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Well, I got a Nikon (and in particular a D90) because of the way it felt in my hands. I figured that there wouldn’t be much specialization toward shooting “studio” or “sports” in a (near) entry-level, crop-sensor DSLR. Besides, there’s move-around-a-lot studio shooting, and then there’s heavy-tripod-and-tethering-with-mirror-lockup studio shooting.
I got the kit lens (18-105), and the 35mm f/1.8 prime. Cheap lenses, but by most reports very good quality for their price. I look at the price of my current lenses not as a down payment, but as a long-term rental while I figure out just how I want to upgrade. Once I figure that out, I can rent a few pieces of expensive glass, and then I can raid my savings account to buy the ones I want. I suspect that I’ll want a pro-quality mid-range zoom, in the end, rather than investing heavily in primes, but it’s still early days for me.
The new mirrorless interchangable-lens cameras seem to hit the opposite of a sweet spot for me personally. (Sour spot? Bitter spot?) For a travel camera, I’d rather have a superzoom, or a waterproof compact, or a high-end compact with lots of manual controls.
That new Nikon (D800, or D800E with the no-AA-filter option) does look interesting even if it is way too rich for my blood. It seems to me that it’s being sold at least partly as a medium-format substitute for people who lust for medium-format but don’t have $10,000+ to pay for one. But I’m more interested in Nikon’s next DX camera, although I don’t expect to replace my D90 for several more years.
Well, part of the draw of Restrained Elegance is that the photography looks like it’s high end and classy. And the best way to get that is for the photography to actually be high end and classy. So for people who are interested in “RE: Behind the scenes,” tech talk about photography is an important part of that.
Also you do have an unusually strong preference for the high end stuff. Seriously, how many other bondage sites shoot using medium format? There may be some, but I’ll bet they’re heavily outnumbered by the sites that put up photos taken by point-and-shoots. I find your advice to be very good, but I do have to translate it (Canon & MF –> Nikon, and full frame –> DX)
OK
1. Some sort of tickling scene, obviously.
2. Hywel or (some other male person) summons a demoness, or opens a genie-bottle. The supernatural female threatens him, and he tricks or magics her into the stocks. There she’s stuck, until she agrees to serve him, and she may be stuck there for a long time. (Maybe she succeeds in zapping him, but then discovers that zapping him doesn’t get her out of the stocks.)
3. The model is put into the stocks while she has her hair done (brushed, braided, whatever). Her character is a princess, tomboy, wannabe hollywood actress, or something, and she can’t keep her hands away from her hair otherwise.
4. A princess or other damsel in distress has been stuck in the cursed, magical stocks for a hundred years. The hero comes along to rescue her, only she’s bratty (maybe sticks out her tongue at him). Or he does something wrong when trying to break the curse, and gets turned into a newt. In either case, the princess is stuck in the stocks for another hundred years.
As a general idea: A set where the model is sitting, with ankles tied or hobbled together, and the pole rising up between her legs. Have her arms secured in some way not involving the pole, maybe hands tied behind her back.
A couple of more specific ideas:
1. A standard, lying on the belly hogtie, but with the pole rising up between the model’s legs so as to be between her hands & her feet. Then attach a big sign to the pole, to turn it into a ‘display’ scene: Accused of being a witch, caught gossiping in church, failed to please the Sultan, being held for a public tickling or spanking at noon, was a failure in the kitchen…
2. A harem scene with a big pile of cushions around the base of the pole. The model is secured to the pole by the left wrist & ankle, using cuffs. Then have the right arm & leg secured in some interesting way that doesn’t involve the pole. The model is then stuck there, awaiting the Sultan’s pleasure.
I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE promising things I don’t deliver.
I hear you. I really really don’t like doing that either.
I don’t think that makes you come across as cold and unenthusiastic, but it does have the drawback that people can’t make suggestions wrt a particular shoot until its way too late.
It would be nice if you could give a list of ideas under the category of “we’d like to do this but we don’t know if we’ll be able to” and not have anyone take it as a commitment.
Some random thoughts:
Welcome back CD, even if you can’t stay long.
I’ll agree with CD about toe-cuffs, toe ties, and tickling.
I have to counter the call for more long videos with harder BDSM with a countervailing background mutter for long videos that are softer and fluffier. IIRC, I commented on this before, when the first long RE videos came out.
