Tutorial: Daylight, Fill and Shooting Angles

Tutorial

Added 18-09-2018

Tags: barefoot

This is the third in the series of tutorial exercises we did with RE member-turned-photographer PaulMcRope which he has kindly allowed us to share with you on the site.

I didn't keep detailed notes for this sequence. Parts one and two were self-documenting via the EXIF, and subsequent parts we shot a white board or one-camera stuff to remind us of what we were doing!

Look at the the set-up as illustrated in "daylightcontfill.jpg" and I'll take you through it. We set up a typical shooting scenario- Ariel was posing on the bed and the direction of the lights was fixed. We had a window with daylight coming through as our main source for most of the shots. It was not direct sunlight, just diffuse general daylight on a sunny summer day. To balance that we had an LED light panel, 2ft x 1ft in a vertical orientation, about at Ariel's head height, on a stand in the corner of the room. I put it there because a) I know from experience that's a good place to put it and b) about the only other place where there is physically space to put it in that room is in the doorway by the window, and it doesn't do much there (it's just making the window "bigger" as the light is coming from a similar direction).

Paul then roamed around taking our standard two comparison shots - full length and head-and-shoulders portrait- standing in various positions relative to Ariel and the light. You can figure out where he's standing in each shot by looking at the bed and the rest of the room and comparing it with the diagram. Ariel turned to keep facing Paul, which meant the light was hitting her face at a different angle each time. At the end, I turned up the fill light to compete with the daylight, then overpower it, and finally closed the curtains and shot with just the LED panel as a dominant light source. Although as we were in a pale-coloured box of a room, there was still plenty of light bouncing around.

For the first sequence of shots we're just testing lighting levels. I set the LED panel to just fill in the shadows a bit and provide a second catchlight in Ariel's eyes. (Pro tip- if you ever want to figure out how a shot was lit, zoom in to the model's eyes and look at the reflection of the lights). I've annotated each shot with my best guess as to which camera position we were in so you can cross-reference the shots to the diagram. I set the fill light intensity so it was filling the shadows a bit but not competing with the daylight too much. I tried to colour balance the light by eye, but as you can see from the final few shots where we closed the curtains I got that a bit wrong- the fill light is warmer (more orange) than the daylight. It's hard to judge by eye how it will render on camera.

Note that the images I've published in this and the other lighting installments are JPEGs straight out of the camera rather than going through the usual RE image processing chain. Lighting effects how skin tone and texture is rendered and I wanted to record that in a "neutral" way using the same processing settings across all the images. Using the camera JPEGs was the simplest way to do that. One would make more flattering and prettified versions in post, so apologies to Ariel for literally not showing her in the best light in all these shots. That's how we learn what the best light is.

Look at the second sequence of shots, the headshots starting with res_25062018_DSC06804.jpg labelled "Position 1, daylight only. No fill". Paul took a shot at positions 1, 2, 5 and 6 for the following four lighting scenarios:

1. Daylight only. (Fill light switched off). The only light to the shadows is from daylight bouncing off walls and ceiling etc.
2. Daylight, plus fill as I'd set it at a "natural" level to soften the shadows and provide a second catchlight in Ariel's eyes, without competing too much with the daylight.
3. Daylight, max fill. I turned the LED panel up to full brightness, so now it is competing with or even overpowering the daylight, depending on angle.
4. Max fill only. We closed the curtains and lit with just the LED panel on full power. The colour cast comes from me having not quite matched daylight colour with the LED.

What can we note about these shots?

First, changing the angle between the camera and the main source of light makes images with dramatically different look-and-feel. Look at the daylight-only sequence. From position 1, we have quite a glamorous look. It's kind on Ariel's skin, she's got nice catch-lights in her eyes, and the background is sliding off into shadow.

From position 2, the same subject in the same room in the same light looks a bit different, but still quite glam. Note that her nose is casting a shadow to one side of her face, but that both her cheeks are quite well lit. This is a contrasty version of what we're going to call "glamour lighting", a theme which we will develop over the next couple of tutorials.

