Wedding Dress – Nice and Naughty

I normally don’t do weddings, this shoot has been a kind of a ‘after wedding’ gift from the bride to the bride. 🙂

Never a bad thing if you can give yourself a gift. Elisa chose to have herself portrayed as a souvenir for later.

We played around with a lot of different themes, here’s the wedding dress theme. We started nice, we ended a bit naughty.

Extremely difficult shooting situation, with almost no light (1/25s at f2.8 and ISO640) a tripod is of good help in such situations. All images Canon 5D II and Canon EF 100 mm f2.8 Macro L IS. A tripod and live view allow for accurate focusing (using live view zoom modes and the tripod takes care of long shutter speeds. Be careful to tell your model not to move during exposures.

I hope you like them.

thank you for watching,

ludwig

wake up – self induced posing

beauty, Personal Pictures

There’s a lot going on on the internet about how to get your model in the right pose. Workshops, do’s and don’ts, streaming video’s, the basic rules for a good pose, etc. …

Now what if we forgot all about it, and just have the person in front of the lens completely be herself? That is what I tried a couple of weeks ago with two ‘recurring’ models. They both had been with me for a shoot before, so they more or less know how I work and what to expect. I explained them that I wanted a part of the shoot to be completely void of instructions from my side. After all, I am a man, and when I put my models in a pose, this is man-mind driven, and can never be completely natural. I asked them to ‘not seek’ me with their eyes, pretend as if I was not there, and just slowly wake up from the comfortable spot I gave them.

Confidence is a key-word I guess, in this kind of work, since they do not know what I want, they do not know what I see, and they do not know when I’m going to take a picture. They must be self-aware, at ease with the surrounding environment, with me and with the idea that they can just simply enjoy this moment of quietness and peace.

Self induced posing, it is 100% the woman in the pictures. All natural. I hope you like them. Thank you Justine.

The sun was slightly warming the place, it was quiet and nice, honestly I think she would have stayed in bed, but that wouldn’t have given us these nice pictures wouldn’t it.

thank you for watching, I have more images with Justine waiting to be published.

ludwig

Black lingerie

beauty, Personal Pictures

a first part of a shoot I did recently with Justine. We worked together earlier, this was our third meet. Things went smooth and the weather was fine. Some splendid images in this shoot, more to come.

Thank you Justine, for this fine morning.

Images with Canon EF 135mm f2 L (standing against the wall) and Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG A.

thank you for watching,

ludwig

Da Castle shoot – analog

Analog, beauty

Some images from a while ago. Analog takes a little longer to process than digital. 🙂

Very hard circumstances for making pictures without a built-in light meter, with the light changing every minute. Sunny with scattered clouds. Luckily the film I use has a lot of ‘range’, so I could correct in scanning, when needed.

I enjoyed working in this castle environment very much. If any one of my followers out there owns his or her private castle, and I could use it for shoots, please shout. I will grant you my eternal gratitude and a free beer.

I think these are the last images from the ‘interim model’, I hereby want to thank her again for stepping up for this life-changing experience.

thank you my dear audience for reading this post. 😉

ludwig

An afternoon at Hotel Hancelot – Pauline.

beauty, Personal Pictures

I think you know Pauline by now. I love working with her. She’s nice, beautiful, she can be herself or she can put on a role, she’s punctual and joyful. I noticed I never published a color image from this shoot. It’s a shame, because they came out good in color too. Enjoy:

Images taken with Canon 5D mark II and Sigma 50 mm 1.4 (first image) and Canon 100 mm 2.8 Macro. – All available light.

thank you for visiting,

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.

thank you for watching,

ludwig desmet

The Engine Room

beauty, Personal Pictures

A single image post today, Enjoy. The Engine Room used to be the most prestigious part of the textile factory. It was the place where visitors, customers could see the wealth of the company. Complete with glass in lead windows, tiled arches and so on. …

It was the place where pressurised vapour was created with a steam engine, providing both heat and mechanical power. due to the fact that this room is unaccessible from the ground floor, it has remained unused since the removal of the engine.

Canon 5D II with Canon EF 24mm f1.4 II L. This image reminds me that some time ago in a digital publication (EOSzine) I have urged the wish to combine model photography with my earlier subjects of urban and landscape photography. I’m getting nearer. 😉 Taken on tripod, multiple exposure blend (1/125 s. of a second at f4.5 for the model and the interior, 1/1000 s.at f4.5 for the windows).

Thank you for watching, and thank you Eline, for being my model.

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.

pls contact me at

ludwig – at – renderhouse -dot- eu

for more info.

see you soon,

ludwig

Digital publication – NIF magazine

beauty, Nude

Another set of images made it to the digital ‘Nude Is Fashion’ platform:

Lisa at the Mansion. From a shoot last summer, one of the last shoots I did at the Mansion. Now as an exclusive image series on NIFmagazine.