Likewise with the dungeon sets. They’re not bad (at least not the way RE does them) but they’re not my favorite either. How about more “harem” sets?
Or maybe, how about a “stone-room” set that’s lit and otherwise set up as a high castle tower (suitable for captive princesses) rather than a castle dungeon?
Or a stone-room set that set up as a medieval scullery, for a barefoot, rag-wearing, be-chained scullery-maid who has to scrub the floor, or has to wash a bunch of big, greasy pots and pans?
WRT finding bigger thumb-cuffs (or toe cuffs) I wish I could help. I’ve looked myself, and I haven’t been able to find anything.
Another glitch is that the dates are missing from the latest RE News posts. (They’re still there for the older news items.)
I think I made this suggestion before, but when you post these previews, I would REALLY like you to indicate which of the sample photos are from New sets, and which are from Archive sets.
Many of the problems with the forum seem to be a matter of “impressions” (even when those impressions aren’t true).
There’s an impression that you and the other members of the RE crew don’t check the forum on a frequent or regular basis.
The Forum Guidelines say that it’s a place “to talk about all things pertaining to the site, and about bondage, BDSM fantasies, bondage photography and bondage videos in general” – but there’s an impression that discussions aren’t really welcome if they aren’t closely related to the sets and other stuff on the RE site.
There’s an impression that “cold” suggestions aren’t really all that welcome; that there is something faintly rude about making them. (One of the problems here is an aspect of “you can’t please everyone.” Any suggestion made will have a built-in opposition who doesn’t like it, and who would rather that RE actually do the exact opposite.)
I like having a RE forum here, and would prefer to keep it going as a forum rather than see it switch to a blog or meta-blog. My suggestions for preserving and improving the forum would be:
o When you blog, create a thread here pointing to that blog post. One thing in particular that I noticed was that you posted your piece about risk assessment on your blog and on fetlife but not here.
o Divide the “chat” sub-forum into three or four sub-forums. E.g.
===
Suggestion Box
– a place to make and discuss various suggestions, both invited and “cold”Showing Off
– a place for members to post their own photos, drawings, stories and other bondage stuff.Comments on Sets
General Chat
===Or some other division, with the point being to put out a bigger welcome mat. In any case, I’d suggest putting a subheading describing appropriate comments, rather than tucking that away in a Forum Guidelines post. E.g. if you keep just a single “Chat” subforum, then under the “Chat” title, give a subheading: “Posts about all things pertaining to the site, and about bondage, BDSM fantasies, bondage photography and bondage videos in general”
Putting on my semi-pro writer’s hat:
In my fiction writing, I capitalize Master in the slavegirl’s dialog or if the scene is from the slavegirl’s POV. I see this one as a matter of style, more than of rules-of-grammar, and arguments could be made either way about which is “correct.” (E.g. “Master” could be considered equivalent to a private nickname that only one person is allowed to use. Thus “Popkins” might be a nickname for a husband that only his wife is allowed to use, and when she does use it in writing, it is (a) Capitalized, and (b) doesn’t imply that the husband is “Popkins” to any other woman.)
Small “i” as a pronoun is more like using non-standard language deliberately for a stylistic effect. It’s like using a phonetic spelling to indicate dialect or accent, or using “ain’t” to make some sort of point.
“Vat do you tink you are doing?”
If he thinks his fake german accent will fool anyone, then he ain’t too bright.Slashed capital/noncapital just bugs me: If Y/you insist on using that form, then no one can stop Y/you, but it’s just ugly.
Styling oneself as “Master Such-and-Such” or “Sir So-and-So” does come across as being this odd combination of arrogant and silly, especially if the name is, as you say, “mental.” Some people can pull it off if they play it tongue-in-cheek, and a very very few people can pull it off playing it straight. (Many more people in fiction can pull it off, where they have the fictional society backing up their usage.)
We’re all very shy. 😳
Happy New Year, and welcome back!
Let me add my congrats as well.
1. Check
2. Check
3. Check
4. Check – as a speculation, modern handcuffs have an “police” vibe, and other kinds of metal restraints have a “fetish” vibe. But the classic DiD has the damsel bound for “practical” reasons, and having bindings that seem somewhat improvised gives it more of that feeling.
5. I’d call that one optional.
Here’s something I wrote a while back for another forum:
===================================
Variations on the Damsel in Distress – an essay“Damsel in Distress” is in some ways a compromise, something consisting of various overlapping forms. Any given DiD fan is apt to like some of the forms more than others, especially as a given liked (or disliked) form moves away from the central idea of “damsel tied up.”
