Post production explained

landscapes, Lightroom, Personal Pictures, personal tips & tricks

Another before and after short explanation.

A lot of people have liked this image on facebook, and this inspired me to repeat once again the importance of good development of your images.

What happened in post production? For those familiar to Lightroom, here we go: (to those not familiar to Lightroom – I enhanced the image 😉 )

color temperature slightly warmer, tint unchanged

added a +0,18 stops exposure +40 contrast +97 highlights (to accentuate the sun ray’s/highlights)

HSL panel:

Added +8 in purple Hue settings

Added +35 and +23 in respectively Blue and Purple saturation

Added +25 in Blue luminance

Local adjustments:

Added 2 gradient filters:

1 to darken the tree trunks from top: exposure -0,94 – highlights +63 – shadows +24

1 to darken foreground from bottom: exposure -0,94 – highlights +62

Added 1 radial filter:

position: central, horizontally shaped, where I wanted the sun rays to be accentuated:

settings: exposure +0,99 – highlights +63 – shadows -71 – clarity +33 – sharpness +20 (inverted mask to work on the central area, not on the outside area)

I sincerely hope this will inspire you to work a little on your images too. You don’t need Lightroom to enhance them, a lot of these things can be done in other RAW development applications too, some coming for free with your digital camera.

see you soon,
ludwig

march 23rd

beauty, people, Personal Pictures

Sadness

Unreal

Commiserative

Solidarity

Love

Need for peace

this image was made just the day after the terrorist attacks in Brussels on 22 march.

It was not really meant to express these feelings, but it turned out strong and intense. It has no religious connotations, there are no other messages to be looked for but the immense grief that the attacks have left us with. I believe that the origins for terrorism are to be looked for elsewhere than our politicians want us to believe.

best to all of you …

model: CDC

Assistance: Nathalie

Ludwig

Intimacy on stage

Analog, beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures

After the ‘movement on stage’, we concluded the session with some more intimate moments. I have photographed digitally as well as analog, on medium format Yashica 635 with Kodak TMax 100 film.

Thank you Pauline, for being my model.

make up: Hanna

Hair & assistance: Nathalie

thank you for watching,

ludwig

Upcoming exhibits

exhibition, Personal Pictures

The difficult task of making selections:

upcoming exhibits:
——
Kaleidoscope (Group expo teachers photography KISP) 22/04 – 15/05. CJK Claeys Bouüaert – Kasteeldreef 2, 9030 Mariakerke. Practical information can be found here: cjk.gent
——
Madammen in Damme 30/04 – 16/05. Group expo throughout the village of Damme, my work will be visible at: Oude Galerie Delporte, Kattestraat 2, 8340 Damme. Practical information can be found here: www.madammen-in-damme.com
——
Gafodi f/50 04/06 – 20/06. A large photo festival, with a lot of exhibiting photographers and photo events in all entities of Gavere.
My work will be visible at:
Exterior exhibit: Kasteeldreef kasteel Grenier, Entrance trough Molenstraat, Gavere.
Interior exhibit: Kasteel Baudries, Kerkstraat 5, Dikkelvenne-Gavere.

More information will soon be available here: Gafodi
——

spread the word, everybody welcome! 🙂

ludwig

Pauline in the ballet room – Analog

Analog, beauty, Personal Pictures

hi there, it’s been a while since you’ve heard from me,
I would like to present you a new series with Pauline, you’ve probably seen her before in my work.
This time we worked in a new location in my hometown Ronse. The building of the Academy for word, music and arts. Currently the building is used by local clubs and associations that needed a place for meetings and gatherings.

I like to work with Pauline a lot, and this feeling seems to be absolutely mutual, seen the post that Pauline put on her wordpress blog recently: ludwig-desmet-the-ballet-room-and-the-old-theatre

We made some interesting images I think.

All shot with the Yashica 635 on Kodak TMax400 film, pushed 1 stop (shot as if it would be an 800 ISO film, and developed as such)

thank you for watching.
I’m currently preparing three more shoots, so come back soon,

ludwig

Summary video: Workshop – Available light portrait photography.

beauty, Personal Pictures, personal tips & tricks

A short summary about a workshop I did last year.
I finally found the time to make a short clip from the footage that was shot during the workshop.
You’ll see in this video:

A short briefing round, where I explain some different lighting situations
A behind the scene’s montage from the participants at work
Some resulting images from the workshop.

The Video!