From position 5, the character of the light has changed completely. Now the right side of Ariel's face as we look at it is falling off into shadow while the left side is brightening up towards almost whiting out. The small moles on her head which were essentially invisible in the previous two shots have now been thrown into sharp relief, especially the ones near the diving line between light and shadow on her face. It's very dramatic although not necessarily that flattering, and it forms the basis of the second big regime of lighting people, "cinematic lighting", which we'll expand upon in future tutorials too. Note that in this shot Ariel's eyes lack the sparkle that they do in the previous two, because we no longer have a defined reflection of the main light source (the window) in her eyes. Her eyes haven't gone totally dead because light is reflecting off the pale walls and the white shiny front panel of the LED light, which is acting as a reflector and filling in the shadows as well even though the light is switched off!

Right, now let's turn on a bit of fill light and compare and contrast.

From position 1, nothing much changes. There's just a bit of warm light in the shadows.

From position 2, the shadow of Ariel's nose on her face had been softened a bit and warmed by the more orange light coming from the LED.

From position 5, the shot is absolutely transformed. The gradation from light to dark across Ariel's face is still there, as is the over-emphasis of moles which happen to fall near the dividing line between light and shadow. But the effect of the catch-light in Ariel's eyes from the LED panel really lifts the shot, and the camera is much more able to record the difference in brightness between the light side and shadow side of Ariel's face too. This shot is now properly cinematic, and the drama is worth the hassle of de-emphasising the tiny blemishes which get blown up to mountainous size by the lighting. This is the sort of thing we use retouching for in RE images- photoshopping out moles which have unluckily caught the dividing line between light and shadow like this. I consider it entirely fair to do that, because in real life you simply don't notice these moles and blemishes on someone's face, especially not someone as professionally gorgeous as Ariel. It's just an artefact of the lighting pattern- in the position 2 shot, same model, same light, just slightly different camera angle, you can't see them AT ALL.

From position 6, we've retained the glory of the backlight halo but evened out the shadow a bit and supplied those oh-so-important catchlights. Ariel looks much more sparkly and alive, and the shot is now one we'd be proud to put on RE. We've still got a hint of over-prominent blemishes, again an artefact of the light (now it is the dividing line on her face between the light and shadow from the fill light, which is in about the position relative to her that the window was for position 5.

The next sequence I whacked the power up on the fill light- daylight and MAX fill. I'd say it look pretty good from position 1, position 2 and 5 are bit horrid, and position 6 by bad luck has only one catchlight so looks a bit sharky-eyed. The lesson from which is that it is worth having one dominant source of lighting on a scene. This is called the KEY LIGHT and we will learn more about that in future tutorials.

Finally, we closed the curtains and shot just with the fill light on MAX. Apart from the colour cast, these look kinda similar to the daylight-only sequence, only from slightly different angles, which tells us that the important variable for this test is the ANGLES between the main light, subject and camera.

What have we learned? That we need to decide on a dominant lighting source in the scene, called the KEY LIGHT. That it helps a lot to have a second light to lift the shadows and supply catchlights in the eye- this is the FILL light. Sometimes we even use a really small light just for CATCHLIGHTS- typically a ring light or small on-camera LED light panel, turned down very low so we see its reflection in the eyes but it doesn't cast significant light on the scene per se. Finally, we saw the magical halo of BACKLIGHT. These are the ingredients of THREE POINT LIGHTING (key, fill, backlight) which will look at in future tutorials.

Click for full-size preview pic

Dream Girl

Added 17-09-2018

Tags: rope bondage, barefoot, blonde, hogtie, nude, crotch rope, frogtie

Gorgeous leggy blonde Ariel is a dream girl tied in bright blue rope! Barefoot and frog-tied, she is further punished by turning the tie into a strict hogtie!

Click for full-size preview pic

At The Mercy of the Shoe Thief

Added 16-09-2018

Tags: rope bondage, ballgag, bedroom, shoes, pantyhose, redhead

Stunning school-teacher Kate is the latest victim of the wily shoe thief! He snuck into her room and tied her up before dawn so he could watch her struggle and plead through her gag - but he steals her shoes from her anyway! Another from our custom series of pantyhose bondage photosets.