Here’s my take on some of the different forms. Of course, a given DiD scenario may combine more than one.
Gagged for Gold
The damsel is tied & gagged to keep her from escaping and/or giving the alarm as the captor proceeds to obtain the loot he came for – money, jewelry, secret papers, etc. One variant is the kidnapping, where the loot is ransom money paid for the captive damsel’s return.Tied for Terror
The damsel is tied up and subjected to a peril that will frighten her, demean her, and/or cause her pain. The darkness of this form will depend on the seriousness of the peril and on whether the damsel is only threatened with the painful & humiliating torments or actually subjected to them. One common variation is for the peril to be (threatened) death.Roped and Rescued
“Villainous Interruptus,” where a rescuer comes in to foil the captor (or at least his plans) and free the damsel. Most commonly played off a “Tied for Terror” variation, but can be played off on of the other DiD forms. The stereotypical examples are the damsel rescued from the railroad tracks, from the big saw in the timber-mill, or from being a virgin sacrifice to the local dragon.Pinned-Down Pin-Up
Here the damsel is restrained in a way as to provide a sexy display, not just for the admiration of the audience, but also for the captor and for other characters within the scenario. One example is the scantily-clad female chained (or at least leashed) at the foot of the tyrant’s throne – as in the famous case of “Slavegirl Leia” and Jabba the Hutt.Cuties in Comfy Captivity
This one is my personal favorite. It’s also notable for the “peril” factor being dialed way down – possibly to zero. The damsel is tied up or otherwise restrained, but also pampered. The form may be combined with “Pinned-Down Pin-Up” (e.g. in an odalisque or harem-slave scenario) or with “Gagged for Gold” (e.g. a gentleman kidnapper who keeps the damsel comfortable while waiting for the ransom to arrive.)Knot Really In Danger
This focuses on the point-of-view of the damsel, catering to the fantasy of being tied up and given the thrill of being put into peril. But of course without the peril being a real danger, because then the fantasy wouldn’t be any fun. The “force fantasy” is one version of this, where the peril consists of actually being ravished, but with the ravishment not actually being bad because it was either pre-arranged as part of the game (in real life) or because it’s in fiction and the Power of Poetics is invoked to make the unconsenting sex romantic rather than horrible.Bad Girl Bound
The damsel here is, if not an actual Villainess, then at least a Naughty Girl. The captor here is actually the hero (or a reasonable facsimile), who ties the damsel up in order to keep her from hurting others. One variant has the damsel tied up so that a possessing spirit can be questioned. This blends into “Secured for Safety,” below.Secured for Safety
As with “Bad Girl Bound” the captor is the hero or a reasonable facsimile. However the damsel here isn’t Bad, but simply someone who innocently gets into trouble. Thus the damsel is tied to keep her out of peril, rather than putting her into it. This can blend into “Bad Girl Bound” or “Gagged for Gold” if the damsel is simply on the opposite side of the hero-captor, with her bad-person aspects being downplayed.
===================================Likewise I don’t at all regret getting the 35mm f/1.8. The price was right (unlike Nikon’s 35mm f/1.4…) and it’s a great lens for when I don’t have the studio lights set out.
For the most part, Hywel said it better than I could. The main thing I noticed that Hywel didn’t mention was that almost all of your shots were made at a fairly wide angle – ~20mm according to the EXIF data. Even the close-ups are mostly taken at a wide angle. So one suggestion I’d make is to back away and zoom in so that you’re at 35-50mm. That’s what I made sure I did when I took my first (and so far only) sets with my D90. Going wider than that makes the perspective look funny, as I found out with some of the earlier photos I took with my older point-and-shoot.
(This is further complicated by “crop factors.” Your Canon has a crop factor of 1.6 which turns 18-20mm into “29-32mm full-frame equivalent.” My Nikon D90 has a crop factor of 1.5 which turns 35-50mm into “52-75mm full frame equivalent.” Hywel’s Canon has a crop factor of 1 because it is full frame, and his Hasselblad is a “medium format” with a crop factor of less than 1. I’ll let him give any further explanations of what this all means.)
