# Help / Tips: Shooting Nude Model with Projector as Only Light Source.



## rodnunley (May 12, 2011)

Hey guys and gals ... I'm looking for a little help.

I have a friend who wants me to do a shoot with her next week.  She is wanting to project slides of stars, nebula's, galaxies and the like onto her and have pictures taken.

I've seen this before but have never done anything like it myself.  

I shoot with a Nikon D5000.  I have a 50mm 1.8 Nikon lens and a remote shutter release to reduce vibration.  I've got a softbox and shoot through umbrellas with 5000k constant light bulbs to use but from what I have seen I might be using the projector as the only light source.  

I have an empty bedroom that I can use for the shoot and only one widow that I can easily cover to control light.  My guess is that I want total darkness in the room and only the projector.

I have seen some images with white backgrounds and some in the same style with a black background.  I like both (the white holds the image and the black seems to absorb the light and all that can bee seen is the female body) background uses and will try shooting both.

So my questions are the following:

Do I black out the room completely or allow some additional light (other than the projector)?  Any ideas on a shutter speed and aperture setting that will work best with such small amounts of light?  I want as low an ISO as possible but realize I may need to bump it some for the images to show.

Any tips from those that may have done something similar to this?

Thanks everyone for any advice.  I am still a new student of photography and am hoping to get some good images out of this shoot.  I figure the more I prepare the technical end of things early on the more I can focus on the composition during the shoot.


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## chaosrealm93 (May 12, 2011)

i think a tripod would be a necessity. if your goal is to have only 1 light source, then black out the room (you might need to have a small temporary light source just to help the camera focus). if you can get your model to be absolutely still, i think a shutter speed of 1/15 would be alright. im doing something like this in my grade 12 photo class, but we're using strobes instead of a projector. check it out if you want.. =D

Flickr: chriswongphoto's Photostream


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## rodnunley (May 12, 2011)

chaosrealm93 said:


> i think a tripod would be a necessity. if your goal is to have only 1 light source, then black out the room (you might need to have a small temporary light source just to help the camera focus). if you can get your model to be absolutely still, i think a shutter speed of 1/15 would be alright. im doing something like this in my grade 12 photo class, but we're using strobes instead of a projector. check it out if you want.. =D
> 
> Flickr: chriswongphoto's Photostream


 
Thanks for the tips.  I do have a tripod as well.


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## chaosrealm93 (May 12, 2011)

np


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## Ginu (May 13, 2011)

Cant really give any advice but I would love to see some samples as it sounds really neat.

Make sure you use the tripod and long exposures with the hope of the model not moving 

Good luck


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## Derrel (May 13, 2011)

Ginu said:


> Cant really give any advice but I would love to see some samples as it sounds really neat.
> 
> Make sure you use the tripod and long exposures with the hope of the model not moving
> 
> Good luck



Oh yeah, "...sounds really neat." Uh-huh. Sure.

We all wanna' see samples...:thumbup::thumbup:


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## Sw1tchFX (May 13, 2011)

Just shoot with strobes and than in Photoshop, overlay whatever you want on top of her.

It will look way cleaner, sharper, you won't have to worry about long exposures or crappy color, and she'll get what she wants.


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## iolair (May 13, 2011)

I think the only way to know for sure is to do some test shots with the projector before you get her in for the shoot ... use a stand-in model (assistant, dummy, yourself + remote control, whatever), doesn't necessarily need to be nude, but just experiment with the set-up in advance.


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## Big Mike (May 13, 2011)

If your shutter speeds are slow enough to require a tripod...then you'll likely have blury shots anyway because the model won't be able to be still enough.  
Shoot with a wide aperture and an ISO high enough to get the shutter speeds you need to get sharp shots.



> Just shoot with strobes and than in Photoshop, overlay whatever you want on top of her.
> It will look way cleaner, sharper, you won't have to worry about long exposures or crappy color, and she'll get what she wants.


That could work, especially on flat parts of her body...but on the curvier parts, the projected image would look a lot different than just overlaying it with Photoshop.


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## Robin Usagani (May 13, 2011)

my only suggestion is to make sure the projection is a still image.  Carefully place black on the private parts (if you want to keep it rated R).  You probably want to avoid black on important places too like her eyes etc.


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## chris (May 13, 2011)

rodnunley said:


> I have an empty bedroom that I can use for the shoot and only one widow that I can easily cover to control light.  My guess is that I want total darkness in the room and only the projector.


 
You can probably get away with a little light in the room but be careful with your choice of widow - too dark and you may have trouble focussing on her.


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## Bynx (May 13, 2011)

Sw1tchFX said:


> Just shoot with strobes and than in Photoshop, overlay whatever you want on top of her.
> 
> It will look way cleaner, sharper, you won't have to worry about long exposures or crappy color, and she'll get what she wants.


 
Thats not such a good idea if you want the images projected to wrap around her. Doing it the way suggested will be cleaner, sharper, you wont have to worry about exposures or crappy color, but it wont look natural and Im sure thats not what she wants.


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## c.cloudwalker (May 13, 2011)

Big Mike said:


> If your shutter speeds are slow enough to require a tripod...then you'll likely have blury shots anyway because the model won't be able to be still enough.  Not necessarily... if she is a good model   but it will be trying for her.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
Agreed. Photoshopping this would be a totally different look.


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## rodnunley (May 13, 2011)

Thanks for all the advice everyone.  I do want to try doing it "live" and in camera so no photoshop (at least not before).  I am going to try a mid range ISO to try and use what little light there is and remain sharp.  Also I agree that I want as fast a shutter speed as possible in low light.  So that means I should have my aperture wide open ... right?


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## Big Mike (May 13, 2011)

> Also I agree that I want as fast a shutter speed as possible in low light. So that means I should have my aperture wide open ... right?


That's correct.  Keep in mind that that will give you a shallow DOF though.

Also, keep in mind that the exposure your camera recommends, in auto modes, may not be idea for this.  I'd think that you'll want proper exposure for the parts of the mode that are lit by the brighter parts of the projected image...but that will be up to you.  The point is that you may want to put your camera into manual mode and see what exposure settings you like best.


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## rodnunley (May 13, 2011)

Big Mike said:


> > Also I agree that I want as fast a shutter speed as possible in low light. So that means I should have my aperture wide open ... right?
> 
> 
> That's correct.  Keep in mind that that will give you a shallow DOF though.
> ...


 
Thanks for that.  These days I only shoot in Manual mode (so that I always learn).  Shallow DOF is OK.  A bokeh effect with a black background won't even be noticed.


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