Erotic photography on location is erotic photography anywhere except in a traditional studio. It can be in your home, a friend’s home, a rented space or any space, such as a rooftop or in nature. The galleries of Torrid Art are photographed in homes - generally a different home for each model. So I am on location with each model, in a new surrounding I have never seen before! Location shooting presents unique opportunities for interesting, beautiful settings, backgrounds and lighting. It also presents challenges and frustrations that studio photography lacks
Among the vast variety of settings available to the location photographer, I particularly enjoy shooting in hallways. There has always been something about long hallways that appeals to me visually. When I used to travel extensively, I enjoyed staying in hotels with long, beautiful hallways. I even took some snapshots of a few of them, just for fun.
A long hall can be a beautiful background element in erotic and other kinds of photography. It can be nothing more than a very aesthetic background, or it can symbolize something - perhaps a long journey - depending on what you want to do with your photography.
Hallways offer more options in creative control of lighting than you might first think. The hallway can be evenly lit all the way to the end, it can fade to darkness or there could be a light at the end. Side rooms offer opportunities for side light on the model.
Different camera angles can alter the appearance of hallways as backgrounds, giving you some creative options and changing the mood of your photos, as you can see in these photos of Samantha Ryan from her jeans gallery. You can take advantage of the shape of the hallway, ceiling and walls, giving you additional creative options and variety.
Background Light
The main issue when using a hallway as your background is that you are able to get light into the hall in a way that gives it the look you want. Sounds simple enough, right? But first you must decide what you want, and that might take some experimenting. Getting a hallway lit the way we want it is one of the challenges we face when photographing in hallways. It can be a considerable challenge
There are several options for lighting hallways. You might want the hallway to fade to darkness. That occurs when the subject in your photo is properly exposed, but as you look behind the subject, the hall gets darker farther away from the camera. Halls fade to darkness when there is no light, or very little, in the hall.
If you want to see all the way to the end of the hall, the simplest option is to use the available light. Turn on every light you find in the hall. Open the doors to the adjacent rooms and turn on the lights in the rooms. If it’s daytime, open the curtains or blinds over any windows to let in the daylight. Then take a picture. If it looks good, you are ready to bring out your subject or model. See what the photos of your model look like with and without your camera’s flash, and you just might be ready to start shooting!
If you feel the hallway needs more light, and you are equipped with flash heads, lightstands and modifiers, there is a lot more you can do. The trick is to get light all the way down the hall, but to locate the lights and lightstands in places where they cannot be seen in the photos. That usually means you must put some lights in adjacent rooms with the doors open to the hall so the light goes into the hall. If you have the equipment you need, and the hall has one or more adjacent rooms, just open a door and place a light in a room so that the light spills into the hall. Use an umbrella, softbox, or whatever modifier you prefer for the job. You can also bounce the light off the walls by pointing the light directly at a wall.
In this photo, also from Samantha Ryan’s jeans gallery, an umbrella light in an adjacent room is pointed into the hall. In this case, the doors are closed because they are mostly glass and I liked the shadows they created.
And what about the cables for all those lights? You probably don’t want distracting cables running down the hall, visible in the photos. Obviously, with all their cables, a pack and head system wont do; you need some monolights or speedlights.
If you are using flashes, you will need a way to trigger the distant, out-of-sight lights. You will need to experiment with the equipment you have, but don’t be surprised if optical triggers, either visible light or IR, don’t work under these circumstances. Radio slaves may be the only way. And if your hall is particularly long, like the one I used with Samantha Ryan, and with the trigger signal traveling through walls, you might not get by with inexpensive, short-range triggers.
In this test photo, the hallway is lit the way I want, and I am ready to get Samantha and check how the light looks on her.
Subject Light
The other, most important issue with hallways is lighting the subject or model. This too can be a considerable challenge, given the small spaces and limited lighting options within most hallways. If you are using available light for the background of your photos, you can try photographing the model with and without your on-camera flash. To try this, do not have your camera set to full automatic. Set it to aperture priority (Av) or shutter priority (Tv), if your camera has these settings. See your camera’s manual for more information. Those settings will expose the hallway based on the available light, while ignoring the flash. When you turn the flash on, the background will remain exposed by the available light, and the flash will fire, exposing the subject. If you can take photos with and without the on-camera flash, see what those photos look like. If you like one, you are ready to go!
When I shoot for Torrid Art, I always use off-camera flash for the galleries, never on-camera flash. However, on-camera flash has it’s place; don’t be afraid to use it! Many of the photos you see in the behind-the-scenes galleries were taken with on-camera flash.
When photographing a gallery in a hallway, what I like to do is have a light behind the camera acting as the main subject light, and one or more lights in side rooms acting as side lights. In this case, the lights in side rooms are used primarily for the model, though they will be doing double duty and lighting some of the hall as well.
In the photo above, Eufrat and I are about ready to begin photographing her Mettle, SRO gallery. (Don’t look for me in the photo - I’m taking it!) The photo shows a side light in an adjacent room, the light that will be to camera right in the gallery photos.
When using off-camera side light in adjacent rooms to light the model, one important consideration that relates to the limited space of hallways is that doorways act as light restrictions. The side lights therefore have very limited coverage, just the area directly in front of the door. And since the model may not have any prop on which to focus her attention, such as a chair, she can very easily wander a step or two out of the coverage area of the side lights.
This photo shows Eufrat using a wall in her pose. She is not in the side light that comes from camera right. In this case, that is a minor consideration; this is still a very effective erotic photo.
