Nude In Water Studio Photography

Over many years I have always enjoyed creating images using a nude in water, whether outdoors on location or in the studio. First starting with the beauty photography, where water is one of the most commonly used elements to show a healthy moisturised skin I then moved on to beauty nudes where it was just as useful and later on with some glamour photography as well.

Water has a chameleon like quality and is a very versatile tool for the photographer to exploit because of the way it can be used to change the feel of an image from fresh and energetic to sensual, sultry or peaceful, so while there are definitely some tricks to learn it offers many benefits and is also one of the more cost effective props you can use in your photography.

Just for starters, think of all the locations you can choose to photograph a nude in water including waterfalls, streams, lakes, rivers, the beach, swimming pools, jacuzzis and hot water pools etc. Many of these are also surrounded by interesting landscapes or buildings that offer a useful backdrop to your images.

Another great advantage of working with water is that it often brings sense to the picture and gives your model something specific to do, which always helps to create more interesting images if the model feels engaged in the shoot but not in a way that makes her feels awkward and self conscious.

When shooting a nude in water at a studio it’s obviously important to take a few precautions, especially if you are using flash, so you should make every possible effort to maintain a safe distance between any flash packs and splashing water or even an excessive build up of moisture that could be dangerous. Above all make absolutely certain that any lights are securely positioned so they cannot fall in any water. You have a responsibility to ensure the safety and wellbeing of those who you are working with.

Another factor to consider is the temperature of the water, which ultimately has to be comfortable and safe for the model. That means it can’t be so hot that it burns, but equally if you are shooting outdoors remember that a frozen landscape with rushing water may sound fantastic but there’s a good chance you’ll end up calling the emergency services when your model starts suffering from hypothermia… In the meanwhile you’ll probably have nothing but a couple images of a model in pain with bright pink skin covered in goosebumps.

When shooting a nude in water, remember that you have incredible scope for experimentation such as altering the movement of the water and playing with the shutter speeds to achieve varying degrees of blur and movement. Then you can apply oil to the skin and also look at how the water interacts with other elements in the image such a frosted sheet of glass or the pebbles on a beach. The opportunities and choices are incredible.

You can see a couple examples of images I have done with a nude in water at my website.

Camera Equipment

Very often I find photographers hankering after the latest and greatest camera equipment; frequently trading in their gear every 12 months or so as each new model is announced, even when there are only very small real differences.

At one time during the early days of digital, the image quality was only borderline acceptable in most cases and there was genuine progress between each new model, but for the last five years the real world differences have become far more subtle. The megapixel war is fairly pointless now, especially for shooting nudes or glamour that don’t require the kind of definition that might be desirable in a landscape for example.

A quick look at many web forums will quickly reveal that most of their members are far more interested in camera equipment than in taking pictures. In fact, discussions about light quality and composition etc. rarely get a mention. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call them “camera owners” rather than photographers. Next year they will probably own a new camera but their photography is unlikely to have improved much.

I have a simple rule of thumb with camera equipment. When I stop thinking about it, I know it’s right. When I use the Hasselblad for example it just feels right. That is partly down to years of use but also the knowledge that it is a well thought out piece of equipment, which has been tested in the field and proven to be right for the job. When a new Hasselblad is introduced I don’t automatically want to abandon the camera I already have.

Going back several years ago I remember struggling along with a Canon Eos 100 SLR and there were times when I was exasperated by the functional limitations of the camera. For example there was a dial on the back, which was far too easy to move in manual mode and had to be taped down to avoid accidentally moving to the wrong setting. The need for a PC adaptor to work with studio flash was also awkward and unreliable.

At the time I wasn’t earning much money as a photographer, so I persisted with that camera for longer than I would have liked, but one day I finished a shoot in utter frustration and walked down the road to a camera dealer where I immediately bought a used Eos 1. This wasn’t the latest model that Canon were making at the time but it was a solid well made camera and it was a complete revelation compared to what I had been using before.

Many photographers are convinced that more options is always better when it comes to cameras and yet as I started to look closely at that Eos 1 I was struck by the shear lack of features and modes compared to some of the less professional cameras. It was clearly a much better designed camera for picture taking because they had eliminated distractions so that I could concentrate on the actual photography rather than the flashing lights. Probably the best example of this approach is found with the Leica rangefinder cameras. With camera equipment less is more sometimes when taking pictures.

At the time of writing I am working with a 1DsII, which I have had since 2005 and it’s a very good camera. There are a few points in the design ergonomics which could be improved, however it’s a thoroughly professional camera that inspires confidence and does exactly what I need. The real point about a professional camera like this is that they are built for hard daily use in all kinds of conditions and you are less likely to make errors in a moment of distraction because of the way they operate.

Looking at the various 35mm digital cameras, I feel we are reaching a point where differences in print will be largely impossible to see and left only to the pixel peepers. In practice this means that if you buy a professional DSLR it will still be a perfectly valid tool for your photography in several years time from a quality perspective but you will have also gained in the meanwhile from the general handling compared to lower end alternatives. You will also suffer less financial loss in the long run as you stop trading in your cameras every 12 months, so choosing professional equipment makes sense on a financial level as well.

For anybody shooting nudes or glamour photography there is a happy medium in terms of resolution because excessive detail is not terribly flattering to the model and will generally just result in many more hours spent in retouching. In real terms it may also lead to deterioration in overall image quality, since most modern lenses are already at their limit with the higher end 35mm DSLRs available today. Significantly higher resolution may also come at the price of compromises in other areas, so try to remember that the total megapixel count is not the only way to measure the usefulness of a camera.