Some images:

Happy viewing,

Ludwig

Aude in the bathroom/bedroom – analog

Analog, beauty, Personal Pictures

First post on the newly hosted blogsite:

www.ludwigdesmet.com

(the old site will be updated for a little while though)

A small series of analog images with the Rolleiflex 3.5 Planar, Kodak TMax400 film.

thank you for watching,

make sure to come again soon,

ludwig

My body is my temple – nsfw

Nude, Personal Pictures

She hesitated to agree with publishing this image, but she did. Thank you Jane. It was a pleasure to work with you, and you expressed gratitude to what we achieved together. I’m glad I could bring you confidence.

Jane, my body is my temple …

ludwigdesmet_EDW-9329

Canon 5D mark II with Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG A

1/30s f2.0 ISO100

the girl with the pearl necklace

beauty, Personal Pictures

Canon 5D II with Sigma 50mm f1.4DG A – 1/30s f2.2 ISO400

thank you for visiting,

ludwig

if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again

beauty, Personal Pictures, Uncategorized

Bowie is no more, let’s remember some of his words.

so I’ll keep trying, till I succeed …

– Justine –

ludwigdesmet_JW_corridor ludwigdesmet_JW_corridor2 ludwigdesmet_JW_corridor3

thank you for watching

Images © ludwig desmet – Canon 5D II with Canon 135mm f2 L

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.

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

Surfing the clouds – nsfw

beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures, Uncategorized

Now that the days have turned dark and wet and cold, here in Belgium, time to look back at that great summer we had.

• Surfing the clouds •

1/100s f11 ISO100

Canon 5DII with Canon 17-40mm f4 at 19mm

Model: Pauline

Make up: Heidi

Photographer – me

location: shoes or no shoes – with permission

available as limited edition print.

The lady at the Castle

Analog, beauty, location, Uncategorized

The story is told that there is a ghost swarming above the castle lake at night. It is there to protect the treasure of gold and jewellery, hidden in the waters of the lake.
I’ve never seen the ghost, nor have I any proof about the treasures existence, but it sure does great as a photo shoot backdrop.

I have a lot more images from this series, analog as well as digital, so visit this blog again soon to see the remainder results.

This image: Rolleiflex 3.5 TLR with Kodak T-Max100 film.

Aude Rolleiflex012

Model: Aude

Make up: Heidi

Hair: Nathalie

photographer: Ludwig 😉

wake up – self induced posing

beauty, Personal Pictures

There’s a lot going on on the internet about how to get your model in the right pose. Workshops, do’s and don’ts, streaming video’s, the basic rules for a good pose, etc. …

Now what if we forgot all about it, and just have the person in front of the lens completely be herself? That is what I tried a couple of weeks ago with two ‘recurring’ models. They both had been with me for a shoot before, so they more or less know how I work and what to expect. I explained them that I wanted a part of the shoot to be completely void of instructions from my side. After all, I am a man, and when I put my models in a pose, this is man-mind driven, and can never be completely natural. I asked them to ‘not seek’ me with their eyes, pretend as if I was not there, and just slowly wake up from the comfortable spot I gave them.

Confidence is a key-word I guess, in this kind of work, since they do not know what I want, they do not know what I see, and they do not know when I’m going to take a picture. They must be self-aware, at ease with the surrounding environment, with me and with the idea that they can just simply enjoy this moment of quietness and peace.

Self induced posing, it is 100% the woman in the pictures. All natural. I hope you like them. Thank you Justine.

The sun was slightly warming the place, it was quiet and nice, honestly I think she would have stayed in bed, but that wouldn’t have given us these nice pictures wouldn’t it.

thank you for watching, I have more images with Justine waiting to be published.

ludwig

Sunburst – NSFW

beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures

Single image post.

People who’ve seen my exhibition in Gavere (about 850 of you) have seen this image ‘real life’.

Because it relates so well with the current weather here in Belgium and Europe, … free for all.

Sunburst.

Canon 5D II with Canon 17-40mm f4.0

1/60s – f11 – ISO100 – 39mm

thank you for watching,

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

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

thank you for visiting,

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.

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. 🙂

thank you for watching, …

ludwig

A very good morning – BW – Jenn at house Adelaide – NSFW

beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures

thoughtful, spontaneous, fun, serious, wondering, open minded, …

… Jenn told me she didn’t fit too well on images. That was until she saw the results of our shoot.

“the end result really is ‘WAW’, so you were right that being a good model is linked to the qualities of the photographer … whenever you have a location again I’d be most pleased to be your model again.”

I think I’m flattered. 😎

Same setup as the color version of this shoot. Only this time developed in a black and white version.

I Hope you like the images.

Come back again soon, to see the results of my next shoot. I promise now already they’ll be fantastic. (that’s because I’ve seen them already :p )

All the best, thank you for stopping by.

Never hesitate to leave a reaction.

ludwig