studio

Eros was in the studio – the sequel

erotic, Nude, studio

With Sahri I always have a good time, she’s gained full confidence, we always have a good laugh during the sessions and most often the results are very good. We met again a couple of weeks ago (see my previous post) and did a couple of different things. This series made me remind of an earlier session we had done, titled ‘eros was in the studio’, hence the title of this post. Less slippery than the previous set, and in a slightly different light setup (just trying to work with different approaches every time) but still very intimate.

I hope you like them, I thought Wednesday was a good day for a mid-week pause 😉

it has been a while, the previous set of ‘Eros was in the studio’, you’ll need to scroll down quite a lot to find them, so under the images I’ll post a link to the original series.

Hope you liked them, if so, here’s the link to the previous set: eros was in the studio – NSFW please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below. Thanks!

Why I prefer women surprising their partner than vice versa

beauty, Nude, studio
Men often have the wildest fantasies about photo sessions.
They see their partner as the next playboy centerfold model … (if that still exists?) which of course is good and proof of how attracted they are to their partner …
With the best intentions they order a gift voucher from me for a nude photo shoot to surprise their partner, already excited by the idea (fantasy goes wild)  …
pwoaa, pwoaa, pwoaa … anticlimax (you know that sound from any TV quiz when a wrong answer is given)
Perhaps the lady is not at all ready for such a photo shoot, and certainly not if she has not chosen to do it herself, or if she has not been able to choose the photographer with whom she wants to collaborate. She feels forced, insecure, worried, even a little angry maybe …
Then as a photographer you get the difficult task of meeting the expectations of the man on one hand (he paid for the session and expects the best of results) and on the other hand guiding the lady in a photo session that she is not really ready for … no fun.
I personally prefer to get the lady on the phone: “I would like to surprise my partner with a spicy photo shoot of myself, is that possible with you?”
“Yes, ma’am, of course it is, shall I go over the options with you?” and off we go, with a guarantee of success, a happy, excited lady and most certainly a surprised, happy and exited partner.
So go on ladies, be brave, get that phone and call me now, you’ll be surprised how good you look on photo’s, your partner will be going wild you came up with the idea and you decided to do this for him (or her).
For the privacy of my client I made the images below ‘private’ 😉

 

The male nude, long awaited by female fans but an absolute premiere for me

Nude, studio

I admit, I am attracted to women more than men, that’s nature I suppose.

On the other hand, I rarely had the request for doing male nudes, until now. For me this was a premiere and an interesting experiment. Although I felt a little lost in what to photograph, and in the poses to work on, still I think we did a good session together. My model wanted to stay anonymous in the images, so that was a limitation to take into account.

I worked mainly with a low-key approach, but it was a continuous search for angles and light settings. We also experimented with some body lotion, and although I found it too greasy it did give different results.

Happy viewing, pls leave me your thoughts and comments below.

Ludwig

Thank you!

beauty, Personal Pictures, studio

Thank you,

I hope that everybody is fine and in good health,
thank you to my public, thank you to my audience, loyal followers and fans of my personal work.

2020 was not an easy year, with Covid measures that have made it largely impossible to photograph people outside the bubble of one’s own family. In the meantime, when regulations were a little less strict, I was able to schedule a number of sessions, both personal work and private sessions, and that was good, I experienced a lot of pleasure doing them, because photographing people is and will remain my favourite activity.

The Covid Lockdown also has had a positive effect. During the first lockdown I rolled up my sleeves and built a separate room for a studio within an outbuilding in my garden. The studio is now ready for use, 4.5mx 8m and 3m high, one side black, the other side white, offering a ton of possibilities. A cozy wood-burning stove has also been installed so that the space can be used in both summer and winter.

My private clients, from fine art prints and private photo sessions, as well as my commercial clients, for product and architectural photography, make it possible to continue financially. Thank you again for that.

Of course I look forward to the opportunity to have more contacts again, I would love to put workshops back on my schedule and I also get a lot of demand for this, but I do not really see possibilities at the moment. Time will tell whether this will be possible again soon. For those who are interested in this, please be patient until then.

please don’t hesitate to comment and share your thoughts trough any channel, instagram, facebook, my blog or email …

Namaste,

Ludwig

New Studio – first results

Nude, projects, studio, studio light setup, Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized

I have finally decided to create a studio space in an old factory building that is situated in my own garden. The building is not really in good shape, but it is more or less weather-proof and this should be enough to keep me running for the next couple of years.

What I did: Within the volume of the first floor (approximately 8 x 12 meters) I created a smaller volume, approx 4.5 x 8 meters that I have completely ‘re-finished’. I got rid of the roller shutters in the windows, I re-plastered the brick walls with natural clay, I put up a new wall in timber structure and re-painted the whole thing. I just finished a large double barn door this week. This ensures the poly-valence of the space. In case I need to bring in large items, that’s perfectly possible.

