I'm an amateur photographer with a particular interest in B&W photography. A workmate who is pregnant has asked me to take some photos of her - she doesn't have anything particular in mind and would be happy to pose clothed or unclothed. I have not done anything like this before, so wondered if anyone could give me some ideas as to lighting, poses, film to use etc. so I can make the most of this opportunity. All replies appreciated! Thanks, Janice.

-- Janice Mackay (jmackay@hotmail.com), November 21, 2000

Answers

The ideas is to keep your friend as omfortable as possible. If she is comfortable in the poses, then she will come accross to the camera well. If she is not happy or comfortable then she will look unhappy.

Try starting off shooting with her in a white or semi transparent robe that she can play with herself and expose or not the amount of figure she wishes. Try putting up a mirror behind you that she can see herself in and pose herself. Once she is comfortable doing that she may let you guide her into the kind of poses you have in mind for her.

You might try looking at the web site www.livphoto.com for some classy ideas.

Good Luck with your shoot. Dave

-- Dave Roche (droche@itb.nawcsti.navy.mil), November 21, 2000.

Hi Janice, I agree with the above post, and would add these suggestions/ideas. Give natural/available light a try. Using lighting, if you have not done so before, increases your chance of messing up the mood and technical portion of the photo session.

I don't know where you are located, i.e. if you could work outdoors this time of the year or not. If indoors, work in as well lighted a room as you can come up with, close to windows. Indirect light will be easier to work with. That is, no direct sunlight falling on your subject. On the other hand, ii it does, you might get some neat 'special effects.'

Work with a tripod, and film rated at ISO 400 to ISO 1600.

If you do your own developing and plan to do so, I would recommend Tri-X, Ilford HP5, Neopan 400 for the ISO 400 films.

For the faster films I would recommend Fuji Neopan 1600 at an exposure index of 1000 and developed at an e.i of 1000. Or, Kodak T- Max 3200 metered and developed at 1600 and developed in T-Max developer per instructions.

A HIGHLY recommended alternative would be using Ilford XP-2 Super @320 and developed by your local photofinisher and then printed in your darkroom.

If you have used Kodak's infrared film before, you might give that a shot too; chances are you will come up with some interesting images from that.

Whichever film you end up using, be sure and shoot plenty of film. Not less than three rolls, more like six, and if both of you can manage, use more than that.

Also consider going to a discount store and buying some dark and light fabric remnants to use for backdrop, draping, and generally playing around with.

I would also suggest you look at some of Joyce Tenneson's work and perhaps Sheila Metzner's.

In regards to poses. It really depends on your personality. If you are a detail, directional kind of person, you might want to come up with some poses and 'work' them. If you are spontaneous forget about trying to pose your subject in other than general ways.

Best of luck!

chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), November 22, 2000.

I worked for a photographer that did this for some friends of his. I don't know exactly what your vision (or supply of equipment) is, but the results of this were beautiful. We started as soon as the subject found out she was pregnant. The technical setup was simple a speedotron head was on a boom with an umbrella, and a diffusing cover, on about a 45 degree angle down over the center of the set, 9 feet up or so. We used a mottled gray canvas background. and no other lights. The camera was a 4x5 view camera loaded with type 55 polaroid (exposed at iso 50) We lit the scene for f16 @ 1/125. She wore a simple black bra and a pair of normal black pants. We shot once a month for all nine months of the pregnancy, and we would shoot one box of type 55 each time. She wore a simple black bra and a pair of normal black pants. The clothing was nondescript as this was a great documentation of her body's change over the course of the pregnancy. We would start each session with two head on shots and two profiles. For the rest of the box of film we would have the subject do what ever she felt like doing, in terms of movement, poses, whatever. With these two elements combined, we got both a good documentaion of physical changes, but of her different emotional states as well. It was a fun project and it came out very well. Anyway this is just the way we did it, but I'm sure there is a multitude of variations inside the type of setup I'm talking about. Anyway, good luck.

-- Alex Haglund (Bassomisfit@netscape.net), November 22, 2000.

Oops - I have just realised that I gave an incorrect e-mail address on my original post. It should have read . If anyone has e-mailed me directly please could you do so again - thanks! Thanks also to those who have posted replies so far, I'm looking forward to trying some of the suggestions. Janice.

-- Janice Mackay (jmackay64@hotmail.com), November 22, 2000.