It’s not just about soft light

Mea Culpa poses in the most gorgeous soft light, to give me one of my favourite nude photographs.   An elderly couple bought it, telling me how hard it is to find tasteful and classical nudes for their walls.  

We were running a shoot for photographers in a very small garage.  The owners, being artists, had painted the whole place white.  White ceilings, floors and walls, of course, and had even furnished it with white furniture.  Low ceilings.  

So here, one softbox sent light out bouncing aound everywhere and showed me something I hadn’t seen before.  How well bounced light can fill and envelope a beautiful body.

Always paint your studio white.  To stop the bouncing, you use black flags.   

Looking at this photograph for years has lead me back to one of my teaching points, that details intrigue the viewer.  Try to imagine the photograph without that gorgeous finger and lovely nail, or without the tangle of hair.  It would quickly fall apart.  

It's often these details that I don’t consciously notice at the time of creation that make the artwork stand the test of time.  Hopefully, my subconscious did notice them.   

Mea Culpa, photograph and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2018