Nude Photography by Ben Heys – Artofimagery.com

Last week I found myself in touch with another photographer by the name of Ben Heys who is based in Australia and shoots quite a lot of nude photography. We starting talking about the business and during that conversation Ben told me about a site he has recently launched at artofimagery.com which includes a selection of his beautiful images.

The site is the basis of a new business he is starting aimed at showcasing some stunning nudes that will be of particular interest to photographers who are interested in shooting nudes and also includes some tutorials as well as additional information targeted at photographers who want to shoot nudes and improve their photography.

I found the work that Ben is doing as well as his approach to shooting nudes as a business very interesting, so I was happy when he agreed to answer a few questions for my blog:

Q) What is your background and how did you get started in photography as a professional?

A) Basically I was fed up with working jobs that I hated, I found myself changing jobs every couple of months until it got to a point where I decided I had to find a way to make money doing something I enjoy – it was then (about 6 years ago) that I decided to teach myself photography.

Q) Have you always photographed nudes?

A) Pretty much from the get go, yes. I also like to dabble in other genres but nudes have always held the biggest fascination for me.

Q) What made you decide to start your site artofimagery.com and where do you see it going in the future?

I used to submit work to some other sites: met-art, body in mind, bluenudes etc. But a few shoot most of their own stuff now and have a tight budget, while one editor in particular was about the least respectful or polite person I have ever met and I didn’t see why I should have to deal with that kind of attitude. Art of Imagery is a site I’ve had in my mind for many years now – I sat down and thought “As a photographer, what would be my ideal site to submit to”  and the answer to that became Art of Imagery.

Q) Where do you find your models?

A) 99% of them I source online for more information see: http://artofimagery.com/2011/03/09/10-rules-to-finding-models-online/

Q) Are you working with any other photographers?

A) As the owner/editor of Art of Imagery yes, I’m actually actively seeking new submissions. But as a photographer, not really.  I’m not one for “group” shoots at all, even if the “group” of photographers is only two.

Q) What other types of work do you?

A) Stock is my bread and butter, although the last year or so has seen a real downturn in ROI, there’s definitely still money to be made  but the boom period is over and honestly if the trends we’ve seen the last couple years continue then in a couple years it wont be worth it at all. I’ve always avoided commissioned shoots, private shoots, magazine shoots etc. as I really don’t like shooting what others want me to shoot, I like the freedom of being able to shoot exactly what I want to when I want to.

Q) Do you have an favourite pieces of equipment?

In all honestly probably the single most time saving piece of “photographic” gear I’ve bought is my Wacom Cintiq tablet. I got the 12″ one so that I can travel with it and I absolutely love it. In terms of cameras & lenses not so much, whatever does the job. I think too many people get WAY too caught up on gear.

Back when I started photography I was getting published and making money with nothing more than a Canon 10D and 50m prime lens.  These days the quality of most DSLR bodies is amazing and it’s not that hard to get a couple quality lenses that cover 90% of what you need to shoot very easily.

Q) Any special advice for other photographers wishing to work as professionals?

The advice I have is more for getting GOOD at photography than being a “professional” as I personally value skill and ability much more than titles and income ranges. I’ve seen some “pros” that do very average work and also some “amateurs” that do amazing work. But back on track: my advice for getting good is this: look at lots and lots and lots of photos, and THINK about them.

Think about what you like, what you don’t, think about how the shooter achieved the effect he did, learn to reverse engineer lighting setups by looking for shadows catchlights etc. then give it a go! Intelligent trial and error in my opinion is one of the best ways to get good at photography fast and it doesn’t cost anything!

Fine Art Nude Shot By Candlelight Using A 50mm Lens

Fine Art Nude By Candlelight

W Eugene Smith once said, “I only ever use available light. Flash light, strobe, flood light. Whatever light is available I will use”. We should all remember that the literal translation of photography means to paint with light, so as photographers there should be no form of light that we won’t consider when creating images.

The above fine art nude image was taken more for fun than anything else in a darkened room lit by nothing more than a few candles. To get this right obviously involves a longer than usual exposure and a tripod is fairly essential, but candles actually make for a beautifully soft light that is extremely flattering to the models skin and a photographer can use this to great effect in their fine art nude photography if they plan it carefully enough as I discussed in my book.

Due to the long exposure time you will almost certainly need to find a position for your model where she is able to remain comfortable without moving for a long period and then you will have to find a balance of lighting that works, so that you don’t end up with areas that are either completely burned out or totally black. This may mean positioning numerous candles at various points around the room to experiment and see what works best. It’s great photographic fun though and a nude model is the perfect subject to work with.

One point about working with candles is that the colour temperature is remarkably warm, so if you leave your digital camera on auto-balance or daylight setting you will probably end up with bright orange images. In theory you can correct that while processing the Raw files, but I am a great believer in doing things correctly at the picture taking stage if possible so I simply suggest that you take a few seconds to make a custom white balance reading before you start.

It goes without saying when shooting by candlelight that you have to be a bit more careful than usual because nobody wants to start a fire, especially if you are in a place with lots of soft furnishings like a bedroom, so I suggest placing your candles on trays that will catch the wax and make sure they are placed in secure positions away from anything potentially flammable.

You may want to use a reflector in certain areas which is perfectly reasonable but don’t expect huge amounts of extra light because the original source is so soft and unless you have literally hundreds of candles the illumination won’t be that bright.

You may be tempted to shoot at a high ISO to obtain faster shutter speeds, but it’s the flickering and movement of light in a long exposure that contributes to the softness you see in this fine art nude, so you may well find you prefer something shot at say 10 seconds on 100 ISO. A handheld meter is also useful if you want to measure areas of high contrast.

Why not find a model and have a go yourself aT some fine art nude Photography using nothing but candles?