Nude photography: what I learned during a masterclass outside my comfort zone

Nude photography wasn't on my list. I photograph people on the street, I make portraits in my studio and I give workshops. That's my world, and that's where I feel at home. Yet I said yes when the Nude Photography masterclass from Photofacts Academy came along. Exciting, and definitely outside my comfort zone. But I believe that as a photographer you should have done everything at least once. Not because you necessarily keep doing it afterwards, but because you learn something from it that you take with you into the rest of your work.

In this article I'll take you through what I experienced, what I learned and whether nude photography is something for me. Along the way you'll get my top 5 tips for nude photography, in case you're considering taking that step yourself.

Talking it over at home first

Before I signed up, I discussed it at home. That might sound old-fashioned, but I thought it was important. Nude photography isn't just any genre. You work with someone who is vulnerable, literally. And you make photos that people have an opinion about. My wife and daughters, 16 and 20, were bound to have an opinion about it. So I asked whether they were okay with it. They were. You should have done everything once, they said, just as firmly as I did. "As long as you don't dive into your studio with a naked woman every day."

That conversation may have been my first lesson. Nude photography starts with trust and with being open about what you're going to do. At home, but soon in the studio too.

Model release

Then the most boring part of the shoot, but perhaps the most important: the model release. That's the agreement in which you and your model set out what happens to the photos. Can you put them on your website? On social media? Can you sell them, or enter them in a competition? Does the model also get the photos, and what is the model allowed to do with them?

With nude photography that's not a luxury, and it actually applies to every shoot where you pay a model, with or without clothing. Put the expectations on paper, go through them together and both sign. It might feel a bit businesslike on a day that's otherwise about trust, but it's exactly the opposite. A model release ensures there's never any confusion afterwards, and that's pleasant for both of you. It only makes trust grow.

The masterclass at Photofacts Academy

You probably know Photofacts Academy from their more than a hundred online courses and from their books, including Straatfotobijbel (in Dutch). Besides their online offering, they also organise masterclasses on location, and that's where I ended up. A small group of photographers, a professional model and a full day to learn and try things out.

Was I nervous? Well, maybe for a moment, but not really. Okay, I wasn't going to be photographing a still life. Out of my comfort zone. I was mostly curious how it would feel to photograph someone who isn't wearing any clothes. How comfortable is that, for photographer and model? What do you say? Where do you look? How do you give directions without it becoming awkward? All those little voices in the back of your head.

The answer turned out to be surprisingly simple: exactly the way you do it during a regular portrait shoot.

Starting dressed

One of the things that made immediate sense to me: you start a nude photography shoot with a dressed model. That way model and photographer can get used to each other. You take a few photos, talk about what you want to create, and see how someone moves and responds to your directions. Only afterwards does the clothing come off, and by then it happens naturally, because you've already taken a few steps together.

Even with a professional model, who may do this more often than you, it's still worth doing. It's pleasant for the model, but for you as a photographer perhaps even more so. And in my view it also makes the shoot a bit less businesslike, a bit less cold. You're photographing a person, not a vase.

You forget that a nude model is standing in front of you

This sounds strange, but it's really true. When you're in the middle of it, you're focused on a look, a pose, the direction of the light, the shadow on a shoulder. As a professional photographer you're surprisingly little concerned with the fact that someone is naked. You look at shape, at lines, at what the photo needs.

And that's exactly why you shouldn't forget it either. A nude model gets cold faster than you do in your jumper. Think about the temperature in the room. Make sure a bathrobe is ready for between the series. Discuss when there'll be a break. Tea, water, something to eat. They're small things, but they determine whether someone feels at ease. And a model who feels at ease gives you better photos. That's no different with nude photography than with a headshot.

Talk it through, just like always

Discuss the photos. Show what you're creating, say what you want and ask what the model thinks of it. That's no different from usual, of course. With my PAUSE portraits I do exactly the same thing. I show the screen, we talk, we try something different.

