Oh my goodness – NSFW

Nude

I’m getting more and more visitors on my site, year after year for which I am thankful. It means my images appeal to at least a certain public. But I get less and less likes or comments on my images. Not that that really bothers me, but it made me think that we might not have made much process in accepting nudity in society, since R. Doisneau made this little secret setup capturing the public reactions to a painting depicting a nude woman in some art gallery’s vitrine.

“La femme indignée by R. Doisneau 1948”. There’s more images to be found on the internet. look for ‘le regard oblique’.

Dare to express the love for female beauty my friends. Nothing wrong with that 😉

le regard oblique - doisneau

while you are here reading, you might as well take a look at my galleries, some new images are added from time to time.

ludwig

Summer has been too short

Nude, Personal Pictures

Hi,

I enjoyed working in my new location the last couple of weeks. It is spacious, very quiet and private, it has a lot of windows, and a large amount of possibilities for different shooting environments. Unfortunately the summer is swiftly passing away, and with the colder days coming in, models probably are going to get goose-bumps again. Difficult to retouch, not pleasant for the model.

That is what I’m missing the most in our Belgian climate. Rather than being half summer half winter, we only have 2 months of summer, the rest of the year is half fall half winter.

I had two shoots last Friday, you should get images from them very soon. This one is from earlier this summer.

Enjoy 🙂

ludwigdesmet_HH-5402

1/50s f2.0 ISO 320

Canon 5D II with Sigma 50 mm

come again soon,

ludwig

Ivana at the Mansion – Forgotten series of analog images – NSFW

beauty, Personal Pictures

When I have some more time on a photoshoot, I shoot some images on film too.

One of the rolls of film I’ve shot with Ivana never got published here. It’s a shame, since I think the images are worthwhile. I had been working hard to see the ‘real’ Ivana, not the model, read these posts to know all about it:

Part I

Part II

Part III

in this third part, I also shot some film images. A roll of TMax 400 film on Rolleiflex 75 mm f3.5 6×6 format.

Ludwig Desmet IC-002

Ludwig Desmet IC-003

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happy viewing.

See you again soon

Ludwig

Sunburst – NSFW

beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures

Single image post.

People who’ve seen my exhibition in Gavere (about 850 of you) have seen this image ‘real life’.

Because it relates so well with the current weather here in Belgium and Europe, … free for all.

Sunburst.

Ludwigdesmet_Sunburst

Canon 5D II with Canon 17-40mm f4.0

1/60s – f11 – ISO100 – 39mm

thank you for watching,

ludwig

The Castle shoot – digital

beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures

Nice environment, nice weather, nice model, …

first time in this place, and as I tend to not prepare so much for a shoot it is always a search for an approach. This place has tons of possibilities, …

Eline was worried about her figure, as a lot of women do. I’m happy that I have been able to surprise her with some eye-dropping images. What do you think?

All images Canon 5D II with sigma 50 mm f1.4 or Canon 135mm f2.0.

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thank you for watching,

ludwig desmet

Interim model – Eline at the storage room.

beauty, Personal Pictures

A good week ago I had a cancelled photo shoot appointment. So I had a free moment for photography and no model. A quick call on facebook soon resulted in an interested replacement model. In her introduction message on FB she said. ” … and I’m not shy” as a reply to my call that ended with the words “Don’t be shy”. That was the day before the shoot.

Eline never posed before, and although not shy, a bit nervous anyway. We have worked over several locations, of which the old storage room was the first. A very dark environment, with a lot of dust and dirt, but Eline didn’t matter and went for it all the way.

Thank you Eline, for being my interim model for a day, you did very well.

All images: Canon 5D mark II, with Sigma 50 mm f1.4 DG Art.

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To be continued …

ps. in a reaction, Eline wrote me:

I can’t express enough my appreciation for your work. I have absolutely no regrets in being your ‘interim model’. Your approach is unbelievably professional and you know how to cover up my physical flaws by guiding me into the right poses. …

Ludwig

Big black hat, the series. Marion (NSFW)

beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures

Marion never posed before, but she contacted me as she loved the images she had seen with Pauline. She listened carefully to my instructions, working for a natural and beautiful look, and we ended up with this result. I am really proud of this shoot, this is only a small part of the entire selection, with a white blouse and a black hat as the main props.

It was the first time I worked in this location. A beautiful house, with an annex ancient building. The weather was great, although very bright sunlight doesn’t make it easier to work within the dynamic range of the sensor.Nut the sun kept Marion warm and cosy as she got partially undressed on this spring morning.

Have you noticed how I rarely have my models interact with me? I think this is part of my style, and one secret to creating intimate, natural looking images.

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I shot a couple of rolls of film too on this shoot, these images will follow later on.

thank you for watching, I hope you liked the images.

Ludwig

Pearls – Limited edition.

beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures, print

Simply because it is my birthday today 😀

Another new limited edition print available. ( 7 copies + 1 Artist Proof) ‘PEARLS’.

60 x 60 up to 100 x 100 cm on Hahnemühle FineArt Baryta – finishing/framing on demand.

