architectural compositions

architecture, Personal Pictures

When I was still in my architecture module (evening classes photography) we were asked to photograph a museum interior with composition in mind. Not the building as such was important in the result, but mainly the distribution of elements in the picture. Not a simple, but a very interesting exercise. Balancing weights, colors, working with lines, structures, perspectives. Photography becomes a very graphical art. The building is a museum building in Ghent, Belgium.

It is absolutely necessary to work on tripod for such an assignment, because this allows you to carefully study your preliminary results, and eventually do very subtle corrections to your composition. I have a tripod with a 3-way head, which is interesting, because you can just modify one axis, without moving the other ones. (vs. a ballhead, which releases all axes at once)

I just noticed yesterday that I hadn’t published these images before, so here they come. Clickable for a bigger size.

Thank you for watching. And remember, any question you have please ask.

Take care, come again soon.

Ludwig

Shoot with Laur.

beauty, people, Personal Pictures

Laur was kinda unsure if she would fit into my ‘natural beauty’ portfolio.

We worked in the Mansion for about two hours, in different clothing outfits.

All natural light, with my trusted Canon 5D II twins.

I’ll leave it up to you if she fits in my portfolio. Personally I think we made some great photo’s together.

Oh, and happy easter to all of you.

thank you for watching, take care and see you soon!

ludwig

Flanders Horse Expo

people, Personal Pictures

I had never attended a horse event like this before.

Flanders Horse Expo is a quite big internationally oriented horse event. With our class group for reportage photography we were asked to deliver a small selection of images about the event. Total freedom subject-wise, so we could concentrate on what we saw and felt during the event.

What I saw was: A lot of good looking people, mostly blonde and pony tailed, junk food and the litter that goes with it. Beautiful horses in all kinds and sizes, too much commercial stands – selling horse food, horse boxes, horse trailers, horse riders clothes, horse riders hats, horse riders boots, horse art, horse saddles, horse pictures (!), horse anything you can imagine – a VIP room where I had no access, a horse jumping contest, a lot of horse shows, and a lot of people working behind the scenes.

The low light situation combined with the fast action (horses) made for a challenging situation technically.

I’m happy to have fast lenses (wide max. aperture) for these occasions.

Images taken with 24 mm f1.4, 85 mm f1.8 and 135 mm f2.0 lenses. ISO 640 to 3200, Canon 5D II.

I hope you like my selection: (clickable for bigger size)

take care, and come again soon.

Ludwig

Queen of Sheba: Honorable mention.

beauty, contests, exhibition, Personal Pictures

UPDATE:

The image has been awarded an ‘Honorable Mention’. Out of almost 500 images, 5 received this title.

It will be digitally sent to the Gallery in Vermont USA, it will be printed by their services and exhibited in the upcoming SKIN exhibition.

for people interested in visiting the Gallery:

DARKROOM GALLERY

12 Main St.

Essex Jct., VT 05452-3132

Hours: Monday-Sunday 11:00-4:00 and by appt.

(802) 777-FOTO (3686)

My picture ‘Queen of Sheba’ (don’t ask me where I got the name from, it just came to me like that) has been selected for the exhibit contest ‘SKIN’ by The Darkroom Gallery in Vermont USA.

Allen Birnbach, famous fine art nude photographer himself, and juror of the ‘SKIN’ contest found my work to be good enough to be in the final selection for the exhibit.

Now try to find out how I get my printed work to Vermont. Anybody going on a trip to Vermont in the next few weeks?

about the image, it was taken on dec. 30 2012, in one of the locations I use for my beauty shoots.

It features a nude woman, besides from the shoes she’s wearing behind a thick velvet curtain. Her body shape is clearly defined, but it show’s no recognizable details. The prolongation of the head shape made me think of some kind of queen with a headpiece.

Image details: Canon 5D mark II, Canon EF 24 mm f1.4 II, ISO 200 – f1.4 – 1/125 sec.

thank you for looking,

for the website of mr. Birnbach, Juror of the exhibition contest: www.birnbachfigureworks.com

I have some beauty shoots planned in the near future, so see you again soon.

take care,

ludwig

A different kind of Pauline.

people, Personal Pictures

You probably remember my posts with Pauline as a model, The Mansion shoot part I, part II and part III.

last Sunday I had another Pauline as a model. A little younger, but evenly charming to work with. In fact she had been also my subject for a free shoot somewhere in April last year. This time her parents asked me for the shoot. We met at the dance-school where Pauline has taken some dance classes.

