a complete, unedited session (preview 2) (Patreon)

Because I'm chatting so much about these backstage series today, a second preview for a change :-)

About the procedure in a first-time photo session:

So a young woman I don't know comes and wants to model for me, perhaps because she enjoys showing herself, perhaps because she wants to have the special experience of having her body and her erotic charisma captured by a stranger, a photographer, perhaps simply because she wants to earn some extra money in a few hours in a relatively easy way.

I show her samples of my work, explain what I want to see of her and that I expect her to show me everything and put herself in a mood that allows her to show me her sensual and, if possible, erotic side. If that tempts her, I ask her to undress. I look at her and try to imagine how I would like to photograph her.

During the time we wait until the marks of the clothes on her skin have more or less disappeared, I set up the light, i.e. I set up the flash lamps, mount the desired reflectors, direct the light beams where I want them and adjust the flash intensity of the individual units.

Because I'm seeing her naked for the first time (and she's showing herself naked to me for the first time), we're both a little insecure. Despite all my detailed explanations, she still doesn't know what to expect and what it will be like. And I, although she is standing or sitting naked in front of me, still have no idea which angles are advantageous or disadvantageous for her, which parts of her body are particularly worth seeing and which are not so much. Of course, I also don't yet know how far she will go and how freely she will show me everything.

I therefore usually start with very relaxed poses, e.g. lying down or sitting in a relaxed position. This is easiest on the sofa or one of the large, comfortable armchairs, but this time I started on my large, round table.

I ask her to lie down in a relaxed position and take a few pictures, also to check the light setting. Relatively quickly, I ask her to open her legs a little, and soon a little more, and then look for positions and angles that allow a nice or interesting picture composition on the one hand and a favorable image of the model on the other.

I slowly lead the model to more open poses and guide her to move a little from the original completely passive, relaxed position, to tense and bend her body a little, to feel the body with her hands or to move her arms and legs in such a way that a beautiful graphic geometry is created.

When I feel that the model is ready, I move on to more daring poses. Again, I look for tantalizing angles, get close, change the focal length of the lens to get a different perspective or try to incorporate the surroundings into the image.

Of course, one could go further in this situation and move on to even more daring poses and actions (I think this model would have been quite willing to do so), but one should not overuse the opportunities either, after all, this is a first session.

So I use the table theme to give her body more expression in more artistic images and change the light for a more contrasting look with deeper shadows that emphasize the shapes.

So much for the first part of the session and here is another preview...