That was perhaps my biggest insight of the day: nude photography doesn't actually differ that much from what I already do. It's about connection, about trust and about creating something together. The clothing, or the lack of it, is a detail in that process.

Soft light

With nude photography everything revolves around the skin, and skin needs soft light. Hard light shows every imperfection and makes shadows sharp and restless. Soft light does the opposite: it glides over a body, makes shapes look rounder and hides what you don't want to show.

You achieve that with a large light source, and I mean really large relative to your model. A flash through a diffuser, a large window with a curtain in front of it, or light that you bounce indirectly off a wall or ceiling.

During the masterclass we mainly worked with large softboxes, diffusers and indirect light, and the difference compared to a bare flash is enormous. It sounds technical, but it comes down to this: the bigger and the more spread out your light source, the softer your photo. And soft is almost always what you want for atmospheric nude photography.

Top 7 tips for nude photography

If you want to try nude photography yourself sometime, these are the seven things I'd give you regardless.

1. Start dressed. Let model and photographer get used to each other first. Take a few photos, talk, and build it up. Even with a professional model, that's the nicest way to start.
2. Take good care of your model. Warm room, bathrobe within reach, regular breaks. You forget that someone is naked, the model doesn't.
3. Record the agreements in a model release. Boring, but essential. Put in writing what happens to the photos and both sign. That way there's never any confusion afterwards, and that applies to every shoot where you pay a model.
4. Work with soft light. A large light source, through a diffuser or bounced off a wall, makes skin look beautiful and shapes rounded. Hard light is rarely what you want with nude photography.
5. Talk about everything. Discuss beforehand what you want to create and what the model does and doesn't want. Show your photos during the shoot and talk about them. Voicing expectations matters more with nude photography than with any other genre.
6. Play with shape, light and shadow. Silhouette, movement, atmosphere: that's where nude photography gets interesting. Without clothing you see the lines of a body and can really draw with light.
7. Keep asking yourself which side of the line you're on. There's a thin line between fine art and soft porn. Look at every photo with that question in mind, and discuss it with your model too.

The thin line between fine art and soft porn

That last tip deserves a bit more explanation. Nudity is an extra element in a photo, an extra dimension, and it genuinely makes a difference. They're different photos. Sometimes more elegant than dressed, sometimes much flatter. A pose that's simply a pose with clothes on suddenly becomes something else without them.

I noticed that during the shoot I regularly wondered which side of that line I was on. Is this still a beautiful photo of an elegant body, or is this about something else? The answer doesn't lie with you alone. This, too, is very much an interplay between photographer and model. What the model wants to convey, what you want to create and what you both stand behind. Again, it comes down to voicing expectations.

Is nude photography something for me?

Very enjoyable to do, that's for sure. But I still find it difficult. With every photo I wondered what I was going to do with it. How does this fit into my work? Where do I place this in my portfolio? I don't have an answer to that yet, and that might be the answer too.

For me, real nakedness, or perhaps better put purity, lies somewhere else. In an open look. In an open posture. In the trust between photographer and model. That's what I aim for in my PAUSE portraits, and that works just as well with clothes on. Maybe even better, because then there's no extra layer competing for attention.

What I no longer need to wonder about: I find covered more exciting. Covered nudity, the suggestion of nakedness, I find perhaps even more interesting than plain nudity. A shoulder, a back, a silhouette behind a piece of fabric. It leaves room for the viewer, and in photography I find that almost always stronger than showing everything.

Learning nude photography yourself

I found it instructive, interesting and special to have experienced. I'd like to thank Elja from Photofacts and model Sia for an instructive masterclass. It was a day that gave me more than just a few photos.

Want to take nude photography further yourself? At Photofacts Academy you'll find the Nude Photography course by Danyel Weideman. In it he goes much deeper into light, poses and working with your model than I can in a single article here. And if you mainly want to learn about connecting with your model, with or without clothing, then one of my workshops might also be something for you. Because that, ultimately, is what every form of photography is about.