Link here

Pauline

beauty, Personal Pictures

Pauline studies to be a drama artist, and she added some drama to our last shoot. 🙂

A close up portrait.

1/160 at f2.8 ISO 160 Canon 5D II with Canon EF100mm f2.8 Macro IS

Sarah at Sabine’s house – the living room – nsfw

beauty, Nude, Personal Pictures

Part two of this shoot with Sarah. In the living room of this nice house.

A grey and wet day, difficult light in this house with dark accents and furniture, and relatively small windows.

I look for windows for the available light to fall maximally on my model, but then you are in a backlight situation, which makes it always difficult to not overexpose the background/underexpose the foreground.

A further problem with this is that you have a cool color temp from the outside (6500 or so) and a warm 3000 degrees Kelvin temp on the inside. Luckily we are able now to locally brush in color temperature in Lightroom now.

Two of the images are taken with somewhat further away from the window, with only some available tungsten light.

Sarah has some kind of ‘tristesse’ in how she looks at the camera, I’m not sure she realizes this herself. Maybe she will if she reads this blog. 😉

She also has amazingly long and beautiful legs and a nice figure. She is rather used to posing, but she managed to still pose in some natural way.

Canon 100 mm f 2.8 L Macro IS and Sigma 50 mm f 1.4. I’m happy I have a stabilized lens for these occasions. The 100 mm Macro allows to stretch shutter speed up to 1/25 th of a second, with no visible camera shake.

thank you for watching,

ludwig

Fien at The Mansion – about light.

beauty, Personal Pictures, personal tips & tricks

After our outdoor forest shoot, we had some time left for a quick session ‘at The Mansion’.

The Mansion is still my favorite location for indoor shooting, since it has so many possibilities. Whatever moment of the day, there’s always a room that has nice light, the building is free-standing, which means that there are windows all around, and some rooms have windows on three sides. So besides choosing my main light source, all I have to check is my own position, the position of my model, in respect to the multiple windows I have around me. I can shoot with a window in my back, and still shoot against the light with the window just in front of me.

On the attic, I have rooms with only a small light, on cloud covered days that becomes very similar to what a softbox would do. On sunny days, I have a light spot on the floor, which reacts as an indirect light, and I still get the ‘softbox’ windowlight. On sunny days I rather not shoot in straight sunlight, because of the huge contrast ratios between sun-lit area’s and shadow areas.

Some images to illustrate my explanations:

1. One of the attic rooms, a single window at the right of my model, cloudy day, no direct sunlight, a door opening just left of the image, you actually see the door at the left side. Gives me enough light to create that small rim light on the hair and body, and it adds just that little extra light on the floor, to make the rest of the body shape stand out.

2. The office: A row of windows left as well as right from the model. Moderate light amount. There is an additional window light just behind the model, above the door. I added the extra bit of artificial light, available in the room. (some small bulbs) The artificial light creates a warm color cast, that can be annoying because the natural light is color neutral or blueish, depending on the weather conditions.

Same location, but I changed position.

Now I’m shooting against the light, but also with the light coming from behind me. The windows are big enough to provide a soft overall light, slightly coming from above, the windows in the back produce a very beautiful contour light all over my model. Note that I position myself in a way that my model is in front of a darker background, otherwise the rim light would get lost. (this was the first picture actually, Fien still has the hairdo from the exterior shoot.)

Ludwig Desmet-FienVH-3148

3. The angels room. Named after a beautiful decoration above the wooden side panels, with angels and flower, …

I have my main window light just behind me, aimed west, this picture was one of the last, so not long before sunset. There’s two more windows on the right, one just behind the model, one a little further away. The window just behind the model was covered with curtains, so only the far right window remains. Again this window helps creating a nice hairlight and ‘sheds a little light’ to the back end of the sofa.

4. The main entrance. Here my model actually stands outside, under the porch covering the entrance to the front door. This is perfect soft light for nice portraits. It is evenly distributed from above and from below, and it prevents hard shadows under the eyebrows. I have no backlight, but the glass in the front door provides a little definition of the hair contours.

5. The stairway. The main light source here is artificial light, coming from above (slightly warm tinted) The rim light is coming from a window behind the model, higher up the wall, spanning from left to right. This gives the nice light on the hair, the side of the head, the cleavage and breast, as well as the wooden pillars. Again mixed light white balance, but to me it is ok.

6. Also taken in the angels room, this time the model is standing where I took picture 3, back to the window, The window is big and high, providing enough light for an overall well lit image. Now we opened the curtains of the opposing window, giving a beautiful fill in light from the left.

To all aspiring model photographers out there, I hope you learnt something from these short explanations.

To all the others, I hope you enjoyed the images.

