Lighting a male nude

philthejuggler

philthejuggler

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Hi all

I have a session with a nude male wanting to show off his very toned / muscly body. His specific requirements are for the shots to focus on different areas of his body and maximise shadowing.

I have 40cm / 70cm gridded beauty dishes, standard reflectors, snoot and an 120cm octobox available as modifiers.

Do you think a gridded beauty dish will be sufficiently hard, or just go with plain reflector? I could use a second beauty dish as a rim light I guess.

Was thinking of taking the shots against a black back drop, possibly using a reflector a goodly distance to slightly lighten the shadows.

Any thoughts / advice? Males in front of the camera is a new challenge for me!

Thanks in anticipation.

Phil
 
I'll be watching this, I'd love to do the same. I'm looking on DevaintArt and also martial arts sites for ideas.
 
It depends on how 'cut' the models is. What colour is he? White guys seem to look best 'dry' while black will be better wet or oiled.

Start the lighting simple. Just a main and play with a dish or snoot but you will just have to wait until he is in front of you.

Bruce Lee or Arnie? His stature will dictate what sort of look you will go for.

Its very easy to get lost in the artistic lighting aspect and then watch it all slip away. I normally end up with one main and reflectors/white card.

If he is good he will set pose for you and then you fine tune. You will also need an area for him to 'pump up' now & then. You can make or break abs shot with situps.

Just have a talk, laugh & joke before to ease it all in & keep your wife/girlfriend at the shops :)

Your no amature so you know the score .... just go do it. Its a girl ... with bigger boobs ..... oh and a ...... snake :)
 
Many thanks for the advice, Tom.

He is white, Arnie type!

I definitely think keeping it simple is a good idea - not sure if I want to rim-light or not though.

Phil
 
Tokkelossi said:
It depends on how 'cut' the models is. What colour is he? White guys seem to look best 'dry' while black will be better wet or oiled.

Start the lighting simple. Just a main and play with a dish or snoot but you will just have to wait until he is in front of you.

Bruce Lee or Arnie? His stature will dictate what sort of look you will go for.

Its very easy to get lost in the artistic lighting aspect and then watch it all slip away. I normally end up with one main and reflectors/white card.

If he is good he will set pose for you and then you fine tune. You will also need an area for him to 'pump up' now & then. You can make or break abs shot with situps.

Just have a talk, laugh & joke before to ease it all in & keep your wife/girlfriend at the shops :)

Your no amature so you know the score .... just go do it. Its a girl ... with bigger boobs ..... oh and a ...... snake :)
Click to expand...
I agree with most of this. It's a simple lighting problem with simple solutions - which means that your gridded beauty dishes will produce as hard a light as you need and your softbox will produce as much or as little fill as you need. Keeping it simple with just 2 lights will make positioning much easier and less critical, and allow more room for creativity.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Garry - spotted your response now!

Phil
 
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