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Hi All,
Sorry things have been a bit quiet here recently- we’ve been off in the sun-baked hills above Malaga in Southern Spain, shooting more stunning sets for you!
Unusually for us, we decided to go back to a location we shot at last year because we’d concentrated on video before. We’d only shot ten stills sets and we loved them, so we thought there was a lot more mileage in the place if we concentrated on stills this time around. So it was back to the stunning full-time house party that is our friends Nigel and Nikki’s little naturist resort, Finca Los Etera http://www.fincalosetera.net.
Nikki’s delicious cooking and the free beer and ice creams didn’t have anything to do with it. Oh no.
Ariel and I went out a couple of days early to have a little time to ourselves, and also to take out all the kit. A couple of days later we were joined by Sophia Smith and Fi Stevens, escorted by Steve (who was bringing yet more of the kit). We shot four days of stills and one of video in searing heat (it was up to 36 degrees C in the shade on the last day!) Everyone ended up spending quite a lot of time in the pool to cool off- Steve and I even shot some sets from in the pool. Carefully, as expensive camera kit probably wouldn’t have liked to be dropped into chlorinated water!
Last time we did this trip, Ariel and I took the ferry and drove down while the others flew out. This was a hell of a trip in the middle of the Spainish summer, so this time we decided to try to get everyone out there by plane. We just about managed that, with a couple of us going out business class for the vastly increased luggage allowance. (Ahem. Well. Alright. I went business class, and Ariel came too. It is my business, and I’d never been anywhere in anything other than economy. Boss’ prerogative. It genuinely was the cheapest way to get the kit out. Didn’t get me out of wrestling four 20+ kg cases and two 10 kg “hand luggage” camera cases around the airports!)
The one casualty of the decision to fly out was that we just couldn’t take very much metal bondage gear this time- it is just too heavy. All we took out was one set of SM Factory cuffs- didn’t even have the weight to take some padlocks and chains, so when we used them we had to combine them with rope. That’s the trouble with metal- looks great, but is relatively inflexible in terms of how you can use it and how you can shoot it- rope is lighter and lets you do many different things with it.
Sorry, metal bondage fans! At least we shot lots of metal bondage sets at the castle and I promise we’ll take lots of metal bondage gear on our next UK location shoot too. And on the plus side the weather was so good that even the usually-freakily-freezing-in-a-heatwave models were hot… so we shot LOTS of nude sets!
The trip itself went fabulously. Everyone really pitched in with ideas and suggestions (not least our hostess Nikki, who had more ideas than we could have shot in six months!) Steve and Ariel did the bulk of the ropework this time, with me concentrating on the lighting. Steve and I pretty much alternated shooting the sets.
I’ve processed a few samples from the trip- the full sets will be up in a few months. Steve is going to be editing the videos from this tip soon, too. Enjoy!
Cheers, Hywel.
Oh my goodness, there are so many shots here that I wish I had taken – or rigged – or modelled! Excellent work everyone!!!!
Love Sophia’s hair flicking action shot in the pool – fab timing and framing.
Love the two tone rigging on Sophia (was that Ariel’s handiwork??)
Love Ariel tied to the tree
Love Fi’s unusual nude foot hogtie (shot in a Merlin stylee!!)Can’t wait to see more!
Kate x
Spain was awesome!!! So lucky to have spent such a fab week with great friends in a very hot location with a pool and as much ice-cream as you can eat!!
Thank you Hywel for a wonderful time and to all the models for their enthusiasm and making it such great fun.
Sophia’s hair flicking shot took a couple of attempts to get right, but she did it so well, we wanted to do it justice so very pleased with that shot.
The two tone rig on Sophia was actually my wife’s idea! I was practising rigging it on her before we flew out, so had to give it a try and Sophia volunteered to model it so beautifully. After which, we were in the mood to try different positions, so we tied Fi in that flying hogtie! 🙂
Ariel tied to the tree was Hywel’s lovely creation and I think she looks gorgeous!
I like the shots of all 3 ladies together in yellow rope by the pool side 🙂
Steve
Gah!! They’re rubbish compared to last years pics…..
Oh ok, just kidding- I’m jealous as hell 😆 They look fab, I’m loving all the yellow rope, it works so well in that setting!! Beautiful, well done everyone!!!
Hello everyone!