I wanted to keep the space as simple as possible, and I divided the long side in two halves, a dark side and a bright side. The dark side is handy if you want to have full control over your light, with virtually no light spill off the walls/ceiling. The bright half is interesting whenever you are looking for fill light on your subject.

There’s still a lot to be done, but last week I could do a first shoot in this new space, and I’m very glad my client Sofie has approved to use some of the images in this blog post. The session took about 3 hours and  I’m sure you’ll be as impressed with these results as I was. Sofie never posed before, she’s a natural! Thank you Sofie for your enthusiasm and your confidence!

Some of the images were taken with studio light (studio flash) and others were taken with available light only. All were taken with the help of ambient music 🙂

First a series with a single flash head, standard reflector with 20° grid aimed at a white wall. The grid limits the width of the light beam and creates a nice falloff on the wall. It creates a rather hard shadow. The flash light overrules any available light there might be in the space.

I found them to be very fashionable.

We continued with the same setup, single flash but I’m using another wall as background.

Below the white wall reacts as a perfect reflector for the models face. The shadow gets harder the closer the model comes to the wall.

As I have a dark side and a white side, I have one sharp black/white edge. I used a styrofoam board as a second white surface behind the model. Single flash with 100 cm octa softbox.

From the garden shed I recovered this old work bench, cleaned it up and it will now serve a second life as studio prop. Full of character, a ton of possibilities and well contrasting with the female curves. Two flash heads left and right, small square softbox 66 cm each. By removing the subject from the back wall I can keep the background perfectly black.

Another setting at the dark side, a single softbox slightly higher than the model, model laying down on a black trunk. Using the light as a feather light over the body. Styrofoam panels on the opposite site give just a hint of volume in the shadow areas.

And then at last, over to the bright side again, using available light only, and with the help of the white wall for fill light I get a beautiful overall light.

And last but not least, did we have fun? Yes, of course, we had a lot of fun.

Sofie wrote me in a message afterwards ‘Ludwig, thank you for making this such a wonderful experience … ‘ . Well, I guess that’s what this is all about. Making women feel great about their body, giving them the space they need to build self-confidence and then, as a privileged witness capture this beautiful moment in images.

Thank you for reading this blog post, If you are a photographer and interested in building your own space, I hope you’ve learnt something. If you are thinking about booking a shoot session yourself but you are not really sure what to expect, here you have it. In an afternoon’s time, you can have yourself depicted in beautiful, sensual, intimate images and never forget that moment!

 

 

The model and the mannequin

beauty, Nude, studio

I had bought this mannequin on a flea market in my hometown and it seemed an ideal partner to make some sort of a love story. E. was very happy to participate in this session. We had a lot of fun imagining what was to come next.

• The model and the mannequin •

 

The Clay Sessions + behind the scenes video

Nude, studio

hello there,

I have been away for a long time, I know, …

I have been rather busy at school lately and this will probably continue for some more time, since we are working on a project for distant learning that starts September 2020.

I still managed to make a short behind the scene’s movie from some clay sessions I did last summer. I had taken some footage on one of the shoots, and have made a short intro and wrapup video last Friday, to make it a complete movie.

You can see the movie here or on Youtube, where you can immediately subscribe to my channel:

 

Some final images of the sessions I did here below:

 

Really fun to do, it makes models ageless at the spot, and also quite anonymous, and sometimes even Facebook accepts this kind of nudity.

thanks for reading!

Ludwig

 

Studio Light setup

studio, studio light setup, Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized

a long time ago I made some studio setup diagrams for this blog, … time to make a new one. First the image, it dates from a while ago, last fall I invited two friends to do some studio work. I rarely use my studio equipment for light, but in winter times it can be handy to have an alternative to available light sometimes.

the image:

I wanted Steven to get some sort of gangster look, cool looking, hood, sunglasses …

I wanted a soft light and deep shadows under the hood, so I went for some sort of symmetrical light setup, using two studio flashes with 60x60cm softboxes, and two large reflector panels to even enlarge the light source.

The setup:

it was only a matter of finding the good ‘depth’ position of the model, to create just enough light on the face, and keep the light only on the front.

another one without the hood:

 

thanks for watching, come again soon,

Ludwig

• Slippery • in the studio – NSFW

beauty, erotic, Nude, studio

not safe for work, except of course if you work in an open-minded place, which I hope everyone does. A little edgy maybe, glossy and slippery, these nudes I did with Sara Scarlet.

I’m enjoying the studio in these cold winter days. Shooting outdoors is not really handy now, especially if you want to do glamour or nude work …  I put up the heating a little higher in the studio, and I can work at ease, without my model turning blue … so the blue you see here is purely a post-processing effect.

• Slippery •