I had told the mam before, that I’m not that much into children’s photography but she said she preferred it that way. She wanted a natural looking shoot, with no special extra’s.

For the technicians, not so much light in the dancing school, so an off-camera manual flash was used, to bounce some light from the ceiling. I use Cactus 5 trigger sets. All interior images with my trusted Canon 85 mm f1.8, the outside images (with the jacket) with 135 mm f2.0. On some interior images I used the Trigrip reflector in stead of bounced flash.

I’d like to share you these images. They each show a set of different facial expressions made during short communications between me and my model:

(you can click them to see them a bit bigger)

hope you like them, see you soon!

ludwig desmet alias charlemagne

That strange thing called NUDE

Uncategorized

Hi,

I have been shooting kids and landscapes and al kinds of other pretty things, and always got a lot of compliments on my work, from my immediate circle of friends, relatives and people who know me personally on any possible level. Comments mostly positive, things like ‘oh how beautiful’, or ‘is that a painting? It really seems like a painting, with all those colors and so’. Or after showing a series of images of a kid ‘Isn’t she cute, and you portrayed her so well, can you do this with my daughter as well (yes I can, but not for free, since shooting for free doesn’t pay my camera – but that’s a different topic I need to tackle some day soon)

Since I’ve started shooting beauty portraits with young women, wearing less than average clothing, I have remarked two things.

1. I’ve gotten a lot less comments trough my ‘personal connections’. They don’t spontaneously speak about my photography anymore, and certainly not about the beauty portraits. The rare people that do speak about them, have one common question: “is your wife ok with the kind of pictures you make these days” (they ask me, or they ask her, without me being present). As if I have become a danger for public behavior, and certainly a threatening factor for the well being of my marriage.

2. I’ve gotten a lot more visitors to my blog, yes, this blog. Going from an average of about 650 views per month, to an average of about 1800 views per month. This means that my images have gotten an additional attraction to a certain group of people. The evolution is very clear, since september 2012 I’ve published my first set of intimate beauty shots, and that is exactly the month my view count jumped up.

For a clear and straight answer to the question in number 1. , yes, she’s ok with the pictures I’m taking. We have had long conversations about them, and still have. She’s my first critic in making sure that the images I take, and the images I publish are tasteful and beautiful. I will probably evolve towards an even more ‘daring’ style of photography, with fine eroticism on my wish list, but that will not be without another number of close conversations between me and my wife.

I have recently had a short conversation with a photographer working in California.

http://theaveragejimblog.wordpress.com

He’s shooting a lot of natural beauty portraits, nudes, covered-up nudes, topless images of young women, in a style I like a lot. Uncluttered, natural images in a natural environment. There seems to be a big difference in attitude between The States and Europe. Apparently, he can make a living out of his shoots, with a lot of young women wanting to be a model, and going to an established photographer for their first portfolio images.

Here in Europe, people tend to try to get a photographer for free, since there’s a lot more offerings from amateur photographers wanting models, than models needing a photographer. This probably means ‘no luck for me either’. If they don’t contact a photographer, even better, they buy a DSLR, (or their boyfriend does) to make their own lookbook images. This being said, I’m looking for models for my personal projects. If you live somewhere near Belgium, and want your beauty portrait taken, I’ll make you a fine offer. Drop me a line, or send a message trough the contact form on this blog.

Now, further on, I recently did two more natural beauty shoots, but I’m still awaiting an agreement for publishing on some images. Here’s at least one:

Thank you for reading, come again soon!

ludwig

Jessika at the Mansion + snowshoot.

beauty, people, Personal Pictures, Uncategorized

Hi All,

some two weeks ago I had Jessika coming over to Ronse.

We had worked together for a shoot at Hallerbos, april last year, and she wanted to shoot again, in a different setting, with different clothing, etc. … Jessika didn’t feel totally comfortable about not wearing any make-up, and she didn’t like the first results of the shoot.