This hallway is unusual and unique. The arched doorway through which the side light enters the hall (visible in the first photo of Eufrat) is very wide, much wider than a normal door. I chose to light this hallway fairly evenly. In the photos of Samantha Ryan, I chose to keep the hallway fairly dark, and the light from the side rooms acts as bright highlights. Different moods for different hallways and different models. If you are like me, part of the enjoyment of erotic photography is making artistic decisions such as these.
This is the final test image of Eufrat. It shows her in the even, main light from a large softbox behind the camera. You can also see the soft, subtle side light on her hair and face, and on the sides of her dress. The side light is easier to see in the larger version of this image (like always!). And finally, with regards to the overall light, you can see that I’ve kept the background slightly darker than Eufrat.
On a related note, as you can see in this image, it can be difficult to adjust lights when looking at black clothing, like Eufrat’s sweater. As erotic photographers, our first priority is to get the light the way we want it as it appears on the model’s skin.
For many reasons, I’m partial to softboxes for the lights used to light the model. And I’m partial to reflector umbrellas for backgrounds or “architectural interiors.” However, I use whatever fits my mood or the situation, including bare flashtubes. The best thing to do is experiment and find what you like.
The hallway used for Chikita upstairs tryst, shown here, was very short, without any rooms where I could place side lights directed at Chikita. So the light on Chikita is fairly flat, similar to the light on Samantha. However, all the other lighting elements are in place - a main light behind the camera, and a solitary light in an adjacent room at the end of the hall, so the hall has light all the way to the end. The light at the end of the hall is bright because I thought that looked better in this very shot hall. Also, this gallery is more about the wall of drawers, and actually has few photos like this that look down the hall.
Posing and Directing the Model
In addition to challenging your lighting skills, erotic photography in hallways is a challenge for models too. In hallways, models usually have no props, such as a bed or chair, only walls and floor.
As always, if the floor is dirty, depending on the model, she might not want to lie down, or even sit, further limiting her posing options, the poses you can explore together and the variety in your erotic photos. It goes without saying to never insist that the model do something she is uncomfortable with.
The right model will strike some very nice poses in a narrow hall without any props. Usually the more experienced models, like Eufrat, are a good choice for difficult modeling assignments like hallways.
As mentioned above, the limited space of hallways often leads to a lighting setup where the model has a limited range of movement. Part of your directions to her will be to guide her back into the area where the light is best. If she wants to pose against a wall, you might need to tell her which wall to use and where, based on the light and background you want. For example, she will lean against a wall on her own. You can either photograph her right there, or ask her to move, maybe even to the other side of the hall.
If you are working with an inexperienced model, a bare hall without props can be a daunting space for her. A prop might be a necessity in this situation. Even a small chair can make a huge difference in the quality of your photos. If you do not want a prop in your photos, at least be open to the possibility that the model may be much more comfortable with one, and she is the part of your photos that people look at.
Visual Variety
Visual variety is always a consideration in erotic photography, and hallways have more options than you might imagine. As long as you are shooting in a hall, try taking some photos that take advantage of the shape of the hall, like this shot of Eufrat framed by the arch. (Notice how the side light looks on her butt. As always, it’s more visible in the larger version.)
Changing focal lengths will change the size of the background relative to the model. When the end of the hall is small enough, it can be hidden behind the model, like in the photo of Samantha Ryan. A wide angle lens from floor level, or any level, can be a nice change of pace.
There are a few other options for variety in hallways. Most of your photos will be looking down the hall, so try to get a few that are NOT looking straight down the hall. For example, the model can be against a wall, and you can choose a camera angle where you don’t see much of the hall, or any of it.
Try getting into the hall with the model for some very intimate photos. Just be aware of the light and the background, including your own lightstands. And watch out for your own shadows! Also watch out for any reflective surfaces, such as windows, glass over framed art, or mirrors, where you might capture something you don’t want in the photo!
Another option for variety is looking down at the model on the floor, like this photo of Eufrat. What hall? Actually, I feel that the floor in this hall is so beautiful, and makes Eufrat’s skin look so good, that I could have shot an entire gallery like this, with just Eufrat on the floor. Sometimes the best photos from a session are ones that do not even show the background we so meticulously arranged.
—
The photos in this blog post demonstrate my style of lighting and photography I have developed for the galleries of Torrid Art. Your lighting choices may be different. Every photographer develops their own style, and you will too. Just give it some time, take lots of pictures and study them.
Hallways can be very interesting, aesthetically pleasing settings and backgrounds for erotic photography. They can be challenging for models if there are no props. If there is not enough available light, even when adding light from your on-camera flash, hallways can require considerable equipment and present a challenge even to experienced photographers.
- RAP
It seems incredible. Torrid Art went online in January, 2007. It’s been five wonderful years of beautiful, stripping, naked women. I’ve met lots of people and made some good friends along the way. It’s also been five years of hard work and an uncertain world economy. But the women! There have been some incredible women pass before me during these five years. They have the power to turn these hard times into “the good old days,” don’t they?
The site you see is the third version of Torrid Art. The first, the one that went online in 2007, didn’t last very long. It was quickly replaced by a new design. And now, this third version, or “TA3″ as we call it, may be nearing the end of its useful life. It’s the reality of life on the web: Things must change. I would like to thank Martin, our webmaster, for his hard work and dedication to our little site.
Email This Post
| 1 Comment »
