M* For the Lasses

Posted by: BeachGuru

Aug 11, 1999

Thank you, Kate, for creating a replacement for the old alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.amateur.* newsgroups (now sadly long gone to spam) that is even better than the original. Please DO print my email address (it's a throwaway): I'm keen to hear what you all have to say... Cheers, The Contributors FAQ or How not to take ugly photos of beautiful women. TECHICAL How to take a flattering photo of a naked female body: Make sure it's in focus. Enough light not to make it grainy / pixellated or too slow a shutter speed. Diffuse and even lighting for smooth skin texture. Try natural light or bouncing the flash off the ceiling. Wait for the sun to go in, or shoot at dawn / dusk. Bright sunlight is harsh, but it can look good shining straight onto the body especially if oiled or wet. Use moderate telephoto (~85mm). You should be 2-3 metres away; too close and the body starts to look distorted. How to use post-processing to improve on perfection: Even out the colour balance and tonality. [Try Adjust levels, Auto.] This will remove any overall colour cast and maximise the contrast without losing detail. Sharpen. [Unsharp mask at 50% over 2.0 pixels is a good starting point.] Increase colour saturation if the picture looks washed out. You can tweak the hue to make the suntan look more natural. Pale skin can look better if you apply a slight warm colour cast. Crop. Remove unnecessary background while leaving some space around to show her curves. How to anonymise without ruining the photo's atmosphere: Black rectangle over the eye region. The classic standby of dirty mags. Paint out the face. This looks dehumanising and ghastly. Blur the face. Can make the picture look lower quality. Crop out the head. As they do in arty nudes. Not always possible. It cuts out the smile too. Turn the face away or hide it with her hair. Can restrict your choice of poses. Blindfold. Now that would be original... How to convert a picture to JPEG without degrading it: Use at least 50% quality, and up to 75% if there is a lot of detail in the photo (e.g. fishnet or grass). Convert it only once: each JPEG save loses some quality. Do your pre-processing on TIFFs. POSING How to help her feel less self-conscious: Give her something to do with her hands e.g. undressing herself, applying sun oil, stroking her skin, washing, adjusting her hair, smoking, shaving, drinking, playing with some prop (fan, feather, whip, sunglasses etc.), applying makeup etc. Have music playing. The kind of music will have a big effect on the mood of the photos. Allow her to keep moving, don't freeze her into specific poses. She doesn't have to look at the camera, in fact it looks more candid if she doesn't. How to help her look confident and sexy: Give her lots of positive comments about how she looks Allow her to fix up her makeup and hair. Allow her to be in control as much as possible. Get fresh smiles frequently. [She looks down, yawns to relax her face muscles and then looks up again.] Guide her into poses that stretch out her body. Breathe in for chest shots, arch the back for bum shots and stand straight and tall. Even skinny girls get a spare tire when they curl up. Flattering clothes. Not too tight. Colour to set off the skin tone (no white panties over pale skin). Emphasise her best features. How to put together a good set: Make sure you cover all the angles. Legs, tits, belly, bum and back. Different expressions. Take lots of photos and keep only the very best. Three-quarter length photos are about right. Full length means you show too much of the scenery. Zooming in too much can look impersonal and anatomical rather than sexy. Naturally, none of this applies to genuine voyeur shots. Them you takes as you finds 'em...