First my apologies for my poor English but If you have noticed English is a constant battle for Spaniards.Forgive my mistakes.
I´m a member of this site from 4 or 5 months and this is the first message that I write.
I´m glad to see you like my country. South of Spain is a nice place to go without watch and let the time pass slowly . Also I saw a set in L´Estartit, next where I live.
Usually in this site the pictures are shooted on studio but, in my opinion, your best photos have been taken outdoors.
In Spain´s case. I like the mode which Hywel captures Southern Spain´s light . I´m not living there but I know this light and this blue sky. Photographers tend to darken this light and I don´t know why. I´m tired to see videoclips filmed in Spain with the same brightness.
About the pictures. I like this kind of “Venus in the mirror ” and the growing suntan in the models 😀 .
Hywel talks about his last travel driving across Spain in the Summer.
There´s a better way . Driving across Spain in the Summer with kids in the backseat asking you ” when we arrive ?”
Next time you come to Spain I´ll make a suggestion for outdoors next Malaga. This time on the beach.
problems transporting the metal gear…
Well – a i has the answer – just put it on the girls…
Might have the airport scanners go crazy – but then again – what a set it would be seeing Ariel unlock a complete set of sm-factory cuffs – send them through security – have the staff examine them – and putting everything back on.Ariel – that wouldet have beeb a problem – would it??
And it would have matched the fact Hywell dumped you in monkey class!!.Another posibility would have been giving me the title master of lockable items. I would have drowen my car to England – filled it whith all the gear – drowen it to Spain – done all applying to models and some on model polishing…:-)
Greetings from New Jersey,
Hi everyone. The wonderful images just seem to keep on coming. Once more some stunning shoots so all sorts of thanks and praise to all involved on both sides of the camera. I’ll be looking forward to all the sets of course but I particularly liked the set with Ariel, Fi and Sophia by the pool; the late sunset shots with Sophia, the shot with Sophia hair in the pool is a classic; the shot of Ariel by the pool with the wet clothing; and the two tone ropework on Sophia plus the fact that I enjoy a scenario where the model can see herself in her bondage (the mirror in this case).
Hope all is well with everyone.
Cheers,
Jeff
Woohoo I LOVE these pics. They are all great! 😀
Many thanks to Hywel for giving me the chance to go, I now have a great tan that I am trying to maintain for as long as possible 😆
As always, these are fantastic pictures. Considering I’m a rope bondage aficionado, I really appreciate how much a treat this is to see so many intricate and elegant rope ties, especially in some of my favorite positions. I think my favorite is of Sophia in her standing strappado – I’m a sucker for models in that position that stand on the balls of their feet. That and I’m a sucker for the heavy contrast in the lighting in some of the other shots here since it really brings out a model’s curves. I remember Hywell used that technique in the set with Ariel’s standing strappado in chains (another favorite 🙂 ), and I thought the effect was just stunning.
Now I’m fairly new to photography techniques, so I’d really like to learn how to take pictures the way they are taken on RE – I think the techniques used here would really bring out the beauty in any pictures I take of my significant other, apart from her own beauty of course 😉 . Thus, I think both Steve and Hywell can answer this question: What do you use (technique and equipment-wise) in order to give the models that contrast I mentioned earlier?
On another note, that shot with Sophia whipping her hair in the water is AMAZING! Ohhh the things you could do with a high-quality camera…
All in all, I feel like each location shoot has gotten better than the last (I think I’m just being biased since this was a rope-heavy shoot). You guys really strive for quality, and it shows in your work. In case we don’t say it enough, your pictures are beyond beautiful, and it is always a pleasure to be a member, or even an outsider looking in, at RE.
Regards,
PhiThinker
Hi phithinker,
Glad you like the photos!
I think the contrasty look you like comes from cross-lighting, making sure there is a strong light source behind or to the side of the model.
Is this the set you mean?
In terms of technique, in the studio it is fairly easy to set this sort of lighting pattern up- you just need a strong light off to one side. You can fill in the harsh shadows with a second light or a big reflector in front of the model, which you can then adjust to give the contrasty effect you want. In that shot the white walls are providing the fill, so I think we only had the one flash head firing, off to camera left and about on a level with the top of Ariel’s head. We used a honeycomb grid on that light to give a soft cone of light.