(women tend to be very very self-critical, if you asked me)

Anyway, I think we made some nice, moody shots at the Mansion, but then we got outside, and she put up some make-up 😀

It was during that week that we had a lot of snow here in Belgium, so we combined a shoot at the Mansion, with a wintershoot, on the same afternoon. I had timed quite well, so we got outside with the sun already very low, about an hour before sunset. I had a very nice backdrop this way. I only have one lens capable of doing this, without getting over-the-top flares anywhere in the image, and that’s my Canon 135mm f2. Although some images received some additional contrast in post, overall the images came out very well straight from camera. I hope you like them. No reflectors used this time, only natural light.

In one shot, I added some extra digital snow, to emphasize the cold character.

happy viewing, see you soon!

Sara at The Mansion

beauty, Personal Pictures

Hello there,

Another shoot at The Mansion to show.

Sara seemed a bit stressed when she arrived. She has some experience with shoots, but my kind of shoots is a bit different than others, because:

1. I work alone (no assistants, no make up artists)

2. In a strange environment (no studio setup but an empty house)

3. They get to me for a rather intimate kind of shoot (they all respond to a moodboard where some nudity and a lot of sensuality is shown.

Nevertheless, we got a good shoot, Sara got cold in the end, and thats visible in the goosebumps appearing on her arms and legs. Luckily she didn’t get a cold afterwards.

As usual, we worked throughout the entire house, ground level, first level and the attic. On the attic, the plastering from the ceiling has been knocked off, and now the wind is blowing freely under the roof. For some pictures I installed an off camera flash to lighten up a bit the entire scene, because circumstances were really not good (too little light) and I got too many risk for unsharp images.

good viewing! All images can be enlarged by clicking them.

Ludwig.

Winter in Belgium

landscapes, Personal Pictures

Hi all,

we are not so used to having cold winter in Belgium. We usually have a moderate climate, influenced by the warm gulf stream waters, coming from middle-America.

But, some two weeks ago, a package of snow arrived, about 5 inches thick, some extra snow fell a couple of days later, and we had cold winter temperatures, with -15°C as a minimum.

Enjoy the pictures I took in the morning, two days ago. I’m not so fond of the Belgian landscape in general, but I enjoyed the marvels of snow and ice, and the misty morning added to it’s magic.

No more words, just images!

see you soon, I have two more beauty shoots to post!

Ch.

(from Charlemagne – my other name)

Eline at the mansion

beauty, Personal Pictures

Hi all,

I’m continuing my series ‘at the Mansion shoots’ for I still am able to use the Mansion as a shooting location. I hope this will last some more time. Another big thank you to the owners of the house.

As you all know, the mansion is being restored and updated to modern standards. This means the house is changing about every week. Some two weeks ago we had this room completely packed in thin plastic foil, to prevent the woodwork from any damage during the plaster renovations.

About Eline, we met trough Facebook. She had seen my moodboard in my call for models and was very happy she could get a shoot with me. We never met before, never spoken etc. … During a short ‘warming up break’ we were talking about her studies and my professional career and about my wife studying again, and guess what, … after a few moments we found out that her mom is in the same class my wife is in!!! No need to tell that the atmosphere got even better after that.

I think Eline is really beautiful, she’s got a strong facial expression, long wavy hair and a tall, slim body. As a photographer I couldn’t wish for nothing else. She’s easily ‘posable’ and she took a lot of pleasure in dancing with the plastic foil at the end. Thank you Eline for this pleasant shoot!

About the shoot. It was very dark that day, but I still wanted to shoot only natural light. I had a trigrip reflector with me, but we only used it on the first part of the shoot (with the lace curtains) I love to work in different places of the house, to create some different looks in every shoot. All images shot on Canon 5D II with my Canon lenses.

I hope you like the pictures, come back again soon, as I have some more shoots to publish! thank you for watching, thank you for reading. All images click’able. 😉

ludwig

Paris Highlights II

Personal Pictures

Last weekend I was in Paris again, for a short break of one and a half day.

I was there with the family, and we strolled around a lot. my kids got to see the Moulin Rouge, place Pigalle, the Sacré Coeur with place du Tertre, we visited an exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe, we saw the Panthéon, the Jardin the Luxembourg, visited the Tour Montparnasse and we walked a lot!

