Images always have a little extra when there’s a little storytelling involved I think.
I had this magnificent garden at my disposal and then I -per accident- found a set of pétanque balls, you know, the game that originates in the French ‘Provence’ where you have to aim heavy metal balls at a little ‘piggy’ ball. …
And that was that, I had my story • how about a game of pétanque •
thank you Sofie for being my perfect model that warm and sunny day.
thanks for watching!
Ludwig
hi there,
please enjoy with me these results from another ‘lazy Sunday morning’ session I did with Alisson this time. Below you’ll find a link to the behind the scenes video of this particular session.
you wanna see how the session looks like, behind the scenes:
check it out here, you’ll need a Youtube account, as it is 18+ and it won’t play outside Youtube:
Hi there fans and followers,
I’m pleased to be able to show you some results from the individual ‘available light – art nudes’ workshops I gave last summer. It seems a long time ago already. …
The location proved very well suited for a range of light situations and with some creativity we managed to turn a ‘standard’ bed and breakfast location into a perfect photo location.
Model of the day, the always beautiful and elegant Riona Neve (http://rionaneve.com/)
Remember you can be part of this too, If you want upgrade your ‘available light’ portrait skills, please drop me a line trough this page
In the coming weeks I’ll post some images from the second individual workshop day, with Violaine as my model.
all the best,
Ludwig
As you might have seen I hosted two private ‘available light art-nude’ workshops in July. I had rented a flat in the historical centre of Ghent for a couple of days and I had two different models coming in. My second day participant wanted to find out how he could enhance his story telling abilities trough images. I had Violaine as a model (currently also on the front page of my website) and one of the sets we did was the ‘lazy Sunday morning’ set, in which I had Violaine improvise and pose without instructions, I had done this before with models I worked with multiple times, and I knew these images prove to be very genuine and ‘real’ looking. The idea behind it is that when you simply observe your model during her daily routines, you’ll get your story without having to invent one. I was not sure how Violaine would (re)act, but she wonderfully expressed her ‘lazy morning feeling’ over the course of about half an hour, without me or the participants’ need for intervention in the form of posing instructions or imposing our ideas. I had my participant move freely about the bed, and took the opportunity to grab a series of images from different angles at the same time. I think it was a very good experience for both participant and model, and I think the images are great.
The images below are of course a selection of the shots made during this set, and selected to convey the idea we were after, but they all came naturally thanks to Violaine’s non posing qualities.
Please scroll down to the end for this weeks ‘specialty’ 😉
Now for the specialty of this week, from next month on, I’ll offer one free photo session every month* to you, my audience.
• The nature of the session (portrait, fashion, glamour, nude …) will be your choice entirely.
• These sessions will be either studio or outdoor sessions, digital or film, to my choice.
• The first session will be scheduled on Wednesday afternoon September 1st, and then every month after that on the first Wednesday of the month. Count for two hours, always in the afternoon as I eventually want to be able to shoot with available light.
• If you want to participate in a free session, send me an email at ludwig-at-ludwigdesmet-dot-com right away. First come first serve. Your subject line should read ‘free photo session’.
• Don’t be shy, you don’t have to be a model, you can bring a buddy if you’d like, and I’ll make sure you get some wonderful souvenirs, for free!
• Open for women and men, but only for adults.
*The session will result in a uncertain number of images, digitally delivered in a watermarked version, available for purchase if you’d like that.
A little series I made recently with a model in Brussels.
Model: Supersonka
As always, all my images are available in a very limited number of 7. If you see somehting you’d like to have, just give me a sign!
thanks for stopping by, and see you soon
Ludwig
Kudos to the model, I wouldn’t come up with so many different poses I guess.
from hidden and intimate over figurative beauty, ending a little erotic.
I just helped a little in fine tuning them … with Riona Neve as a model.
thank you for watching, come again soon 🙂
Ludwig
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!
always fun to combine digital and film photography, and get my ‘working collectables’ off the shelf again. This time I shot a roll on the Rolleiflex, and one roll on the Voigtländer Bessa 6×9 folding camera. The latter is even more difficult, as it has no matte screen to focus on, and a very tiny visor that ‘remotely’ gives you an idea of the framing of the shot. You might find a dust spot here and there, oops. I have the films developed in a standard photo lab, and then scan them just the way I scan my B&X films, with the Canon 5Ds and 100mm macro lens. I use Negative Lab Pro for converting them to positive, but I need to find my way around in that program. It’s good but I don’t feel I have everything in control yet. Rolleiflex images first, the square ones, then the Voigtländer images.
Both films Kodak Portra 160, enjoy!
