Can anyone give me their ideas of what to do for a b&w nude photography assignment

[Emily]

dealing with light? I have an assignment today in class. We're going to be given studio lights, a white backdrop, and two nude models. We have to take photos in class. Can anyone give me tips & ideas for this? I'm really nervous!
Also, how do I graycard for a correct exposure?

[Ellie]

do you mean what to do with the models?

if so, you could try and prtrey different emotions by getting them into different positions. for instance, try and get a calm love or something by having one lay over the other. get them to look like they are in a physical fight, get them to look like they are passionatly in love with eachother (this one may be more difficult, make sure it doesnt look like porn...). there are just a few ideas, but you could also try and make a shape out of their bodies of something, which may not look quite as artistic. try taking photographs at different heights, and with heaps of zoom for different effects. it doesnt have to be two blank expressionless bodies standing in front of you! hope you have some ideas.

[Mere_Mortal]

Are you using statues or human models? Don't giggle and everything should be fine. LOL.

Remember, nudity does not automatically equate to sexuality or eroticism. If we were supposed to wear clothes we would have been born with them on. Don't be nervous.

I would recommend you look at the "Nude" gallery at www.photo.net. Lot's of tasteful inspiration there!

You may have to sign up, but it is worth the time.

http://photo.net/gallery/

[salut]

Just a thought. How about if you get the first model to stand facing the camera in the foreground, and the 2nd model right next to her (body close together) facing backwards. The lighting should be rather dramatic, with dark contrasting shadows, showing the beauty of the human form in shadowy curves. Picture 2 greek goddesses. Make sure their arms are placed like typical greek statues, half bent, away from body....do some research on aphrodite statues...etc..

[Michael U]

The grey card needs to sit at the middle of your histogram if you are using digital and with either film or digital the reading you get from this needs to be the setting you use on your camera... but you'll need to use a histogram if you are using flash + digital and zoom in to the card which needs to be in your models position.

If you are using flash, you really need a flash meter: again input the settings you get on your camera, but don't forget to adjust the light level or the ISO, or the position of the light, so you get the right ISO and aperture combination (+ synch' speed of course).

Lighting is simple when you know how - and I've done seminars explaining it but it's counter intuitive... many people just set up the lights straight on, even if you tell them not to, but if you want nice tonal gradations you need to put the light 'side on' like a window, so it skims over your subject.

This employs a principle known as the 'rule of squares', where your flash light will fade off from one side to the other, the closer the light the more it will fade in relative terms, so to get a wider range of tonality your light needs to be pretty close to the subject - the further the light is the less 'relative' fall off you get - which is what you need when photographing a group, to get consistency on the faces for example.

As for posing, study great photographers and copy things out of books and magazines for some ideas.

Good luck...