Shooting Shirtless Shots [PG]

Prezwoodz

Thought I would throw the PG rating up there. By shirtless shots I mean male. Never really tried a shot like this other than one I did for a challenge a long time ago...and really that was different anyway. So I was wondering if anyone had some good tips they could lend me.

Heres a few that I came up with, I really havn't done much with these shots at all.

coldclimb

I personally try to get some good contrast to show definition. Given that my lighting equipment consists of one flourescent desk lamp, I'm often forced to use darkness and shadow as my primary tools in images like this. But then I haven't shot a whole lot of shirtless pics, and all self portraits. For some reason it would be a bit strange to me shooting someone ELSE striking muscle poses shirtless.

Prezwoodz

kNow what you mean. It was hard enough for me to do it of myself and post it.

Prezwoodz

Anyone have any comments here I can use? I have tried shooting in less light but the shot never really seems to come out right.

thegreenegg

I want to see what else you have. Do you have anymore or a link?
I think the thing to do is always try different poses when you start the timer again. That's what I always get stuck doing... striking the same pose, but to keep it entertaining for yourself you must, and you might find different angles that work best.
I think the contrast idea mentioned above would be good. The lighting on these shoots is kinda dull and that takes away some.
I really just want more to look at and decide what other angles you could try. I've not done these types of pictures on myself and besides guys are more about that tough lines then the curves.
Good job!
Ashley

ScottMcLeod

Looks like you shot this with a flash/strobe or fairly high intensity front light.

Coming from my experience of lighting design for dance, "shaping light" (also known as "Sexy sidelight" will really bring out the form and accentuate the shape. slight top/backlight will give you an annonymous (as the face can dissappear) sihlouette with some light still, and footlight from any angle will give you the appearance of floating.

If you are shooting with on-camera flash, try getting an off-camera cable.

If you're using studio lights, move them around! Play, have fun. Use red filters, then convert to B&W. It'll really accentuate the shadows.

Prezwoodz

thanks scott and ashley! I will experiment with some of those suggestions and see what I can come up with!

coldclimb

Just for some content to this thread I'll post up this shot from a year or two back. I lit this with a desk lamp and computer monitor in a dark room, then did some erasing of the background in post, and of course some contrast edits. I feel this shot was a success. Self portraits keep getting tougher for me though, I always seem to run out of new ideas.

gus

Its a difficult shot i recon. I think CC got it right as you really need hard sharp lines & good B&W tonings. I know very very little about tech for it but tried it once....this was lit with one tiny little 18 cent red LED. This shot was focused & then i got in front of the camera hence the shot isnt so sharp.

The human form is a fasinating thing to shoot i think but it crosses into some areas that others do not understand.

Prezwoodz

Figured I would just post in here instead of starting a new thread for such a picture. Thanks for the comments! I need better lighting I recon. I think it created more noise because my lighting was just from a computer monitor and I had a 4 second shutter. I was working more on seeing if I could get more definition out though.

All comments well appreciated!

Prezwoodz

Here is one more. I noticed that since I put the shutter on longer it made the shot have a lot more noise. Are there any easy ways of correcting this other than having better ligthing? is this a normal amount of noise for 4'' shutter opening on a point and shoot? Even though it is supposed to be 9mp I still don't see a difference. I am hoping that the outdoor photo's show the real pixels

coldclimb

Prezwoodz wrote:

Here is one more. I noticed that since I put the shutter on longer it made the shot have a lot more noise. Are there any easy ways of correcting this other than having better ligthing? is this a normal amount of noise for 4'' shutter opening on a point and shoot? Even though it is supposed to be 9mp I still don't see a difference. I am hoping that the outdoor photo's show the real pixels

It's such a dark picture that I can hardly see any noise. You definitely need to get more/better light first and foremost. You shouldn't have to use a four second exposure to get a good shot.