Ludwig Desmet-Pearls

pls contact me at

ludwig – at – renderhouse -dot- eu

for more info.

see you soon,

ludwig

Pauline on film – NSFW

beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures, photo gear

Ludwig Desmet-KISP_materie-3345

I told you before I would talk a bit more about the Rolleiflex I use for shooting on film.

The camera is a Twin Lens Reflex, built in the late 50’s, so the camera is about 60 years old.

The construction with the two lenses, of which the upper lens is for viewing only (viewing lens) and the lower lens is for taking the image (taking lens) has advantages and disadvantages. In comparison to the older camera’s that used flat film sheets, where one had to remove the matte focusing screen before putting in the film holder for taking the image, this camera allows to shoot multiple images without moving anything. There is a 45° tilted mirror behind the viewing lens, projecting a mirrored image on the horizontal focusing screen.

Of course viewfinder camera’s existed as well, but they had no visual reference of the focusing plane, or the sharpness of the subject when changing focus. A photographer using a viewfinder camera had to use the distance scale on the lens, and the not so trusty guesswork for camera to subject distance.

Both lenses of the this TLR move forward and backward while focussing, and so provide an identical image on the ground glass as the image to be expected on the film. Still, the smallest amount of inaccuracy of the lens focusing mechanism leads to bad focusing, and I believe this camera suffers at least some looseness in the forward-backward movement.

Dealing with this complex mechanism of focusing, meant also that these camera’s are mostly fixed focal length. Some camera’s came in different focal length versions, but camera’s with interchangeable lenses where very rare. (Except for the Mamiya C)

This camera comes with a 75 mm f3.5 lens, it also existed in a f2.8 version, usually much more expensive on the secondhand market. 75 mm on 6×6 film format has an equal viewing angle to a 38 mm lens on Full frame DSLR, or a 24 mm lens on a 1.6 crop camera, so a rather ‘wide-standard’ viewing angle.

The lens is certainly not paramount, and suffers heavily from flare, as can be seen in the images below (does somebody have a lens hood for this camera for me?). An aperture of 3.5 gives a good amount of image unsharpness on medium format. 2.8 would be nicer of course. The images lack a bit of contrast and sharpness.

Composing with the mirrored image on the focusing plane is a bit of a habit.

Shutter speed range is limited, from 2 seconds to 1/500th of a second, thus mostly limiting the wide open apertures in bright light. The mirror does not move, since it is not obstructing the film plane, so there are not vibrations from this side. Activating the shutter however demands some finger movement (unlike today’s DSLR’s where pushing the shutter entirely only takes some tenth of a millimeter) causing some hand stress and maybe movement unsharpness. Shutter speeds as long as 1/15th. of a second seem not possible to me without image shake. Maybe with some more experience.

The camera has a built in exposure meter, but it no longer works, so exposer should be metered with another camera, or with a hand held meter, I use the latter.

Film for this camera is widely available here in Belgium, both black and white and color film. Not sure about slides. Development is still available too, although it can take a while (1-2 weeks) before getting the negatives back. Scanning the negatives, as well as retouching them (from dust) is a tedious process.

The biggest advantages for me is that I spend more time composing, and checking out if everything is well in place before taking the image. It learns me to concentrate more on details, on exposure, on posing etc. … One roll of film equals 12 exposures, after that the fun is over. 😀 The fact that you see the image mirrored gives you a fresh view on your scene, revealing flaws in your image/composing remaining unnoticed as you set it up. (But I still have a lot to learn)

A second big advantage is that the images are square format. This gives me a more relaxed feeling when composing, and I believe that the images are more harmonious too. I kind of like this square format more and more. (This made me thinking about modifying a matte screen for my 5D mark II to indicate ‘square’ cropping).

changes I have had:

I had the original focusing screen replaced with a focusing screen with split prism and microprism focusing aids, and that adds to the accuracy of focussing with the camera.  I also had the shutter speeds checked out by the same specialist repair shop that also changed the focusing screen.

To be continued. Enjoy this small portrait series I made with Pauline lately – Rolleiflex 3.5E – Tmax 400 film.

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thank you for reading, see you soon,

Ludwig

Approaching Valentine’s day.

erotic, Nude, Personal Pictures, Uncategorized

Handcuffs and blindfolds, they have nothing to do with submission or repression, but all with the fine art of lovemaking.

And you

text by Greg Phillips

image © ludwig desmet

Model: Sarah

1/25 sec – f2.2 – sigma 50mm f1.4 DG Art on Canon 5D mark II

thank you for watching.

Ludwig

Table top I

beauty, erotic, Personal Pictures

I will continue my single image posts until I run out of stock :p

Result of the ‘At the Mansion’ shoot with Anna O., in Ronse Belgium.

Styling and photography by me.

Make up and model: Anna Orlova

Limited edition prints available.

Table Top Nude I

Ludwigdesmet_AnnaO-8706

It is ok to like 😉

About the technique, I still work mainly (if not only) with natural light. This image has been made with the help of a tripod, because of the relatively long shutter speed, and in an attempt to keep a clean, frontal composition. I have multiple images of this session, but I think this one best expresses the beautiful shape of Anna’s body. No light source except the window light. Some light is bouncing back from the wall just behind me.

Canon 5D II – Canon EF 24 mm f1.4 L II – 1/10sec – f3.5 – ISO 100.

Ludwig