ENJOY EROTIC PHOTOGRAPHY
Today photography is easily accessible to all. It was not always so!
I first became interested in photography, by which I mean still photography, not video, after leaving school and starting work. It was a different world in many ways back in the early 1960s, and particularly so as far as this hobby was concerned. To seriously pursue it you really needed to buy a good standard of camera, which was not cheap. A decent used one could set you back around £60, and about double that for a new one (not the most costly by far), and this was at a time few were earning as much as £20 a week! I was fortunate and managed to treat myself to the latest technology at the time, a Pentax Spotmatic with TTL (Through The Lens metering).
As I, like many, used to photograph my girlfriend in the nude, I needed to have my own darkroom, and spent many happy hours with my fingers immersed in developer and fixer! It was all black and white, of course, but was a good grounding for me, as I learned not only the darkroom techniques, but also the rules of composition – the most important ingredient of a great picture.
So, that’s a brief background. Now let’s come up to date. No more darkrooms (except for professionals), no more expensive cameras or rolls of film, and, therefore, no longer restricted to the realm of the slightly better healed! It’s all good.
Today the vast majority of us always have a decent quality camera in our pocket because they are incorporated into our smart phone. There is little to stop anyone learning to take pleasing photos, and sometimes none are more pleasing than the personal intimate ones we take at home in private with our partners and friends!
I like to elevate my pictures above the snapshot level, where possible. I do use my smart phone, but also have pocket cameras and, because I am still keenly interested, a fine system camera. However, there is very little discernible difference between pictures taken with the big camera and those taken on the phone, so it doesn’t matter which equipment you use. The most important considerations, if your subjects are to be naked or scantily clad, is the setting and backgrounds, together with making sure the room is either warm enough or cool enough, for the comfort of the models.
Let’s deal with the room first. Make sure it is tidy, removing any empty coke cans, glasses, ash trays etc from the area you plan to use. Observe how the light from windows, if you are doing this in daylight, which I personally favour, cast shadows and where they fall. If it is very bright sunshine, hang a white sheet over the window to soften the contrast. If you are using the room with its already existing furnishings, be it a living room with sofas, or a bedroom, or indeed, any other room, watch out for unwanted intrusions that are easy to miss, such as the pole of a standard lamp appearing to protrude from the head of your subject!
Moving on to the model! Be aware of what happens to his, her or their clothes as they are removed. I prefer to ensure they are deposited outside the field of vision, in order the keep the space uncluttered. There may be occasions when this is neither desirable nor practical; if you are documenting a game of strip poker, for example!
The most pleasing pictures to view are those that are thoughtfully composed (whatever the subject matter). Often (not always), the least satisfying photos are the ones with the subject slap bang in the centre of the shot just staring at the camera (like for a passport!).
A simple way to produce a well composed picture is to follow the tried and tested rule of the thirds. Imagine dividing the view into nine boxes by drawing two equally spaced lines in each direction. There will be four points where the lines cross, and they are the areas (roughly) to position the interesting features. In the case of a person, it can be the eyes. If one person is modelling, have him/her looking into the picture (towards the middle), not out of it (towards the edge). In an explicit picture, you should aim to get the genital action on the lower right (or left), in the area where the imaginary lines cross, and the faces in the diagonally opposing upper left (or right). These are just simple suggestions to help the uninitiated!
After the session you can transfer the resulting images to your computer where it’s easy to tweak and fine tune the compositions, and adjust other factors such as the lightness/darkness, contrast and colour balance.
When you are fully satisfied, why not burn them to a disc or transfer them to a memory stick so that you can invite around all those involved to enjoy a slide show on the big television!
If you like the experience, repeat it as often as you can, because that way you will learn to ‘see’ a picture and progressively get better results.
It’s great fun and you can have a lot of laughs!