Click for full-size preview pic

Insincere Apologies

Added 15-09-2018

Tags: ballgag, girlgirl, blindfold, blonde, shackles, shoes, humiliation, skirt, brunette, sm factory, leg irons, lesbian, chains, spreader bar, pantyhose, pencil skirt, dungeon, fur coat

Ever had an apology from someone you just KNOW was insincere? Ever wished you could get your own back? Zoe does! Ariel has been stealing her clients away from her and bare-faced lying about it... so Zoe plies her with drink and tricks her into the wine cellar so she can chain her up and find out what's REALLY going on!

Monday Morning Lawyer

Added 14-09-2018

Tags: rope bondage, barefoot, bedroom, blonde, nude, frogtie

High powered prosecutor Angel Price was just getting up to begin her week at court when thugs burst in to her swanky city apartment - and tie her up! There's no misunderstanding this message from the mob- sabotage the case against the mobsters this week, or face a new life as a naked sex slave!

Pin-up Delight!

Added 12-09-2018

Tags: rope bondage, ballgag, blonde, lingerie, stockings, ungagged

Ariel Anderssen expresses wide-eyed, 1950's pinup-style delight at being bound in tight rope that matches her lingerie, complete with a big, big ballgag!

Another "lost" set from our Sweden mega-trip back in 2008 for you to enjoy :-)

Mystery in the Museum

Added 10-09-2018

Tags: rope bondage, barefoot, blonde, chinese dress

Investigator Dolly is grabbed by a shadowy figure and tied up at night in the museum! Whatever can be the dastardly plan about to unfold?

Clothes Cut Off!

Added 09-09-2018

Tags: girlgirl, barefoot, bedroom, blonde, shackles, shorts, humiliation, sm factory, leg irons, lesbian, chains, clothes cut off, metal bondage, collar, nude, denim, ungagged

Ariel is fed up of flat-mate Chloe stealing her clothes, so she decides to cut the latest stolen outfit right off Chloe's back!

Yoga Tease

Added 08-09-2018

Tags: rope bondage, ballgag, barefoot, shoes, humiliation, spanking

Yoga instructor Ariel seems to delight in teasing and tormenting her male clients! But today her customer has had enough and takes matters into his own hands... and his own ropes! Even though she's very busy and important, she's damn well going to get tied up! Let's see how arch and superior she is then!

Naked Punishment

Added 07-09-2018

Tags: spreader bar, metal bondage, nude, ungagged, fiddle, redhead, riding crop

Bratty bad girl Zoe has earned her punishment! Stripped naked, locked in a heavy metal fiddle with a spreader bar between her ankles, she is forced to bend over the sofa for fifty strokes of the riding crop!

Love Bondage

Added 05-09-2018

Tags: action, rope bondage, satin, bit gag, silk, brunette, lingerie, stockings, ungagged

Stunning glamour girl Czech Beauty is bound hand and foot in her sexy satin lingerie and black stockings for a little love bondage! Have fun with her!

Ayla Rose vs. The Shoe Thief

Added 03-09-2018

Tags: rope bondage, blonde, shoes, humiliation, jeans, lingerie, sweater, denim, pantyhose, ungagged

Angelic Ayla Rose is the latest victim of the shoe thief in our on-going custom photoset series. Tied in her pantyhose and jeans, the villain reveals her delicious toes and sensitive soles as he strips away the protection of her high heels, leaving her helpless and humiliated!

Hotel Room Hostage

Added 02-09-2018

Tags: barefoot, satin, bedroom, scarf bondage, hogtie, blouse, humiliation, silk, brunette, business wear, cloth gag, pencil skirt, topless

Spied on and surprised in her hotel room, lovely Lottii Rose is bound tight in a hogtie and unable to escape! What will her captors demand as her ransom? Will she be able to slip or wriggle her way free while they are on the phone? (Spoiler alert: no :-)

Rachelle welcomes you to the dungeon!