I’m not so much into the classical pictures of monuments and all, but couldn’t resist to include some of them. I love the city atmosphere and the typical details you get to see in Paris.

Imagine a gray overcast sky, chilly but not cold, horns tooting everywhere, and the constant chatter of the Parisians.

I hope you get a feeling of being there, at least a little.

All pictures taken with Canon 5D II and Canon 50mm 1.4. All images can be clicked for a bigger version.

Parisians love dogs, apparently. There’s dogs on every quay, in every park.

The institute of the Arabic World held an exhibition on the stories of 1001 nights. This was a listening area, where one could sit down in almost complete darkness and listen to the spoken versions of the stories. Next is the facade of the building, and a metal sculpture.

Nightlife in front of the Sacré Coeur chirch, and then down towards the place Pigalle. Made me think of the movie ‘Midnight in Paris’.

The banks of the Seine, with the Notre Dame, and next the Panthéon, the Jardin de Luxembourg and the magnificent view from the Tour de Montparnasse. No queue, and I believe it to be cheaper than the Eiffel Tower.

The woman felt my presence. She suddenly looked back at me.The ambiance in the restaurants and food almost as good as in Belgium. 😉

My Blog stats for 2012

Uncategorized

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 12,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 20 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Thank you for following me, thank you for your comments, I hope to see you again in 2013!

As a bonus, pls take a look at this Galimberti-style image of a bridge just at the end of my street:

Ch.

Developing beauty – LR4 – example.

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

Since september this year I started giving Lightroom 4 classes. I have a group of 18 students, and they manage quite well.

Although there’s quite a lot to learn, most people with a normal level of intelligence, and some motivation and a basic knowledge of computer usage must be able to learn all the techniques available for developing in Lightroom.

The biggest problem however is to get a feeling about what decisions to make when developing. Actually what steps to take to improve an image.

Without claiming that I can give you a perfect example of a perfectly developed image, I would like to show just an example of a image development I did just recently.

I chose to turn it into a black and white image, and used some tinted processing. This is all very individual, and you should always adapt to your personal choice. That’s why this is the most difficult thing to learn I guess. It’s by no means an exact science.

First of all maybe a small light setup diagram, to show you how this image was lit.

Left you see the light diagram. I have two monoblock heads with soft boxes headed straight at my model. (one octa and one smaller square box) They are about equally powered, both on the lowest setting to allow for a large aperture setting. EXIF: ISO 100 – Canon 85 mm f1.8 at f4.0, 1/125 sec. Canon 5D II.

You can see two behind the scene’s pictures from my friend Michel. In the middle You see me metering light at the approx spot where my model will be, and at the right you see me working with the model. -Click for bigger image-

I have fairly evenly lit images with this setup, with the white wall bouncing back a lot of light to the shadow side of my model.

Next image shows the four stages of development:

Left: straight out of camera, no development settings applied in LR.

2nd: just some basic overall adjustments

3rd: Conversion to BW and split toning applied

last: final, local corrections applied

-Click for bigger image-

Some more into the details:

2nd image corrections:

I adjusted white balance to 5500 (5D II chooses 5600 for flash)

Added some contrast +20 to give some more punch to the overall image

Shadows +26 to brighten up the shadow side of the model

Clarity +15 I feel like using clarity slightly makes the details stand out more

that’s all

3rd image corrections:

I rather bluntly converted this image to black and whit by dragging all saturation sliders in the HSL to 0.

Furthermore I experimented with the split toning colors and came to this setting: Highlights hue 67 – saturation 24 – balance 0 – Shadows hue 235 – saturation 19

This gave me a rather flat (for the skin) black and white – toned image.

The Split toning (or cross processing) is a good feature, but is often used to create a wow effect on an otherwise not so interesting image. Beware of it’s use!

About the black and white conversion, the image could have converted with some more lightness in the oranges, to lighten up the skin, but I did it afterwards with local brushing.

In between these, I applied some local retouches to the face, to remove some blemishes and imperfections. I worked around the eye and just under the lips. Far from correct, but just a quick edit.

