beauty photography

Vita! for Life!

beauty, erotic, location, Nude

Let’s celebrate female beauty and the joy it brings us.

Let’s celebrate life and the good things it brings us.

 

My model of that hot summer day in april was named Vita, which stands for ‘Life‘ …

I have taken a lot of pictures with her, so more will follow, see it as a little preview.

Often I have to convince professional models not to pose, or in any way not to pose as a fashion model would do. I love it when they are not trying to seduce me or the camera, but in stead they manage to be just themselves, fierce, self confident, somehow unattainable women, living the life and enjoying their own bodies.

oh, and I have another thing to celebrate, I just saw today that in the last 365 days I had over 100.000 visitors on my site and blog. It was for the first time I noticed it. Thank you for being so present!

the bed’s too big without you – the series

beauty, location, Nude
Bed’s too big without you
Cold wind blows right through that open door
I can’t sleep with your memory
Dreaming dreams of what used to be
When she left I was cold inside
That look on my face was just pride
No regrets no love no tears
Living on my own was the least of my fears
Bed’s too big without you
The bed’s too big without you
The bed’s too big
Without you
Since that day when you’d gone
Just had to carry on
I get through day but late at night
Made love to my pillow but it didn’t feel right
Every day just the same
Old rules for the same old game
All I gained was heartache
All I made was one mistake
Now the bed’s too big without you
The bed’s too big without you
The bed’s too big
Without you
Bed’s too big without you
The bed’s too big without you
The bed’s too big
Without you
Without you
Bed’s too big without you
Cold wind blows right through that open door
author: Gordon Sumner for The Police

 

 

with the lovely Yana Mood, shot in an attic room in Leuven,

All images f1.8 at ISO 125, shutter speeds vary (1/25-1/200s)

Canon 5Ds with Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG A

 

thank you for watching, don’t hesitate to leave a comment,

Ludwig

 

Movement on stage

beauty, people, Personal Pictures

In regards to my style a not so typical series, a dark place, two spot lights very high contrast images. Experiment with some very thin plastic foil and a willing model resulted in these motion-rich images. I hope you like them.

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1/6 s – f4.0 – ISO 250

Canon 5D mark II with Canon EF 24mm f1.4 L II

Location, some obscurely dark theatre nearby.

 

thank you for watching,

ludwig

Cat-Suit – NSFW

beauty, erotic, Nude

Please enjoy Jane, posing in her catsuit.

rather difficult to make images of a good looking body in a catsuit not look ‘sleazy’ or ‘cheesy’ or whatever you might call it. (cheap looking soft erotic style)

I hope I managed in some way to prevent these images from looking that way. I’ll leave the judgement up to you.

Images taken with Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro IS L (1 and 2) and Sigma 50 mm f1.4 DG A (3-4-5) – ISO 100 on Canon 5D II.

 

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Thank you for watching, thank you Jane, for being my patient model on this cold day, thank you to the owners of the house for granting me acces to this great playground.

 

Ludwig

 

An angel in my garden – NSFW

beauty, location, Nude, Personal Pictures

Hello there,

some nice days in september allowed for some extra outdoor work.

the atmosphere in the garden was nice, the model was feeling good and relaxed. We spent some time here enjoying the sun an warm weather. The most difficult thing to tackle are the bright highlights. It is almost impossible not to wash out the highlights if you want some decent light in the shadow area’s. thats why it is actually much easier to shoot in a softly clouded sky situation than with bright light. Exposing for the bright highlights will give you near black shadows, exposing for the shadows will give you over-exposed hightlights.

I do not have an assistant with a sun-washer filter, so I often will shoot in a back-lit situation, with some highlight clipping in the bright area’s, and a lot of fill light in post processing. An alternative is seeking for the cover of a leaf tree, as we did in some images.

Elisabeth did great. Thank you. I hope you like the images.

Except last two (50mm Sigma) all images with Canon 135 mm f2.0 at f2.5

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Miss-Development / Developing sample LR settings

beauty, Lightroom, Personal Pictures

Hi,

Another example of a Lightroom development process.

Two stages of LR development, and in this image I added a bit of photoshop sparks.

Oh my, bad exposure in the first place. Working against bright light has an imminent danger: blowing out the highlights. That’s why I will be very careful not to over-expose. I had my model standing in the tree shade, but depending on her position, the sun would shine on her blonde hair from time to time. Be careful not to cram it! Original image: 1/500s f2.2 ISO 100 with the Canon 135mm f2 L lens.

stages of miss development

I first had developed the whole series as the second image:

if you have lightroom:

exposure +0,70

contrast +19

highlights -67

shadows +55

and a vignette darkening the corners.

I also added an extra +0,28 exposure on the face and breast area. (radial gradient)

After that I decided that I wanted to get some more warmth and glow to the images, so I went a step further (still LR)

I changed the white balance from as shot 5400/-2 to a slightly warmer 5847/-3

I pushed up the exposure to +1,05 stops.