Added 01-09-2018

Tags: ballgag, barefoot, handcuffs, self bondage, brunette, leg irons, metal bondage, nude, nude in metal, thumbcuffs, dungeon

4K Ultra HD Video

Gorgeous Rachelle Summers is naked in the dungeon! Today she gets to play with all the shiny metal bondage- what can she get up to? She starts by gagging herself with a big fat red ballgag, strapping it tightly in place. Then she takes a pair of cuffs and applies them to her dainty wrists, savouring the clicks and she ratchets them tight. And if one pair is good, two pairs are better- she lingers over the cuffs, enjoying the feeling of constriction on her wrists. Next she chains her petite ankles together with the leg irons before continuing her layering metal fetish by attaching a second pair to her ankles and a hinged pair of handcuffs to her wrists. Then she has to contort to put the thumb- and toe-cuffs on to complete the nude-in-metal-girl bondage ensemble! Helpless, she enjoys her naked metal bondage - for as long as you decide she must stay cuffed!

Naked Damsel Days

Added 31-08-2018

Tags: barefoot, handcuffs, hogtie, leg irons, metal bondage, nude, nude in metal, ungagged, redhead

Scarlett loves being a nude-in-metal girl! It may be fashion for some girls, but for Scarlett it's a passion. The best days of all are the ones where her boyfriend locks her into the cuffs and confiscates the keys- she's entirely at his mercy as to when, or whether, she gets free! The thought that he could do anything with her- take her to a party, naked BBQ on the beach, or just hot bondage sex on the sofa... sends the most delicious shivers down her spine! And she knows she's really in for it when he declare it to be a naked damsel day, and confiscates her shoes. She knows he has a huge foot fetish, and if he's chained her up as a damsel in distress barefoot like this, she knows she's really going to get it. And she's really going to love it.

Command Performance

Added 29-08-2018

Tags: barefoot, satin, handcuffs, blonde, shoes, humiliation, silk, leg irons, metal bondage, drama, dress, ungagged

Pop star sensation Ariel is kidnapped by her most zealous fan- and forced to perform just for him! Fresh from partying, her sparkly dress doesn't really cover her ass, her retro fashion jacket is all askew, and she's locked in brutal cold steel handcuffs, leg irons and thumb cuffs! The humiliation as she's forced to gyrate, bump and grind, shaking her booty for the perve who has kidnapped her!

Bondage Superstar

Added 27-08-2018

Tags: rope bondage, barefoot, bedroom, hogtie, brunette, nude, ungagged

I'm lucky enough to be married to one globe-trotting bondage superstar, and it's a great treat when another one gets in touch to say she'll be in the country and would I like to shoot? I was delighted when Rachel Adams dropped me a line- the only annoying thing was that I couldn't get her and Ariel together, as Ariel was guest of honour at a spanking convention while Rachel was here. So I just had to tie her up all on my own. It's a hard life! I decided to keep it simple, and you can't really beat a naked hogtie, can you?

I am sorry to admit that I don't think I quite cracked the lighting, though. It's OK, but I'm missing catchlights in Rachel's eyes from some shooting angles. I guess that's one of the main reasons why I prefer to have a rigger around on set- I can take more time to fine tune the lighting while they are doing the tying. Fortunately, we've already booked in Rachel's return visit, and this time I'll have Ariel to rig, so I look forward to being able to do a little more fine tuning and get the light spot on next time!

The Sea's Damn Cold!

Added 26-08-2018

Tags: rope bondage, barefoot, blonde, nude, outdoor

I admit it, I was a bit mean to Ariel! This was the first evening we shot for RE in Fuerteventura, and the sea looked so inviting! We weren't yet sure how people would take to her being naked and in bondage on a public beach (albeit a naturist public beach) so we decided we couldn't in good conscience risk having her legs tied, in case she needed to cover up quickly. The light was golden and gorgeous, and nicely supplemented with a Godox ring-flash purchased for the trip as a more flattering and more portable alternative source of fill and catchlights.

