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Photographing skin
Every fine art nude photography (or even portrait photography) deals with reproducing skin texture and tonality. It is not an easy task as true-to-life shots usually reveal too many skin defects while post processing tends to give unnatural, wax look. This task is simplier in black and white photography, still problems remains.Many digital photographers love to post process their shots or even prefere digital retouch over complicated tricks known from analogue times. I personally do not like this way of thinking therefore I woud like to present how skin can be "enhanced" before taking a shot, using simple and cheap techniques.
The shots
All shots were taken with exactly the same camera settings, the same lens, the same light and were post processed using bibble (exactly the same settings for all images, no smoothing, just bw conversion). The main source of light was a direct flash (left from model, right side of the image). It's light was reflected by a big screen placed on the other side of the model, it brightened the shadows there.clean skin
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Clean skin looks quite nice. Unfortunately many small skin defects (as well as vains and skin texture) are visible. This gets worse with increasing contrast and digital retouch. |
talc
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Sprinkle the skin with talk to make it brighter, smoother and to hide some of the skin defects. The more talc the brighter and smoother the skin. Please notice that highlights have smoother color transitions with no reflections while overall contrast on the body is lower. Model must just remember to have clean and dry skin - in other case talc will not create smooth surface. Shaving is also suggested as talc tends to stick to hair and make it more visible. |
wet skin
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Just wet the skin with a little water and it will change its color (it gets darker) as well as starts to reflect more light. Shadows are nearly the same (some additional reflections are visible) but highlights are now easier to overexpose. Water tends to dry quite fast so be prepared to correct it every few minutes. |
massage oil
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Massage oil partially dries creating a thin surface on the skin. It sticks hair making them less visible and reflects some light. It does not give such spectacular effect as olive oil but this may be the the small difference you need. In short it creates some extra reflections. If you do not have massage oil use normal one and than dry the skin with paper towels. |
olive oil
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Olive oil dramatically changes the way skin reflects the ligh. Be prepared for high contrasts and overexposures in highlights. Notice that skin gets much darker (dark brown in color photography). This may be used to reproduce suntan effect without sunbathing. |
oil and water
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It is very easy to create big drops of water on the skin. Oil it and then sprinkle with water. Water stays at the surface of oil and tends to fall but do not dry so fast. It is a special effect rather than skin reproduction technique but it is worth mentioning. |