A big thank you to Fien for her confidence and cooperation. She never posed before, I think she did really well. Above that she’s a charm to work with. A big thank you also to the owners of The Mansion, for giving me continued access to this magnificent building.

see you again soon,

ludwig

Fien, fall in the flemish ardennes

beauty

Hi there,

Another model post. For a change I went outdoors with my model. Fall had turned the so called ‘Muziekbos’ (Music Forest) into this wonderful palette of fall colors the last few weeks, and I found it a pity not to use this amazing environment for my next shoot.

I met Fien at Bioplanet Ghent (that’s what shopping organic stuff is good for 😉 ) and after checking my blog she agreed for a model shoot. We met at my place, and Nathalie couldn’t resist of making a quick hairdo. I think it suited well for this romantic backdrop.

Off for shooting, rather cold outside temperatures, but Fien didn’t complain at all. Still we didn’t make this a long session, about 40 minutes. The gray covered sky provided very soft natural light, good for outside portraits.

I mixed black and white and color images in this set. I get to like BW images more and more, but couldn’t have converted them all and loose those great fall colors.

I hope you like the images, taken with my trusty Canon 5D II and 24-50-100 mm lenses.

Oh, and during the shoot, we stumbled upon Bart Heirweg, a very good landscape photographer from Belgium. He was shooting fall colors too, but with a slightly different approach. 😉 You should check out his website, he makes the most amazing landscape images, and offers his knowledge in different workshops. Website

See you again soon for part II of this shoot meeting: Fien at The Mansion. Those images will follow later this week.

best,

Ludwig

Sanne at House Adelaïde – BW

beauty, Personal Pictures

A lot of models ask me if I will work according to a concept or a clear idea, I almost always point them straight to this website. I do not really work out much preparation in my beauty shoots. I make sure I have a location, sometimes I take care of some clothing, and that’s about it. Sanne asked me ‘three hours, is that not too short for a shoot?’, well, since I work with no artificial light, it is not, you’ll be tired after those three hours, because I make you do so much different things in this period of time. I love to work in House Adelaïde because it has beds, nice wooden floors, curtains, light from both sides of the building atmosphere and style. If you are looking for a luxury holiday home in Ronse, that’s the place to be.

A small selection of the morning session with Sanne, black and white.

come back again soon for the color version 🙂

grtz, Ludwig

Kimberly at the Mansion – the digital ones

beauty, Personal Pictures

I’ve spoken about this shoot in an earlier post (in which I talked about the pro’s and con’s on film photography vs. digital).

But I yet have to show the digital images of this shoot with Kimberly. We fixed a date only a couple of days after she became 18. I generally don’t work with people under 18 because I don’t want any discussions with mad parents, or I do not want the hassle of somebody else having to sign the release contract I work with, and I don’t want to picture any nudity of a model under 18 (at least).

Anyway, here are the pictures, I don’t believe Kimberly posed in a shoot before, and she did really well, I think she has a very cute face.

I hope you like them. All natural light, at one of my favorite locations, The Mansion.

Hair was done by Nathalie, my wife. She’s joining in regularly for a hairdo lately.

thank you for watching. Come again soon.

Ludwig – Ronse – Belgium

Souki at house Adelaide.

beauty, Personal Pictures

A new model, a new location.

House Adelaide, a luxury holiday house in Ronse. Click here for more info. Including jacuzzi, outdoor kitchen, Sauna, a private bar and cinema, and a lot more luxury for the guests to enjoy.

And my model Soukira, who had been following my work for a while, and then when she had the opportunity, volunteered willingly for this shoot.

Enjoy the images and experience how a dull and windy afternoon turns out not so bad after all.

All images with natural light only (and some bulbs here and there). Thank you to Soukira, for the patience and trust, and a big thank you to the owners of the house for granting me access.

Thank you for watching, …

Ludwig – Ronse – Belgium

Presentation

beauty, exhibition, photo gear, Uncategorized

very short notice, but not too late. Tomorrow evening I will be giving a live presentation about my beauty shoots.
How do I do things, which gear do I use, preparations, locations, models, the shoot, development etc.
Tomorrow night, in Ronse, Belgium. Just be there, or you’ll have missed it. 😉

Tatjana on film II

beauty, Personal Pictures

A couple more film images from the shoot Tatjana at Sabine’s house, Kodak T-max 400 on Rolleiflex 3.5

Model: Tatjana DN

Make up: Heidi Huys

Hair: Nathalie Renard

This is the first model shoot where I used the 60 years old Rolleiflex camera and it did just fine.

I found the square aspect ratio from the middle format Rolleiflex a relief to work with. No more hard decisions on shooting vertical vs. horizontal.

Sabine’s husband is collecting ‘snail houses’, we made good use of them. 😉

thank you for reading,

Ludwig

Garden of Eden

beauty, Personal Pictures

Well, kind of anyway.

Model & Mua: Anna Orlova

Photography: Ludwig Desmet

Styling: me

Limited edition prints available

Garden of Eden

for a nice long hot weekend!

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

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