I’ll also “mostly” endorse Hywel’s advice to get a 35mm and/or 50mm prime. I got the 35mm f/1.8 for my Nikon right away, and I love it for indoor, available-light shots. But I ended up walking the studio flash path, and I chickened out of using the 35mm prime in favor of the kit zoom (18-105mm, which I mostly kept at 35-50mm, as I mentioned earlier) when I did my sets with the studio lights.
I’d suggest adding a keyword like “Pleasure Bondage” or some such, for sets where the captive is obviously enjoying her bondage and/or is receiving forced pleasure.
Also, I’d suggest replacing “Realistic setting,” “Elegant Fantasy Setting,” and “Unreal Fantasy Setting” with “Present-day Setting,” “Elegant Setting,” and “Otherworldly Setting.” The “Elegant Setting” keyword would combine with and be orthogonal to the Historical, Present-Day, and Otherworldly setting keywords.
Thus Elegant Setting + Present-day Setting would be your private island, while a “typical” modern-day office would just be a Present-day setting. Likewise in a Historical Setting, the “Elegant Setting” keyword would distinguish between a captive princess in a richly-furnished bedroom of a medieval castle, vs a captive scullery maid in the workaday kitchen of that castle.
The list of ‘official’ RE keywords could be more prominently displayed. Maybe for the basic Search, add an entry for “add keyword,” followed by a list of the official keywords, to the “search any word/search all words” drop-down list. If the searcher picks a keyword, have the page add the keyword to his search terms in the text box.
On the Advanced Search page, maybe allow Boolean searches, instead of having a keyword drop-down list, and also give a list of the ‘official’ keywords along with a brief ‘cheat-sheet’ of the Boolean search syntax you use.
Looks like some nice sets coming up.
Another idea that just occured to me: A set where the model is blindfolded, but not gagged.
A possible scenario is for a female secret agent to be captured, bound, & partly stripped (e.g. shoes removed), and then blindfolded, so that she can’t tell where the Opposition is taking her. Once in the secret lair of the Opposition, she is stripped completely nude, and kept bound and blindfolded to await a brainwashing or amnesia treatment followed by a sale to the Opposition’s special contact “H.O.”
This might be a three-set scenario: Set 1 is the capture, partial stripping, blindfolding, and transport to the lair. Set 2 is the model completely stripped, wearing only bonds and a blind fold and awaiting the “treatment.” Set 3 is the sale of a new slavegirl by Honest Omar, with a nudge-nudge wink-wink about where she came from. (Maybe have her still be blindfolded while on the auction block.)
Three suggestions:
o A request I made a little while back: New sets with Amy Allen and/or Natasha.
o A captured jungle girl or amazon warrior, displayed as a trophy. Have the model bound between two vertical poles or to a frame: left wrist & ankle tethered to one pole, right wrist & ankle tethered to the other, in a sort of standing spread-eagle.
o A librarian in an old-fashioned skirt/blouse, with glasses, has been abducted and bound. Have the captor remove (or cut off) her clothing until she’s left nude, wearing nothing but her glasses. (Remove her shoes & stockings first, of course.)
The chief control lacking on my FZ28 is control over off-camera flash: No hotshoe, and not even any way to turn off the preflash. Other than that, the fact that my D90 has a bigger and better sensor – not so much in terms of megapixels, but physically bigger – seems more important than the increased degree of manual control. (That, and my having more experience in using the manual controls. The white balance problems with the 2010 pics are there because I did set the FZ28 on manual white balance and then mucked it up.)
For the 2011 pics, I was going for a “really really soft light” look, thus the big (64 inch) umbrella/parabolic light modifier as the key light. Maybe I did overdo it. I considered not using a fill light at all (or using a reflector to give just a bit of fill), and as I said, I think I would have done better to try to use the second strobe more as a hairlight, way up high and further toward the back.
No, the main catchlight is from my big strobe, which was not as far to the side as I’d have preferred, due to the lack of space.
A little too flat? Maybe. If I were doing it again, I might put the second flash up even higher and further toward the back, to try to get it to act as more of a hair light. If I could. The “studio” was a corner of my hotel room at FetishCon, that I tried to disguise so as to not be instantly recognizable as a hotel room at FetishCon, and I was fighting a lack of space.
Still, it was an improvement over last year. Here are some of the photos I took last year at FetishCon 2010, using my old Panasonic FZ28 point-and-shoot. I had a bank of three compact-florescents to the side as off-camera light (camera right, at roughly 45 degrees), a messed-up white balance due to my inexperienced attempt at setting a custom white balance, and added pop-up flash in photos 3 and 5.