Settings: Heal, with an opacity of 66

Charlemagne-art_developing_local blemishes

and then for the final corrections. I have used different brushes, and will show them all stripped apart. Here are the brushed images for each of the corrections. Sometimes I have to search for myself what is the best setting, so some brushes may undo some previous ones. Unfortunately you don’t see the image change, since I have all effects applied on every image. This is just to show you the different area each brush is applied to: -Click for bigger image-

then from left to right, what did I apply in my brushes (local adjustment tool):

1. Exposure 0,41 – Shadows -30 A rather bluntly applied overall skin enlightenment, also applied to the hair, but there I took some away again after.

2. Exposure -0,71 – Added some extra volume to the arms and face.

3. Exposure -0,27 – Contrast 54 to give some additional punch to the facial features. (eyebrows, eyelashes and lips)

4. Exposure -0,53 To accentuate some volume in the female shapes (I’m not into plastic surgery, but this is something I sometimes do)

5. Exposure 0,70 Idem

6. Exposure 0,26 To highlight the iris a little bit

7. Exposure 0,71 To soften the eye rings

8. Exposure 0,61 To clear up the eye whites a bit.

I’ll leave it up to you if this is a better image than the one I started with. Again, this is to each and everyones personal taste. Most of my images I don’t process that much, and this took me some 5 minutes all together.

Finally some more images from the same shoot, processed in the same way. -Click for bigger image-

Thank you for reading, come again soon!

Ludwig – alias Charlemagne –

Helga Rock’n Roll

beauty, people, Personal Pictures

Helga asked me if we could do a quick shoot together. She said it could be a little rock’n roll. She brought her electric guitar and I brought a single flash and a cactus trigger.

I am lucky enough to have some locations in my immediate neighborhood. Not that they are always available, but I have at least one available most of the time.

This time an old textile factory where some rooms are empty and ready to shoot in.

first two images with Canon 24 mm f1.4 II L and the others with Canon 85 mm f1.8.

Only the first two images are made with flashlight, rest is natural light only.

Black and white conversion with LR4, as well as some minor retouching.

thank you for looking.

Paris Highlights

Personal Pictures

I was in Paris last week, for only one day, but I had some time to make some pictures in the afternoon/morning I was there. Some of the better ones:

A dog is a dog, even on the Champ de mars

running trough wonderful colors

Photographing around the Eiffel tower.

500 on the banks of the Seine.

Entering the darkness of a long winter night.

We Belgians did it again. Strike on the railroads in Belgium, so no train got to Brussels. Luckily I booked from Lille so I got home at the scheduled time.

thank you for reading. Remember, next thursday, I’ll post the third and final part of ‘the mansion shoot’

The Mansion Shoot – prt II – The mirror & Curtain play

beauty, people, Personal Pictures

Hi,

I promised you to post another part of the shoot today, so here it is.

This house is really full of marvelous decoration elements, so we tried to make use of them. The floor is covered up with thick plastic sheets, to protect it from damage during restoration works, so that was the only thing to avoid. some of the curtains are gone, but in this very particular room they are still there, and they offered a lot of different possibilities.

I hope you enjoy the images. I hope you are not bothered with the mild nudity in some of them. If you are bothered by the nudity, please continue here and have fun.

All images can be clicked for a bigger view.

Next week I’ll publish the last part of this shoot: The upper floor. Happy viewing!

see you soon!

The Mansion shoot – Prt I – the directors office –

beauty, Personal Pictures

A week ago I had the opportunity to shoot in beautiful mansion style house. The building is from the first half of the 20th century, and full of splendid decorative details that make for a perfect setting for beauty shoots. I had never shot there, only visited it once for a very short moment, so it was new to me.

I had Pauline for a model. We never met before. Actually her mother linked the two of us together to get a shoot organized. We discussed some things over FB about the style and the mood we would work in. I sent her two mood boards I made before: Natural beauty and clothed sexy. I’ll leave it up to you what genre the results best fit into.

Pauline has some previous experiences with modeling work. She has a well sculpted muscular body and beautiful blue eyes. We worked together for about three hours, finding our ways trough the house. It is not really big despite its appearance from the outside, and currently undergoing restoration. This made for an extra challenge to cover that up. (ladders, floors being covered with protective sheets, bags of old tapestry all over the place, tools, etc.)

