Trying To Do My Best Photos so far

[Ron T. Storm]

Well Hello BGAFD Guys and Girls,

I have been practicing all week photographing with the New Camera (Nikon D2Xs and 17-55mm F2.8 lens). Shame the images are of still life objects. sad.gif I will be shooting at Studio Three on Sunday and have three great models to photograph.

I have found that I will probably shoot at F stop 4, 1/125 at 24 mm (highest I can go to fit the models in frame and reduce vignetting and pincushion with this lens from what I have read). Luckily I'll have a friend on hand to help and show me how to do it - mind you he has just bought the Nikon D200 so there is a good chance he will show me up since there is not much difference between the D200 and D2Xs but there is a difference between our skills and experience as he has been photographing for many more years than me and is damned good at it.

I want to get that blurred background look with the models in crystal sharpness. Before any of you mention that a prime lens is ideal for portrait work I do have one on back order - the 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens. I know the one with F1.4 would be better but hey I'm maxed out financially. !happy!

I am aiming to do photos for both my Members' site www.nude2rude.com and my personal site www.cosmic1.com. Cosmic1 is really a big experiment for non-adult style photography so no porn there folks - just gorgeous ladies in Artistic poses such as Emily S.

Boy Oh boy I am so ready to get some good pictures to show you guys and girls (hopefully!happy!).

The shoot is going to be glamor/gild continental !shocked! so just checking if I can post them here due to their possible tameness.

Love and Peace,

Stormchild69

[Cenobitez]

The blurry effect is created by minimising the depth of field, which the bigger the aperture the better, any zoom under 100mm will do well with a aperture under F4 at a push. With your lese you would be better compensating to 1/160 F3.5 of even 1/200 F2.8 to push it down further.

Mostly these days especially in the adult industry the blurring is done with masks in photoshop, rarely done at time of taking the image.

Best Advice your going to get is, work on the meter modes, matrixes and the likes dont function great in a studio enviroment.

Also be aware that what works well on still life, won't work well when you have the added dynamic of a living, breathing moving model, and even more so, different skin tones to contend with, when using multiple models.

[DWR2006]

I don't think you'll get much vignetting or pincushioning with any modern AF Nikon lens, especially with the the chip in the camera only taking the middle section, but you can correct the former with RAW and the latter with Photoshop filters.

The crystal sharp/blurred background look will IMHO never work well with a 35mm camera in a studio. 6x6 or 6x7 maybe, if you have a long enough studio, otherwise it's 5 by 4 and above, though you never see those kind of photos in the realm of adult. Upscale art/portraiture maybe, but not adult.

I don't think using Photoshop masks to create a blurred background will ever look right, no matter how skillfull you are, because the focal length of the lens will, more often than not, give the game away.

[Cenobitez]

I have a brony, and i shoot adult (altho don't use it for adult)

However film and porn sites, rarely mix, and 120 film processing costs certainly don't.

I use a canon 24-70 F2.8L lens for majority of uses, and knocking the background out is easy, from 50-70mm at F2.8, admittedly it will get better with 100mm+ F2.8 lens but its still capable from 50mm +.

With porn, i wouldnt too much about the depth of field, field of view and the focal length of the lens being factors, i mean if your users are looking at that stuff, i'd suggest u send them to practical photography's website not a porno site

[Ron T. Storm]

Hiya,

Thank you all for the advise - it really is appreciated .

As suggested the studio isn't that long so anything above 24mm would mean not getting the whole of the model in shot. I have today been practicing and will try the faster exposure speed as suggested.

Many thanks,

Stormchild69

[Cenobitez]

No Problem

The Key to the depth of field is (blurry background) is sticking at the F2.8 end of the aperture.

The blurry background on a Full Length image, will/would look a little out of place, ideally you want to use that on half-body, which will allow you to hit thr 50mm marker.

The possible problem with fulllength wide aperture images is that, the focal point will render half the body blurred, really you want to use this to draw attention to a particular thing, like I recently did a shoot with a model who had long pussy lips, for her site and I shot at 70mm 2.8 and focused on the tip of the lips, and it made them look a mile long, I have also done the same idea on nipples and piercings, and in portraits you wanna focus on the eyes to draw the viewer in, not the whole body.

I'm just emailing the girl in question see if its ok to send you an example

[Ron T. Storm]

Cheers Cenobitez,

I will do so and listen to your advice,

Stormchild69

[DWR2006]

I must respectfully disagree with you Cenobitez. Sticking at 2.8 from a few feet, or few inches away, will obviously enable you to get something like nipples and piercings sharp and the rest of the body blurred. But those are really detail type photos and I don't thats what stormchild69 meant.

F2.8 in a small studio from, say, eight feet would just make the background less sharp as opposed to properly blurred.

I think the key to mastering depth of field is a longer lens and a greater degree of camera to subject distance.

Generally in order to take better photos, of anything, one has to study the masters.

There are painfully few decent photographers working in the area of adult but currently two of the best are Bob Coulter (Crazy Babe) and Philip Warner (Lithium Picnic) who IMHO raise the bar for everybody.

[Ron T. Storm]

Hello Guys and Girls,

I took this picture of Alyssa Leigh (absolute darling) and got the effect I wanted.

[img]http://www.cosmic1.com/images/DSC_1192tmc.jpg[/img]

Oh and forgetting the arty stuff for a moment !wink! here is one of Alyssa's gorgeous lady bits' photos (Click for a massive, massive image taken with my new camera and lens 4000px by 4833px: Warning: 4Mb download: ALLOW TIME FOR IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD AS IT IS A PROGRESSIVE IMAGE AND IT WILL LOAD 3 TIMES WITH IMAGE IMPROVING IN QUALITY EACH TIME).

[img]http://www.nude2rude.com/images/alyssa_leigh_like_never_seen_before_thumb.jpg[/img]

I also shoot in 1080i HD Video for www.nude2rude.com so seriously closeup videos there

also a nice ass shot of another young lady in no way connected with the porn industry I would like to point out

[img]http://www.cosmic1.com/images/DSC_1144tmc.jpg[/img]

All images shot with Nikon D2Xs and 17-55mm F2.8 Nikon Pro Lens.

Well I hope you enjoyed these,

Stormchild69
My Adult Site www.nude2rude.com
My Art Nude Site www.cosmic1.com