[attachment=4:2ttjk7ce]Je C-Sablesword FC2010 sample01.jpg[/attachment:2ttjk7ce]
[attachment=3:2ttjk7ce]Kim Marvel-Sablesword FC2010 sample4.jpg[/attachment:2ttjk7ce]
[attachment=0:2ttjk7ce]Kim Marvel-Sablesword FC2010 sample6a.jpg[/attachment:2ttjk7ce]
[attachment=2:2ttjk7ce]Neptune-Sablesword FC2010 sample5.jpg[/attachment:2ttjk7ce]
[attachment=1:2ttjk7ce]stormy night-sablesword fc2010 sample5.jpg[/attachment:2ttjk7ce]And this is why I caught a case of DSLR lust.
I’ve got a couple of questions about the MP4 vs DVD:
Why is the DVD file twice as large as the MP4, even though the DVD file is zipped?
Is the DVD region-free?
And a suggestion: Maybe put up a PAL DVD test file on the Elegance Studios site, so that people can test whether the PAL DVDs you offer will play on their particular systems.
I just want to point out that “damsel-in-distress” can vary a lot, from light and humorous, to dark and disturbing, to “Brain-bleach! Stat!”
Storylines for photosets have been discussed on these forums a number of times before. I think RE currently has the balance just about right, even though I know that Hywel’s fantasies are darker than my own.
No, I’m not a professional. I’ve just been reading up and trying to imitate professionals.
For those interested in the tech-headed details: Nikon D90, kit lens (18-105), f/8, shutter 1/200, ISO 200, two studio lights (Alien Bees). Main light reflected off a big (64 inch) white umbrella/PLM camera right, pointed down ~45 degrees. Shoot-through umbrella used as a fill/background light camera left. Lights triggered by the pop-up flash set at 1/64 power.
OK, I’ll put in a suggestion: Tickling.
Specifically a harem-set with Ariel in a semi-suspension, sitting on the ground with her legs straight and parallel and her feet held high in the air. Hywel, playing the role of either the Sultan or of a high official deputized by him, applies a thorough tickling to the soles of Ariel’s feet in lieu of a bastinado. Maybe have him use a feather-duster or a lambswool duster that’s played up as the “dreaded instrument.”
I have to agree with anonanonanon7 that RE’s lighting is generally excellent. Sometimes Hywel et. al. do experiment with low-key lighting styles and I’m Not A Fan of that, but it’s still better to see experiments than to have the site fall into a rut. It’s just that it’s the nature of experiments to sometimes not work out.
In the case of the June 22 hair hogtie, I wouldn’t even call it “low key.” It is, as Kate said, an attempt to produce a more natural and less “staged” look. I would have prefered to see a little more fill, but I can see an argument that more fill would have made the set look tacky and artificial.
Thanks for the long & helpful response.
Maybe these posts about camera & shooting technique can be collected to form an “(in)frequently asked questions” sticky-thread or archive section. (And something similar for questions about bondage techniques and such things as how long Ariel and the other models can stand to wear ballgags.)
And let me give you another nudge ➡ toward more “tutorial” videos. As much as I’d like to, I can’t justify to myself flying across the Atlantic to attend an in-person tutorial. 🙁
A few thoughts off the top of my head:
o Testing the slavegirls for ticklishness.
o A loose & filmy covering over a slavegirl that can be whisked away by the auctioneer to start the bidding or to get the bidding to heat up.
o Having a slavegirl recite her “vital statistics” to potential buyers. Maybe include sizes for collar and for wrist & ankle cuffs, along with height, weight, age, bra size, etc.
o Honest Omar tells a slavegirl that she’s to put on the appearance of being utterly miserable & dejected, for a certain buyer. The buyer comes in, and she can’t do it – she tries, but she keeps giggling, or otherwise blows the act.
o Two (or more) slavegirls arguing with each other, telling the buyers why they should buy her, and not that other girl.
o Extravagant claims made for a slavegirl by the auctioneer, with the slavegirl telling the buyers that they’re not true – until she is gagged. (“This beauty is a real Jungle Girl! The daughter of a Duke, her family was lost at sea and then she was raised by minks on the exotic isle of Madagascar!” “Actually, my parents were shopkeepers, and I grew up in Newport.”)
My two bits:
1. More about photography.
2. A box tie/chest harness tutorial