In the past I've used diffused on-camera flash- that's always a bit ugly because it throws shadows places you don't want them. Or I've used light modifiers like softboxes and umbrellas with off-camera battery generator pack flash, but this time with only Ariel and me as crew, and a famously windy location, that wasn't going to be practical. I considered using my Hensel generator-powered ringflash, but getting that and all its batteries out probably meant a second case, cost and hassle. Hence the decision to try the Godox. Battery powered with a Li-ion pack, but self-contained with no trailing lead, it seemed like a good option. I had to figure out how to dial in exposure to give just enough fill to be flattering without looking unnatural. And since at the time I didn't have TTL available, I had to do it manually shot to shot.

It was a bit of a juggling act, but it all came together with this set. We waited until the sun was just about to set behind the mountains so the beach was a quiet as it was going to get, tied Ariel away from public gaze back in the dunes, then dashed down to the sea to get the set. And of course, Ariel being the consummated model that she is, she was posing right at the edge of the water because that looks just super. Right until the point where a big wave came splashing in and soaked her! The air was warm but the sea most emphatically was not, just have a look at her expression! Well, at that point the damage was done so she bravely finished off the set wet.

I couldn't resist leaving in the behind-the-scenes shots of what happened as soon as we stopped, though :-) I don't think I've ever seen anyone move so quickly whilst donning a hoodie in my life....

Clamp Class

Added 25-08-2018

Tags: barefoot, self bondage, blonde, nipple clamps, nude

This film was made by our friend Busby Wilder when he come over to shoot Ariel a while ago. He's kindly allowed us to use it here on Restrained Elegance so you can all enjoy it. One more RE member has now turned bondage photographer and producer! Here's what Busby has to say about the film (in his very best bombastic tabloid-ese!)

Deviant docent Ariel Anderssen sits down on the couch, naked, and takes you to school on the subject of nipple play. Speaking straight to camera, this tantalizing ta-ta tutor describes in intimate detail how to properly tease teats, abuse areolas and maltreat mams for maximum pain and pleasure. Demonstrating on her own quivering breasts, Ariel reveals the proper placement and removal of clamps, mistakes to be avoided, tips on home-made nipple play implements, her favorite and not-so-favorite devices and even throws in a few thoughts on after-care.

Along the way, we see throbbing close-ups of her nipples being tortured with clothes pins (or pegs, if you insist), a clothes hanger, chopstick style clamps, tweezer clamps, adjustable screw clamps, suction tubes, weighted bullnose clamps and, of course, clover clamps. Whether you're interested in learning more about this titillating aspect of kink or just a die-hard fan of mammary mayhem, you better take a seat in "Clamp Class" right now. Best not keep the teacher waiting.

Elements of Servitude

Added 24-08-2018

Tags: rope bondage, barefoot, brunette, nude, dungeon, ungagged

Gorgeous slave girl Natalia Forrest is put on show in her Master's dungeon, wrapped in red rope she must display herself to best effect to learn every element of the duties expected of her in her new life....

Tutorial: Aperture and Art

Tutorial

Added 23-08-2018

Tags: barefoot

This is the second in the series of bonus tutorials from the one-on-one tutorial session Ariel and I ran for RE member-turned-photographer Paul McRope. Many thanks to Paul for generously allowing us to share the photographs he took on the day with you.

In the first series, we learned that the most important choice you make is the lens you choose to image the scene with, and that the most important factor within that was the focal length of the lens.

In this series we learn the artistic impact of the second most important facet of lens selection- lens aperture.

The aperture of the lens is, simply speaking, how big the hole you open up to allow the light through is. All lenses have a maximum aperture, which is where the light from the whole lens is allowed to pass through the lens to the sensor. Within the lens mechanism there's a series of sliding blades which can restrict the size of the hole.

It is fairly obvious that this will control the amount of light getting through to the sensor. It's completely non-obvious why the aperture blades have to be in the middle of the lens and why sliding them in and out changes the character of the image in a very dramatic way. It's even less obvious why the way we specify the size of the hole is in arcane "f-ratio and f-stops".

Fortunately, we don't need to understand the physics of imaging. We need to get a gut feeling for what the artistic impact is on the image of choosing a certain f-number setting for your photo is.

