Lighting erotic photography, or Cracks Kill.
There are many ways to shine light on a model for an erotic photograph. And there are some “rules.” The rules are mostly suggestions, but the old adage about them goes something like this: Learn the rules of lighting, so that when you break them, you do so responsibly and artistically.
I used to follow the “prime directive” of lighting photography for adult websites. That rule states that all the nooks and crannies of the female body must have some light in them and be completely visible without dark shadows hiding the fun parts.
Long-term followers of Torrid Art have probably noticed that I don’t follow that rule anymore - it’s too restrictive and the resulting light is too “flat.” I now feel that some well-placed shadows can be very erotic, as long as there are some photos in each set that show everything. 
To accomplish that goal, I sometimes ask the model to point her butt, or whatever, right at the light, so some light can get into that crack.
These photos of Prinzzess show just one of my favorite ways of lighting using studio strobes. There is a name for this type of lighting setup: “side light.” I feel that this type of light makes a model like Prinzzess “sparkle,” giving her highlights around the edges and revealing her skin texture.
All photo sessions for Torrid Art are shot on location rather than in a studio. It is rare that I have enough space in these locations to set up my lights in the arrangement I used with Prinzzess. But even this location was restricted, and I had to put two lights outside, pointing in through the window behind Prinzzess.
One little detail about this setup, which used six lights, is that the “main” light is to the left of the camera position. Normally, in side light, the main light is very close to the camera position, or “centered.” With the light far off center, depending on the mood of each pose, I can ask Prinzzess to turn her face into the light, like this photo of her sitting, or away from the light and create a more moody look to her face.
I don’t often use that many lights for the model only, but I often use that many lights in total, including one or two lights for the background. On occasion I use more. But don’t think you have to spend a lot of money for lights to get erotic photos! Photos can be just as erotic with one or two lights, even zero! Actually, some of the most erotic photos on Torrid Art were taken without any lights at all. Yes, that is possible if you use natural light from the sun. Just move your model close to a window.
For large, 2000 pixel samples of some of these photos, see issue #11 of the Torrid Art newsletter, here. (You can subscribe to the biweekly newsletter on the Home page.)
- RAP