This gave me a warmer tone, and a radiating model.

In photoshop I did two further things:

I added a sort of soft-focus filter to the image (layer copy with gaussian blurr on top of the originallayer, blending mode set to screen, with reduced opacity. Prevent the soft focus layer from covering the focus areas of your image – head, breast, hands – )

Add a combined unsharp mask/high pass sharpening layer to the ‘focus areas’.

Sharon – Reina Petita Belgica – Reina Intercontinental – Costa Rica

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My life is for running

beauty, Personal Pictures

Natacha is into running, no, she loves running … up to 50 kms is ok she told me. I think I’d die.

Her body shows the training and exercise efforts.

I have tried to combine that with some sensuality, and strong personality.

All natural light, Canon 5D II and 50mm/100mm/17-40mm lenses.

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thank you for watching, leave a comment if you like.

Ludwig

The Castle shoot – preview

Analog, beauty, Personal Pictures

A single image from this same shoot (interim model/the engine Room) – in the afternoon we went to this nice little castle up the hills in Ronse. We could freely use the exterior and surroundings of the castle. A great new location. judge for  yourself:

Image taken with Rolleiflex 75 mm Tessar f3.5, on Kodak Tmax400

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soon more on this blog

thank you for watching

ludwig

The Engine Room – Part two

beauty, Personal Pictures

the engine room again.

it has beautiful soft light, coming from three sides (left and right up in the wall are windows over the entire length of the room and then the big round shaped window, here facing the model). I rarely use ISO’s higher than 400, but sometimes it gives a little more comfort and ease of use for playing with aperture, and making sure that there’s no camera shake in the images.

1/80s f3.2 ISO500 Canon 5D II with Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG A

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thank you for visiting,

ludwig

The Engine Room

beauty, Personal Pictures

A single image post today, Enjoy. The Engine Room used to be the most prestigious part of the textile factory. It was the place where visitors, customers could see the wealth of the company. Complete with glass in lead windows, tiled arches and so on. …

It was the place where pressurised vapour was created with a steam engine, providing both heat and mechanical power. due to the fact that this room is unaccessible from the ground floor, it has remained unused since the removal of the engine.

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  Canon 5D II with Canon EF 24mm f1.4 II L. This image reminds me that some time ago in a digital publication (EOSzine) I have urged the wish to combine model photography with my earlier subjects of urban and landscape photography. I’m getting nearer. 😉 Taken on tripod, multiple exposure blend (1/125 s. of a second at f4.5 for the model and the interior, 1/1000 s.at f4.5 for the windows).

Thank you for watching, and thank you Eline, for being my model.

ludwig

Pauline at SONS – Analog (NSFW)

Uncategorized

I haven’t published a lot from this shoot, because some non-published images will be shown at my upcoming exhibit, and I want to keep a small surprise for my visitors there. you have seen ‘Cirrus’ here before.

At the very end of the shoot, I shot a roll of film on my Rolleiflex. 12 shots, I like this one the best.

shot on Rolleiflex 3.5, Kodak T-Max 400 film.

Shot at the site of ‘Shoes or No Shoes’, with permission.

ludwig desmet Pauline-SONS-Tmax-004

thank you for watching. Any comments welcome.

ludwig

Zen – with Marion (NSFW)

beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures

A small series from the same shoot I did with Marion.

The ZEN pool. Magnificent environment and great weather on this early morning.

This is the kind of things you cannot plan before. I hadn’t been at this place in about 10 years. There was no house at that time, and certainly not a pool, so this came kind of as a bonus with the planned old chalk oven on the same location.

Marion felt completely Zen after half an hour of sunbathing and being next to Buddha. 🙂

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thank you for watching, …

ludwig

Big black hat, the series. Marion (NSFW)

beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures

Marion never posed before, but she contacted me as she loved the images she had seen with Pauline. She listened carefully to my instructions, working for a natural and beautiful look, and we ended up with this result. I am really proud of this shoot, this is only a small part of the entire selection, with a white blouse and a black hat as the main props.

It was the first time I worked in this location. A beautiful house, with an annex ancient building. The weather was great, although very bright sunlight doesn’t make it easier to work within the dynamic range of the sensor.Nut the sun kept Marion warm and cosy as she got partially undressed on this spring morning.

Have you noticed how I rarely have my models interact with me? I think this is part of my style, and one secret to creating intimate, natural looking images.

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I shot a couple of rolls of film too on this shoot, these images will follow later on.

thank you for watching, I hope you liked the images.

Ludwig

Cirrus – Pauline

beauty, Personal Pictures

I would call it a perfect day.

Perfect weather, perfect location, perfect model.

A first single image of this shoot with Pauline. Pauline had been my first model in the series ‘at the Mansion’ shoots, about 2 and a half year ago. Shortly after that shoot she suffered severe injuries from a traffic accident. But she’s back, and she loved being in front of the camera again.