I did a call for locations in August last year, stating that I needed a beautiful location with swimming pool, in a private garden. I received 4 offers in a couple of hours 🙂
I have picked the one that seemed best suited for the occasion, and I got a doggy model as a bonus. The models did great together.
Model: Sahri Nimi, Jack, location disclosed 😉
thanks to the owners of the location, for providing willingly access
in the series hidden gems from 2019: Jack and Sahri at the swimming pool.
Remember, all images are available as a fine art print, send me an email if you need any more information, and … see you next week!
Ludwig
Same as last week, you’re getting spoiled, aren’t you 🙂
Some results I managed to capture during my own workshop Model/lingerie photography with available light. Models during this workshop: Riona Neve and Sahri Nimi – behind the scenes video at the bottom of this post.
All images are available as a fine art print, inquiries please send me an email.
Hidden gems 2019, workshop Lingerie with available light
behind the scenes video on my Youtube Channel
thanks for watching, make sure to come by next week!
Ludwig
As I do conduct the workshop myself, I do not have very much time to make images myself, it is my absolute desire to help the participant as much as possible.
Nevertheless, I managed to make some good shots in between tuition, and here they are, in the hidden gems 2019 category, images from the portrait workshop.
Remember, all images taken with available light only, on the day of the workshop.
On the bottom of the page I’ll re-link the youtube video I made from this interesting day, go check it out!
behind the scenes on Youtube
thanks for stopping by, see you next Sunday!
Ludwig
I have been neglecting my blog a little lately. I have had some print orders to take care of after the exhibit in August, and I have been busy getting some footage done for my youtube channel. Next to that, It’s been a busy couple of months at the institute where I teach, and it will still be so in the near future too.
I have collected some images from 2019 that I have not shown you yet, and that might be forgotten if I don’t do it soon. Hidden gems from the recent past, so to say.
Enjoy this first series of ‘forgotten marvels’ with Julia, you might have seen some of my images of her already here and here but well, here’s some more:
Thank you for watching, and remember, all images are available as a fine art print!
Another set will be released next Sunday, put your alarm or subscribe to my post so you don’t miss it!
Ludwig
As a registered 18+ Youtube user you can see the video on my Youtube channel, but for your convenience I’ll put it here trough Vimeo:
It was a fun day, I didn’t really adapt my shooting to the cameraman, but still, there was some influence at least. I’m quite pleased with the results of this day, look for yourself, you’ll probably recognise some of the scenes from the video. The film shots are black framed.
Shot on film: (Rolleiflex Tlr 3.5 Planar on Ilford Film)
and then one more, as a tribute to the cameraman Franswa. You can see me make this shot at 4.52 in the film!!
thanks for looking, If you want to make sure to see everything I publish, you might consider subscribing to my blog. You can do this on the bottom of the welcome page, click the + sign.
You’ve seen the first image with Julia a couple of weeks ago. The process of selecting and fine-tuning the images often is slow, but in this case, it took me even longer, since I had to finish all evaluations for my evening class students. All is done now, and vacation has officially started. A good moment to show you the first series from this collaboration.
• In bed with Julia •
What I often seek in models, is the ability to give me a natural, relaxed look. Julia is perfectly able to do so. And of course, she is stunningly beautiful! I’ve enjoyed this afternoon in Brussels a lot, and I hope the images give you an idea of the atmosphere and get you in a similar mood.
thanks for passing by, I hope to see you soon again!
Ludwig
I have never met her before, except on the internet. She’s all around the internet, google her and you’ll know what I mean: Julia Yaroshenko.
We worked together a couple of weeks ago, I rent an Airbnb in Brussels and we did an afternoon session. A first image as a little preview.
This weekend I’m giving the first two of my workshops, about working with available light in portrait/boudoir/art-nude photography. The above portrait was created in a small bedroom with only one window. Not everything is possible, but a lot can be done with a little creativity and bounced light. If you’re interested, there are still two spots available for next Saturday (01/06), tomorrows workshop is fully booked.
Ludwig
still working on my workshop program for this summer, and I have the honor to announce an exclusive Art-Nude 4 day workshop on a unique location:
Art-Nude Week
Together with 2 professional models, I will guide you through the entire process of doing art-nude photography. From the location scouting, over measuring light, viewing your composition, working with and guiding models up to images selection and post-processing. A condensed all-in-one workshop for the enthusiast photographer.