Outdoors it is trickier, because you can’t control the intensity of the sun! So it is usually better to use the sun as the strong light source behind or behind and to the side of the model. That’ll make sure she has a nice rim-lit effect down one side of her body and plenty of shine and life in her hair. But the camera can’t cope with the full contrast of a sunny day, so you also need to fill in some light on the rest of her body and face. Outdoors we use a reflector. We like gold ones which gives a warm and flattering glow. Actually we use sunfire gold, which is stripes of gold and silver, because the effect of a full gold reflector is too over the top and make her look yellow or orange. (Even the sunfire can be a little over the top, you have to be careful with the colour balance).
The shots of Fi in the pool were done with this sun-behind, reflector in front technique.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes shot from Sweden last year showing the technique in action. The sun is behind the girls, and Svampen and I are holding big reflectors to bounce light back in to their faces. You can see the gold tone that comes from the sunfire reflector. (We’ve actually switched to using triangular reflectors with a grip handle now as they are easier to wield single-handed).
Our most recent acquisition has been a powerful battery-powered studio flash kit, which in conjuction with using a fast shutter speed allows us to balance the flash with the sunlight for shots like the standing strappado one of Sophia. The flash was fired through a white transluscent umbrella to soften the light- the light stand was tied to a pillar about 5 metres away from Sophia.
These two techniques have become our standards for shooting outdoors.
The flash is more controllable than the reflector, and needs less people: maybe one to hold the light stand if there is a breeze but you can tie it down or sandbag it, whereas the reflector needs at least one person holding it and directing the light to the right place, maybe two for full length shots as otherwise you can get bright face but dark legs.
The indoors shots were taken with just the light from the sunfire reflectors- we had one or two people with a reflector each standing outside the room, in the sunshine, and bouncing a huge golden beam of light in through the open doors or windows of the room to give the very sultry light on Sophia with the multicoloured rope, and Ariel and Fi in the bedroom with red walls.
After shooting the other ingredient in this contrasty, sultry, saturated colour look is the tone curve applied to the images. You want to apply an “S”-shaped tone curve, like this:
That makes the dark areas of the image darker, the light areas lighter, but rolls the highlights and shadows off so they don’t clip nastily. The mid-tones stay more or less linear in response so look fairly natural.
Does that help explain a bit about how we shot these? Is this the effect you wanted to know about?
Cheers, Hywel.
Hi PhiThinker,
I’m with you on the strappado position, as that’s a firm favourite of mine too. I like the fact it’s very restrictive, even with just the minimal amount of rope!
The majority of the images seen on R.E. were taken with a Canon 5D. Only recently has this changed with Hywel purchasing a very nice Hasselblad (which I’m extremely envious of!). Please don’t think you need to spend lots of money on a camera to achieve most of these results, as that’s not the case at all. The greatest step forward is simply taking your camera of automatic mode and switching it to manual allowing full control over what you’re shooting. Having a DSLR certainly helps, but expensive cameras do not automatically mean your images will look 10 times better. Far from it. As Hywel has already described above, the most important part in this type of photography, especially the more contrasting shots, is your light source and understanding how to use it.
The shot of Sophia in the pool swinging her head back has an element of luck involved. I had to point the camera slightly off centre to the right behind Sophia’s head because when she flicked backwards, her head would have moved out of shot as it happens so quickly. So you’re anticipating where her head will be during the motion. This means you can keep the camera still and not have to try and follow her head movement. Then when she flicks backwards, all you can do is watch her hair and click when you think it’s in the right position to take the shot. Fortunately, in this case, it worked! 🙂
Cheers,
SteveThank you both for the replies. That was definitely the effect I was referring to, and I’m glad to know it doesn’t take a fancy Hasselblad to take quality pictures. I recently received a subcompact digital camera from my family as a late birthday gift, and the nice thing was that it was developed with the idea of being user-friendly while still promoting non-auto settings, so I’ve been messing around with it and have managed to take some very good pictures of scenery, people, etc., so I understand the effect of really controlling your camera’s settings to some degree.
I’ve noticed from a lot of the tutorial sets that lighting plays a huge role in the pictures (and really all the sets in general), so that’s the aspect of photography I really want to get better acquainted with. Your replies have further cemented that importance in my mind. Is there a way to use simpler lighting equipment to achieve good results? I don’t have much to work with in terms of flash kits and reflectors, although strong light sources I imagine are easier to come by.