Congratulations to you Pauline, for your courage, your perseverance and your hard work, for getting back your life, I think you came out stronger.

Cirrus, named after the clouds, that so nicely accompanied this shoot.

IMG_4316-Edit

Canon 5D II with Canon 17-40 mm f4.0, 1/125s at f 11, ISO 100.

come again soon for more images of this wonderful day.

Location: SONS

thank you for reading,

ludwig

Clair-Obscur, or playing with light

beauty, people, Tips and Tricks

When I met Pauline at a hotel room in Ghent, the sun was shining brightly. This led to a difficult light situation, with very high contrasts in the room. (Contrast ratio 10/1 sunlit: 1/500s f2.0 ISO100 – shadow: 1/50s f2.0 ISO100) You either have to stay out of direct sunlight, or be very careful working into it. The key here is to make sure that your exposures are good for the sunlit areas, and certainly not overexposed. This can be done by spot metering the lit area’s and fixing your exposure to that metering. This gives you dramatic contrasts, and a perfect light situation for the ‘hide and reveal’ kind of images. The situation became even more tricky later on, as thick clouds began to block the light more often than not. All images with Canon 5D II and Sigma 50 mm f1.4 Art.

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I loved working with Pauline, she’s full of character, she has confidence in me as a photographer, and she’s willing to play with the camera. Of course her drama lessons add a lot to that.

see you soon for some analog images from this same shoot. I shot two rolls of T-Max 400 film that same afternoon.

Ludwig

Sarah at Sabines house – Part I – The artists’ studio. (Nudity involved)

beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures

———- 2015 ————

Well I think I should start by giving you all my best wishes for 2015. Good health, a warm shelter and caring people around you, some personal challenges, and the time you need to help develop yourself to a richer being. (not financially speaking, … I think)

I have decided for myself to sell my 3D rendering business, in favor of my photography work. Let’s see what happens next. 😉

This blog had 49.931 views from 9.994 visitors during 2014. You are not alone out there, thank you for following my work! The fact that you are reading these words means you are still there. I would like to repeat that if you have a particular question or request, just ask.

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I asked Sabine if she felt ok about me photographing a model in her studio, and without hesitation she said ‘sure, no problem’. I think Sabine is not really aware yet what exceptional work she makes. She has an amazingly strong and expressive pencil, and she mainly works with the human body as a subject. She is preparing an exhibit for late spring, so her studio is packed with finished works, works in progress, and full of idea’s that are waiting to get realized.

I had Sarah as a model. A thin, almost breakable figure, that contrasted extremely well with the robust paintings all around her. She agreed to pose topless/naked based on a discussed mood board. She did really well, but she got cold really quickly (‘as she always does’ she told me).

I had an awful mix of light sources, which forced me to work only black and white here (cool light coming from a rainy day, Tungsten spots in the ceiling, a phosphorescent lamp over the work bench, and a neutral daylight source Sabine uses to finish off her paintings. This means there is no way to get a proper white balance for all these sources, and you can not correct the different light colors afterwards properly.

Anyway, here are the images. For the technical details: Canon 5D II with Sigma 50 mm f1.4 DG Art and Canon 24 mm f1.4 L II. ISO from 320 to 500, shutter speeds from 1/10th to 1/30th of a second (train yourself to get a stable hand 😉 ) and apertures f2.0 – f2.2.

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Thank you Sarah, for your confidence and cooperation, thank you not caring about the cold, thank you for coming to Ronse this rainy day.

Thank you Sabine, for saving my day (two other locations became unavailable very last minute) and for letting me into your home. Thank you for sharing your ideas and work.

Fien, fall in the flemish ardennes

beauty

Hi there,

Another model post. For a change I went outdoors with my model. Fall had turned the so called ‘Muziekbos’ (Music Forest) into this wonderful palette of fall colors the last few weeks, and I found it a pity not to use this amazing environment for my next shoot.

I met Fien at Bioplanet Ghent (that’s what shopping organic stuff is good for 😉 ) and after checking my blog she agreed for a model shoot. We met at my place, and Nathalie couldn’t resist of making a quick hairdo. I think it suited well for this romantic backdrop.

Off for shooting, rather cold outside temperatures, but Fien didn’t complain at all. Still we didn’t make this a long session, about 40 minutes. The gray covered sky provided very soft natural light, good for outside portraits.

I mixed black and white and color images in this set. I get to like BW images more and more, but couldn’t have converted them all and loose those great fall colors.

I hope you like the images, taken with my trusty Canon 5D II and 24-50-100 mm lenses.

Oh, and during the shoot, we stumbled upon Bart Heirweg, a very good landscape photographer from Belgium. He was shooting fall colors too, but with a slightly different approach. 😉  You should check out his website, he makes the most amazing landscape images, and offers his knowledge in different workshops. Website

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See you again soon for part II of this shoot meeting: Fien at The Mansion. Those images will follow later this week.

best,

Ludwig