Who is this workshop meant for: You are an enthusiast hobbyist and you are looking to upgrade your skills. You like to work with people in your photography, and you enjoy the female subject. You always wanted to try sensual art-nude in your photography but never found a way to get started. You want to taste the privilege of working with professional models, under controlled and safe circumstances. You fancy a nice castle and park as a shooting environment and you prefer the looks of natural light. If your answer is yes to the majority of these allegations, then this is meant for YOU!
What will be the setting? The setting will be a splendid privately owned castle near Tournai (Belgium) with surrounding green areas and annex buildings. The entire location (except a small private area in the castle) is available for shooting. An ideal place to work at ease and enjoy a vast amount of photography possibilities. Study the light and work with models. Talking about models, I will have 2 professional art-nude models present for three days. (one extra model may be added if the number of participants exceeds 5. They are easy to work with and know a lot about posing, if you are not so familiar with that part, they will guide you. The number of photographers is kept very limited, to allow every photographer individual time with the models.
The location for the workshop
If you are interested in this workshop or one of the other workshops: CLICK HERE
hi there, (Nederlandse tekst hieronder)
thanks for being still here, after my little rant in the previous post. …
I have the honour to announce a first-ever event in my photography career: I will give tuition in three one-day workshops this spring/summer, about working with available light only, and in the different subjects I tackle: Glamour portraits, ladies in fine lingerie, art-nude photographs.
Who are these workshops meant for: You are an enthusiast hobbyist and you are looking to upgrade your skills. You like to work with people in your photography, and you enjoy the female subject. You always wanted to try the nude in your photography but never found a way to get started. You prefer the look of natural light or you are not able and not willing to invest in a complete studio, and you want to learn more about working with available light only, then these are meant for YOU!
What will be the setting? The setting will be my own studio and annex rooms. I occupy a studio space in Ronse (Belgium) and this studio is part of a larger complex containing all empty rooms. An ideal place to study the light and work at ease with models. Talking about models, I will have 2 professional models present at each workshop. They are easy to work with and know a lot about posing, if you are not so familiar with that part, they will guide you. The number of photographers is kept very limited, to allow every photographer individual time with the models.
If you are interested in one or more workshops: CLICK HERE
Look at the Light
Soft and Silky
Skin and Curves
beste bezoeker,
Bedankt om hier nog te komen zien na mijn korte klaagzang in de vorige post. …
Ik heb de eer en het genoegen u in première mijn zomer-workshop programma voor te stellen: Drie ééndaagse workshops rond het werken met beschikbaar licht, opgedeeld in de drie onderwerpen die ik zelf in mijn fotografie heb: Glamour portretten, vrouwen in fijne lingerie, en kunstig naakt.
Voor wie zijn deze workshops bedoeld? Je bent een enthousiaste hobbyist en je wil graag je kennis bijspijkeren. Je hebt altijd al zin gehad om eens met naaktfotografie aan de slag te gaan, maar nooit echt de stap durven zetten om te starten. Je houdt er van om mensen te fotograferen, en je hebt een bijzondere voorkeur voor dames voor je lens. Je verkiest het om met natuurlijk licht te werken, of je bent niet in de mogelijkheid om een complete studio in te richten, dus wil je het maximum halen uit werken met aanwezig licht. Dan is deze workshop voor JOU bedoeld!
Hoe ziet de setting van de workshop er uit? De workshop gaat door in m’n eigen studio in Ronse. Hierin bekijken we wat verschillende setups, de manier van licht meten, hoe omgaan met je model, enzovoort, … na de middag is een groter deel van het gebouw beschikbaar om op zoek te gaan naar ideaal licht, waar je de modellen kan fotograferen. Over modellen gesproken, voor elke workshop zullen 2 professionele modellen aanwezig zijn, die zelf heel goed weten hoe ze horen te poseren. Dus als jij met dit deel niet echt vertrouwd bent, zij helpen je er wel door. Het aantal deelnemers is heel beperkt gehouden om elke fotograaf individuele tijd te geven met elk model.
Als je interesse hebt in het volgen van één of meer workshops, KLIK DAN HIER
Sorry if you have been trying to reach this site and blog in the last 24 hours, it has been down due to a PhP update on the host’s side, and I am by far not a web-tech-geek, so it took me a moment to figure out what happened, and to fix things accordingly.
to compensate, a single image post.
I had this first collaboration with Emily two weeks ago, and we made some nice images. We worked in the studio first, to continue after that on the local city-square, where there was this fair going on. I shot two rolls of film on the Yashica 635. A first glimpse at the developed films shows that either there is something wrong with the film transport mechanism, either I have not paid attention and unintentionally double exposed some of the frames. To be continued.
• The treasurer •
thanks for watching, please come again soon.
Ludwig