NUDE: Director

[stevebrot]

...The first thing that occurs to me looking at it is "butt crack."

Got to agree. That is the first thing that crossed my mind as well.


Steve

 

[maddoc]

Nice photo .... 😱

Helen, your signature has changed .... 😀 No more love for the 28mm ?

 

[Keith]

The photo is spoiled by her feet IMO.

She has a great body and I like the pose but the feet appear to belong to someone else!

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I wonder how one can be directing a movie if not facing forward. I'm just going by the title.

Or if most people would be commenting if instead it'd be a male nude.

Nudes are hardly ever "nude-neutral"; whoever can pull it off (no pun intended, seriously) is a master of the image.

 

[Leigh Youdale]

I did this several years ago, but I've not completely decided if I like this or not. What do you think?

Not bad - not especially good.
Feet are hard to photograph. They often look unattractive and the soles of feet more so. Best concealed or made less obvious.

The model looks uncomfortable - not relaxed. It's not a natural pose. I think that's always a test - is the pose one that the model might easily adopt if clothed and not being set up for a photograph? Nude shots for some reason often use exaggerated poses that don't look natural or comfortable. Some look like contortionists - is it "art"?

Another factor is the awkward placing of the chair in the corner, (I mean, what the heck is she doing there?) and the tile background does nothing to improve the situation. The variation in lighting on the back is, I think, partly a result of natural tanning but more so the effect of the light setup reflecting back from the skin surface closest and most nearly parallel to the film plane.

Bum crack? Yes, a little more side-on might have overcome that issue.

All in all it's a shot that would probably bear trying again, but those workshops are notoriously difficult to operate in with other photographers trying to get "their shot". I've stopped going to them as I was never very pleased with the results and to hire a model and studio on my own was too expensive to consider.

 

[dfoo]

The photo is spoiled by her feet IMO.

She has a great body and I like the pose but the feet appear to belong to someone else!

I guess I was too distracted to notice the feet or tiles!

 

[Leigh Youdale]

I think the chair is actually a very good 'prop' and it would be worth trying to do the shot again with a plain background, a two-source light setup and also try some different poses using the chair. Maybe shoot a little more from the side rather than the flat-on back view. And watch those feet!