I’ll see if I can apply some of the advice here to my next photo opportunity with my girlfriend. Maybe I can get some really exotic-looking tango poses out of it 😉 .
As for the whiplashing-hair picture, the technique doesn’t sound that complicated…Doesn’t change the fact that it is a fantastic shot, made more fantastic by a talented model :).
You definitely don’t need an expensive camera to take great shots!
That sounds a bit strange coming from a man who has just bought a Hasselblad, so I’d better explain what I mean! 😆 😳
I use the crappy camera on my iPhone to take holiday snaps. Its strengths are that I always have it in my pocket, and that using it doesn’t feel like taking a professional photo. As a result, I use it rather than leaving it behind and I get some great happy memory snapshots which I really love. I wouldn’t want to use it to shoot pro shots for the website, but all in all, I love it.
So the first and most important thing about a camera is that it has to be right for the job you want it for.
The second thing is to know how to use it and which features actually matter to you.
The third thing is probably how good the lens is, because there are very few areas of photography where having a good, sharp lens isn’t an advantage.
(But even here there are horses for courses with some fine art photographers swearing by cheap plastic lensed cameras for whacky distortions, and even I tend to leave the lens shades off my expensive Hasselblad lenses, despite the warnings in the manual that it may lower contrast and sharpness, because I like lens flare).
Camera clubs are famous for having the pompous photographers with *all* the most expensive kit who look down on anyone with a cheap and cheerful camera. But you invariably discover that these same photographers have no eye for a photo, no clue whatsoever how to use all that expensive kit and a portfoloi full of utterly rubbish pictures!
I’ve noticed that good photographers tend to have a small but perfectly formed selection of kit- but all the kit does what they want, for the sort of photos they want to take. If they are shooting natural light portraits where they want a very shallow depth of field, they may well have a prime f/1.4 or f/1.2 lens in their kit bag… but they won’t want or need a whole sack full of heavy, extremely expensive f/2.8 L-series zooms, which is what the pompous club photographer would probably have bought because they are “the best”.
To get creative with a camera, the main thing you need is manual control. That will let you explore the envelope of the camera’s capabilities without an automatic (and really dumb) computer program trying to second guess you. There’s nothing worse that trying to shoot a beautiful high-key snowscape and the camera deciding to make everything mid-grey for you. (Actually, the sort of shots you take will affect the WAY in which you’d like the camera let you override auto- but as long as you always CAN override it to the settings you like, that’s the main thing).
When you’ve got the hang of taking manual control, you might find yourself constantly hitting the edge of the camera’s envelope. For example, the Hasselblad can only shoot as fast as 1/800th of a second. By dSLR standards, that’s awful! Even the cheapest Canon compact I could find listed on the web does 1/2000th of a second. If you were wanting to freeze formula one cars or racehorses in action, you might very well care about that. So in a sense, that Canon compact is more capable than a medium format camera costing literally a hundred times as much, and the cheapest digital SLR Canon or Nikon would sell you would probably do a much better job for you than the medium format monster.
If you were shooting football matches, you would probably pay in blood to get hold of something with lots of autofocus points and really, really quick autofocusing- so you can concentrate on framing your shots in the milliseconds available to you. If you are shooting landscape, you might well prefer to focus manually to maximize the effective depth of field… and the quality of the camera’s autofocus system wouldn’t matter to you at all.
If you don’t need that corner of “the envelope”, any numbers game comparison is meaningless. And once you really know the capabilities of your camera, if you do upgrade, you will know what to look for.
In my experience, main benefit of the more expensive cameras is just how easily they support a particular style of shooting. You certainly COULD shoot a football match with a medium format monster, but it would actually require a lot more input from the photographer and make getting the good shots a lot trickier than it would be with a fast autofocus dSLR camera built for the purpose.
No amount of camera kit can stand in for having an eye for a photograph, but having the right kit can make it easier to get pictures from your mind’s eye into reality.
Have fun with your photography!
Cheers, Hywel.
Lovely pictures !
I really like the one with Ariel tied in on what looks like a small pool, where you can se the refelection in the bigger pool. And the one with Sophias hair getting out of the water just WOW. Can imagine the tries that that took.
Haven´t seen the idea with two different colored ropes before. I really like the thought of it and the way it looks. Anything to do more shoots with? 🙂
Pling
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