All images taken with Canon 5D II, with Canon 24 mm 1.4 L II, Canon 50 mm 1.4 and Canon 85 mm 1.8. No artificial lights were used (except for the desk lamp). In some settings an extra Lastolite Trigrip reflector was used. Some minor touchups have been done in Lightroom 4. Mainly getting back highlights in some pictures and adding some contrast here and there. The sepia tinted images all got some extra contrast.

Click for a bigger view!

Thank you Pauline, for this wonderful shoot, and a big thank you to the owners of the house, who willingly gave me access.

Next week I will post the second part of this shoot – the mirror & curtain play – so come again soon.

thanks for reading

Leyla – a long time ago

people, Personal Pictures

Leyla and I have been colleagues when I still worked in Brussels. She was the office secretary in the design bureau I was at that time. I left the design bureau some 8 years ago, and a lot happened since then. Leyla has studied to become a midwife, and she finished her studies last summer. Congratulations to her, for it is not simple to combine studies, a job and a family. Leyla has two kids in the same age as mine. We got in touch again trough Facebook, and Leyla loved the idea of a photoshoot.
She never posed before (seems to become a rule in my shoots) but with a little help she did really really well. We worked in the garden, the glasshouse, and in different rooms of the villa. I think she has very beautiful bambi eyes. Unfortunately she had to leave shortly after the shoot, so we didn’t get time to catch up on a lot of things. Thank you Leyla, for this wonderful morning shoot.

I hope you like the results. Click to see a bigger version.

I hope you come back soon.
Don’t forget, I’m finishing my exhibition today, it will be open on october 20 – 21 – 27 – 28 and then during Pinehouse opening hours till the end of november.

Ludwig

Juror Award of Merit

architecture, Personal Pictures

My image Casa Batllo has received a ‘Juror Award of Merit’ in the International Fine Art Photography Competition. Looks like I didn’t make it to the finals, but this is a very big motivational plus for my photography in general, and my free work in particular.
I had not expected this image to be rewarded. It is taken with my Canon s95 on a city trip to Barcelona. It shows the upper floor of Casa Batllo, one of Gaudi’s architectural masterpieces.
The image will be used on the ‘International Art Photography Competition’ Website, as well as on their Facebook page, with a link to this blog and my website.
I’m really pleased. I’m sure this will help my photography find its way into the art scene.

This is the image that was rewarded:

Thank you for looking, thank you for visiting my blog, hope you’ll keep supporting me!!

I’m gonna have a good glass of wine tonight, to support the french Photographic art community! Cheers!

Ludwig

Morning mood in old villa.

people, Personal Pictures

Hi there,
I’m very pleased to be able to share these images with you.
I did a model shoot with Lien, in the old villa where I shot the urbex shoot some weeks ago.

I did a call for models some weeks ago, on my Facebook Page, asking for models for a ‘natural beauty’ shoot. No make-up, no special hairdo, no flash or other light accessories. Just a female model, some sensual female clothing, a nice location and limited photo gear. Lien was happy to volunteer. Thank you Lien, it was a pleasure working with you, and you did really well!

Lien has never posed before, she’s a mother of two young boys and just a regular mom and wife. I think it is important to tell you this, because I want to stress on the fact that for a good shoot, you don’t need any specific experience or training. It is the photographers task to talk his model into the right poses, and I think we worked together very very well. I knew Lien before, she’s a daughter of a couple of good friends of mine, so she was quite relax from the beginning of the shoot, that helped of course. But, it could have been anyone, … really.

We have worked with some different clothing sets, in different rooms of the villa. It is really a wonderful place to work in as a photographer. I would like to say thank you here to Dirk, owner of the house, to let me in for these shoots. Thank you Dirk.

I will not tell a lot more about this shoot, except that we worked together for about two hours, we had great light, good atmosphere, and we could easily start all over tomorrow and come with another complete set of fine pictures.
All images taken with my Canon 5D II, and Canon 50 mm f1.4, Canon 85 mm f1.8 and Canon 135 mm f2.0 . I love fast lenses and wide open apertures. A limited gear setup like this allows working fast, and concentrating on poses and light. Post processing was done in Lightroom 4, that took me another 2 and a half hours for the entire set of 115 selected images. I’m sure I could work more on any of the images, but I’m not that picky on details. 😉

Click on any image to view a larger version.

Comments are most welcome!

My website: charlemagne-art

Hope you come back soon!

Ludwig