able to come to the studio at the agreed date.

A model will have to sign for abduction of image rights.

Reward

Endless gratitude, and unimaginable amount of fame.

Self realisation and being part of the real sexual revolution.

In exchange for posing, the model will receive the selected images in low resolution digital format.

Prints and (mounted) enlargements can be ordered at fair prices.

thank you so much for reading this presentation/call for models

any inquiries should be made at : ludwig -at- charlemagne-art.be

Ludwig Desmet – Charlemagne

U can find my work at:

www.charlemagne-art.be

ludwigdesmet.wordpress.com

I will soon post some images from the first sessions, so make sure to come again soon.

How to find a good location – shoot with Karen

beauty, Personal Pictures, personal tips & tricks, Tips and Tricks

Some people ask me about these locations I work in.

I have been into urban explorer photography (also called urbex) for a short period of time. I din’t really get far into this. Not that it didn’t please me, but modeling work pleases me more, because you work together with at least one other person to a result. There’s not much conversation possible with an abandoned building or a landscape. (another discipline in photography, that I still do from time to time)

In urbex, most of the locations are very abandoned, and you might get in with permission at rare occasions, but most of the time, you just don’t ask permission, don’t know who to ask to, or just simply don’t bother. This includes the risk of being ‘discovered’ by the owner, the housekeeper or even the police, … (never occurred to me 😉 )

As soon as I started doing model work, I convinced myself that it would not be a good idea getting the police behind my back whilst my model is working on the next intimate pose, or while she’s changing clothes, or some other awkward moment during the shoot. Finding locations is not easy, by far not. It has to be accessible, not too far driving from where you as a photographer are based (preferably), give plenty of light possibilities, give nice decorative possibilities etc. … And you need to get access at the times you want to shoot at.

My one and only advice in this matter is: Try to find the owner of the place, contact him or her, try to make a mutual beneficial agreement. Most people have shown great willingness whenever practically possible. I now have 4 different locations I regularly shoot in, and all 4 owners were very quickly sympathizing with the idea. I mostly offer free photo work – to some degree – if they would need any, be it for family or business matters.

This is what happened with the location of the shoot I’ll show you pictures of in this post:

While riding my motor trough the flemish ardennes (a part of our region called so because it resembles the ardennes – but actually it is more beautiful) I see this beautiful complex that seems like an old cloister, nursery school, orphanage, … and I decide to halt and look if I can find signs of people around.

After peeping trough some windows, knocking on the door, some kind of housekeeper gets his head out on the second floor, talking to me in a foreign language. (Being a Belgian citizen, I do speak and understand quite some languages, but clearly not this one) Impossible to talk to him, but he’s able to point me to a information panel hanging on the wall, that contains different phone numbers of the owner of the place. I have called the owner a couple of days later and she said:

“sure, no problem, I have been a model myself in my younger days. Just call me whenever you want to get in. When there are no groups (the location is rented as a summer camp house for big groups) you’re welcome.”

Easy as that, and something similar happened with the mansion, the old villa, the warehouse and the storage building. So, just ask, don’t ask for the impossible, be polite and be willing to offer some service in exchange. After that, be clear in your communication (when you want to shoot, for how long, with how many people, etc. …) and you’ll have a good chance for a lasting relationship.

One last remark about sharing locations with other photographers. Well, I’m very reluctant about that, and mostly for one reason. It is not because the owner granted me permission to shoot in a certain building, that he/she is also interested in receiving other photographers, or in being bothered by a different photographer every day, … Besides, the exchange offer they get from me, they won’t need it from another photographer, don’t they? 😉

So, enough about locations. I worked with Karen for the first time, first time in this new building too. The sky was cloudy, so there was really not much light inside. It required some searching, trying a lot of different angles, but we managed to get some really nice images after all. Karen told me afterwards “the pictures are really superb”. Thank you Karen.

All images taken with Canon 5D II at ISO 200 (except one at ISO 100), Lenses used in this selection: Canon EF 24mm f1.4 L II, Canon EF 50mm f1.4, Canon EF 85mm f1.8, Canon EF 135mm f2.0 L. All natural light.

happy viewing

Any questions about this post, just ask!

Ludwig

Upcoming exhibition at The Mansion

exhibition, Personal Pictures

you will probably all have noticed that I have been working a lot in the house I named ‘The Mansion’

I have the incredible opportunity to exhibit some of my works soon, at the exact location were they were taken.