In practical terms any recently made professional camera will do it all for commercial work from internet right through to billboards. It’s better to buy one good professional camera (even used) with just a couple of excellent lenses than to spend all your time and money constantly upgrading consumer level cameras and lenses.

One last piece of advice. Something I recommend in my book is that you “stress test” all your equipment to see where problems can occur during a shoot and take steps to avoid it in advance. This doesn’t just mean your cameras but also your lenses, lighting, cables, camera bags and the rest. Everything. That way you really learn how your equipment works and avoid costly errors. Look for dials that can accidentally be moved or batteries that run down too quickly.

In summary, search in detail for any areas of weakness in your camera equipment or workflow and then take action to make sure it doesn’t become a problem during the shoot.

Topless Beauty

The topless beauty image above was done for a well known Italian magazine in Milan as part of a beauty editorial when I was first starting out and I was very lucky to find a stunning young Dutch model for the shoot. In part that happened because I had a great girl for a previous shoot that had gained some attention and photographers need to remember that we are judged by clients on our choice of models.

Model agencies are also far more likely to give you great models if they already see other ones in your book. That’s just the way things work in this business and finding the right model at a casting is often a case of luck but it definitely requires some skill and business savvy if you want to get the top girls.

We didn’t do any nudes in the studio that day, but several topless beauty images and I remember it was all done on my beautiful Canon 85mm lens, that I talked about in an earlier post before I started working with medium format. The actual lighting is simple enough but the real factor in doing a picture like this successfully comes down to having lots of space both above and around the model.

The main light here is placed at the front of the model but well above head height and pointing down, while the background is actually some considerable distance behind the subject to minimise the risk of flare. I then placed the model in a sort of tunnel with several large black boards on either side, which is what gives that black outline around her body. Although I shot some colour as well that day I felt the black & white images had greater graphic impact.

if you are curious you can visit my site to see some more of my photography including some Topless beauty.

When I started working professionally as a photographer I went to several of the better model agencies and began testing to try and improve my book. I was very much into a sort of reportage style at the time like the image below.

I still very much like this kind of photography where you take a model and shoot images in a very spontaneous fashion, without having to think through every detail by planning the photo retouching etc. in advance. Photography that is done this way will inevitably be less polished but it’s also very often the most effective.

Although I received quite a few plaudits and appreciation for my images like this I quickly discovered that it wasn’t paying the bills and I vividly remember the day when an art director at a top magazine spoke plainly, explaining that the images were beautiful, but if I wanted to work regularly I had to produce work that was cleaner and more commercial.

For the next couple of years I focussed diligently on producing super clean colour images and there is no doubt that from a professional standpoint that was a good decision as I quickly started to make progress as a beauty photographer.

There is no denying though that there is an inherent beauty in black & white which can be used to remove unwanted distractions and focus attention on the key elements of an image. Now that most of us are working full time with digital cameras we often don’t make that clear decision any more to work in black & white. Over time there is a risk that many photographers will fail to consider the option of producing black & white images and will also lose the ability to view their subjects with the sensibility to light and shade that black & white requires.

My advice on this topic is simple. Go out today with your digital camera if you don’t have film and take some pictures, but try to think how they will look in black & white while you are shooting and then work on refining your technique inside Photoshop to see what you can produce. In many ways the opportunities have never been greater to produce beautiful black & white images and for nudes in particular it’s a natural choice.

The topless glamour image above was done as part of job a couple years ago using my 1DsII and a Tamron 28-75 zoom. The photo was taken in a narrow hallway, so space was pretty tight. According to the Exif data for that image I still managed to work at 75mm though, which is a very reasonable focal length for glamour. 

At a push you could get away with a 50mm lens most of the time, however, be warned that trying to do something like this with a wider focal length could get pretty ugly with unflattering distortion to the model’s body. You definitely don’t want that with glamour or nudes.

The lighting for this glamour image couldn’t be easier because it was simply my Canon 580EX flashgun bounced off a wall behind me and mixed with the natural daylight coming through the windows of the apartment. Although I am a great advocate of doing things the old fashioned way with manual readings it has to be said that modern TTL flash metering is generally very reliable 99% of the time nowadays and in this case it was able to quickly adjust as the outdoor conditions changed.

The off white cream coloured walls helped to remove any coldness from the light and boost the model’s natural tan, which I invariably prefer when shooting nudes and glamour images. A nice warm appearance to the model’s skin looks healthier and also works wonders for hiding many skin defects. Remember the whole point of a glamour image is that it should be attractive.

On a practical level it would have been really awkward to set studio lighting in such a small space, so using a small flash unit like this which automatically balances it’s output against the changing natural light was a wonderful solution. It also shows that you don’t always need a huge selection of complicated lighting to shoot effective and flattering glamour images with models.

I worked on 1/60th at F5.6 to blur the background and still try to maintain reasonable depth of field on the subject. This image was done hand held which was pushing my luck at that shutter speed. The Canon 24-105L I use now would have been a safer bet though because it has built in image stabilisation. A zoom lens definitely makes life easier in small spaces like this for nudes and glamour photography.

N.B It goes without saying that having a professional glamour model will make your shoot much easier.

Edit: Update – if you are interested in learning more about portrait photography using small flash units like the 580EX I used for the shot above check out Phil Steele’s online course.

PRESS RELEASE – For Immediate Release

United Kingdom, 17th September 2010.

A new eBook in PDF format titled “How To photograph Nudes Like A Professional” has been released; aimed at helping aspiring amateur and professional photographers who want to improve their nude photography.