An Experiment into Art Nude and Draped Fabrics

Draped Fabrics_0007, originally uploaded by Jon W. Howson.

Information:
Photographer: JonWHowson (Model Mayhem #725023/Purestorm)
Model: Amie Grace (Model Mayhem #1730904)
Location: Home studio, Sheffield
Stylist: Amie Grace

First things first, a big thank to Amie in accepting to work with me on this project. I can only imagine what it is like to be on the other side of the camera, but was glad of Amie's experience of both sides of the camera.

This is my first venture into the realms of Fine Art work, and was a learning experience for myself in how to work with a model in this environment. The route I decided to go down was to try and involved Amie in as much as the process as possible, through ways of dressing her with the fabric to giving regular feedback via reviewing the images on the back of the camera.

Keeping it to the level of Implied nudes I feel helped with the comfort levels of the model. If you browse through the implied nude photographs of Amie, you can see that we started out with Amie wearing a white tube dress before moving on to using the fabric to cover her modesty.

The lighting for these images was kept simple with a soft box 45 degrees to the right of the camera, and at times, two lights to give a white background.

This is definitely a project I would like to pursue with other willing models. If you, or you know someone that might be interested in posing, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Clicking on the image at the top will take you to the series of images shot with Amie.

N.B. If you have the stomach for it, should I try this on the other side of the camera?

Joshua in a Male Model Portrait Portfolio in Sheffield

Joshua_0004, originally uploaded by Jon W. Howson.

I have recently decided to step outside my comfort zone with my photography. I have shot lots of portraits for women, but rarely, if ever, done so for men. That is until Joshua was directed my way by a mutual friend who I had shot before. You have got to love the power of mouth to mouth publicity.

One of the problems that I came up against was with the posing. I have so many tips and ideas running through my head for how to pose a woman and to make her look feminine, but hardly any for a man. The only two tips that came to mind, were not to pose the head towards the higher should, and to have the whole body in two directions, that is the body facing one way, and the face and eyes in another. A woman though could have body facing one direction, her head a second, and her eyes a third.

So, the above image is just one of a series images taken for Joshua. They were taken in Whirlow Brook Park in Sheffield, and tried to show a variety of clothing styles.

Does anybody have any additional tips to improve my work with male posing and portfolio development?

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