Come see the best of images taken at The Mansion in the exhibit “Kunst omhulst in Villa 99” at The Mansion, Ronse – Belgium.

Vernissage october 4th, more details soon. Anyone interested in receiving an official invitation, pls contact me.

Eline V. at the mansion

beauty, people, Personal Pictures

hi, some new pictures from a new girl I worked with at the mansion. She came with her Uncle, who’s actually studying photography where I give classes, so I can present you some behind the scene’s pictures as well. Eline has only little modeling experience, and that is what I like the most. These models are easily posable the way I want, and don’t fall back into standard poses they’ve learnt with other photographers, ore standard poses from the fashion world. All shots done at the mansion, my favorite working location for natural beauty shoots, with a big thank you to the owners of the house!! I found this location with a bit of luck and a good word from one of my customers. I had worked in the building just in front of this one, when the mansion got sold to new owners. My customer introduced me, the owners saw my work, and a few agreements later, they granted me access to this magnificent place. Thank you Eline, for posing, thank you Gino, for the behind the scenes images and for driving Eline to Ronse! I’m sure you can couple some of my images to the behind the scenes shots 😉 Oh, and all pictures taken with natural light, some of them with the aid of a large reflector (thanks again Gino!) come again soon, I’ve photographed Karen at a new location, which I will be calling the orphanage!

some BTS pictures: (you’ll notice that my clothes are really smudgy and dirty on these BTS pictures. You have to know that the mansion is undergoing a full rebuild on the inside, and is thus covered with a layer of dust, from the cave, up to the attic. As a photographer, I tend to lean against walls, go flat on the floor, hang over staircase railings etc. . That’s why.) The very start of the shoot, warming up.

Me preparing the bath for Eline, Eline not sure what to think.

Eline taking a bath with clothes on. 😉

at the top floor of the building, the attic rooms. Dark but beautiful structures on the walls, me working with my Canon 24 mm f1.4 II L for a close up wide angle shot. In the garden, under the beautiful patio building.

Sharon low key studio test shoot

beauty, Personal Pictures

Hi,

I launched a call for models on my Facebook page last week, for some test shoots in my studio.

I’m not really fond of studio work, but that might probably be because I’m not familiar enough with it, so time to work on my skills.

I’m not really into white studio backgrounds, and brightly lit models, so I went for some kind of low key approach. I feel more like keeping some mystery in my images

Sharon was one of the models that volunteered, she’s from the same town I live in, so we can easily fix a render-vous (a get-together) whenever time allows.

I had worked with her in these shoots: Model Sharon – fall and model Sharon I think we both learned a lot since. I’ll leave that for you to judge.

So Sharon was here last thursday afternoon. We worked some different settings, for about 2 and a half hours. I worked a lot with indirect light on the side facing the camera, and just some backlight directly on my model.

The light setup for the first 2 images looks as follows:

One softbox light left of my subject, as high as my light tripod goes, aimed towards the model and covered all around by a black cloth to prevent light spill on the background. The background is a black roll of paper, not white as indicated in the diagram

One big reflector panel at the right side of my model, simple styrofoam, aimed towards the model thus bouncing back light of the softbox.

Gridded and partially covered (with a cloth) torch to the right, aimed at the background, for the soft spot of light on the background.

Model is sitting on a wooden plank, suspended by two shelve racks I normally use to pile up my studio gear.

I used some additional black panels and black cloth to prevent too much light to bounce around in my small studio.

The images were all taken with Canon EOS 5D II and 85mm, 135mm and 50mm Canon lenses. Settings vary.

Don’t forget, all images are clickable for a bigger version.

the other images are with different setups, all based on the same theme.

I will probably study this subject further, so models can always sign up for a studio session.

Take care, and come again soon,

Ludwig

Amsterdam Highlights

Personal Pictures

In my ‘highlights’ series, I had Barcelona and twice Paris (I) and (II), this time I visited Amsterdam hit-and-run style (about 24 hours between arrival and departure)

In short:

Bikes, old and new architecture, canals, (missing) prostitutes, a lot of wind, (noisy) dutch people, good company … and a restaurant cat.

Oh I love strolling around in a big city, taking pictures, watching people, searching for good subjects and good light.

I don’t wanna spend a lot of words on this one. I enjoyed my walks, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

I have taken these pictures with the only lens I had with me, Canon 50 mm f 1.4. It is a challenge worth taking. Take only one lens, look for subjects, frame them.