For that, we just need to know that small f-numbers mean a big hole, letting in lots of light, and also means a shallow depth-of-field, so only a small portion of the whole depth of the scene will be rendered in focus on the camera sensor. Large f-numbers mean a small hole, letting in much less light, and also means lots of depth-of-field, so much more of the whole depth of the scene will be in focus, from objects in the foreground right through to objects in the far distance.

But even that's too abstract to really grasp what twiddling that f-number aperture dial on the camera really DOES to the image.

So let's do it. Let's shoot those same two shots- a full-length shot and a head-and-shoulders portrait. Let's do it with two "standard" bondage photoshoot focal length lenses- a 35mm and an 85mm. Let's start at f/16, which means the hole is as small as possible on these lenses. And let's do it at the standard "one stop" intervals, so f/16, f/11, f/8, f/5.6, f/4, f/2.8, f/2, f/1.4.

I'm not going to exhaustively go through each shot; notice that the difference between adjacent shots is subtle, but the difference between f/16 and f/1.4 is radical. What's the nature of the difference? I'll point out a few of the highlights. You might want to zoom in to the full versions of the shots to really get the subtleties, it's a bit hard to see on the web-sized normal pics. Sorry for the one or two messed-up shots, we were shooting the series and missed focus entirely on one or two, but you get the jist.

At f/16 on the 85mm shot, in theory we see the same- the whole world in focus, count the leaves. But zooming in to the full-sized version you might notice a subtle softening, a diffuse glow around highlights and a feeling that maybe the image is a bit lacking in "bite". There's also the natural effect of the 85mm focal length meaning that we're not including stuff like the telegraph wire and the distant hills in shot. As a result, even though in theory everything is quite sharp, the image actually looks a little dreamy, certainly much more so than the ultra-realist rendition of the 35mm lens at f/16. This softening effect is due to diffraction, a subtle optical effect which kicks in at some point on all lenses. This is why these particular lenses don't go to f/22 or f/32 the way some lenses do. Nonetheless, the overall impression especially on the normal-sized image is quite busy. The background has as much detail as Ariel, and the eye roams around that aimlessly.

For the head and shoulders shot, even at f/16, the background is out of focus both at 35mm and 85mm. That's because we're focussed on the subject who is much closer to the lens than she was for the full-length shot. But it is still pretty easy to tell what the background is: trees and sky and stuff. The telegraph wire crossing frame is obvious, especially on the 35mm shot.

f/16 and f/11 are what I call the "deep focus" regime. You get lots of stuff in focus, and if for artistic reasons you want sharpness front to back, this is where you need to be. For example if you have the model's tied hands coming out to camera and you want her hands and face in focus. You may still struggle, there's an interplay between where you stand, focal length, sensor size, what point in the scene you set the centre of focus to be and depth of field which is beyond the scope of this exercise (and into the regime of tilt-and-shift lenses, large format cameras with movements, and focus stacking).

f/8 to f/5.6 are what I call the "full focus" regime. Ariel is in focus head-to-toe in the full-length shots, and all of her face and hair are in focus in the head-and-shoulder shots, with detail behind just starting to fall off sufficiently that they aren't competing for attention the way they are at f/16. If you want to record the details of your bound model but are not so concerned about the detail around her, f/8 is a good place to be with a full-frame sensor and typical bondage photo focal lengths like 35mm, 50mm, 85mm. When I light with flash, f/8 is my default starting point. I'd guess half the shots I've even taken for RE were at f/8 or thereabouts. Incidentally, lenses also tend to be at their crispest and sharpest around here.

By f/4, we're losing the ability to get all of Ariel in focus at the same time, even when she's standing square-on to the camera (as I said, if you're trying to get something like a hand or foot extended towards camera and the rest of the subject receding things are inherently more tricky). F/4 on a full-frame camera at normal focal lengths is kind of a transition regime. Close enough to full focus to be able to get away with it. I don't know that you'll notice the lack of detail on Ariel's feet in the normal size shots, but in the full size versions it's starting to get obvious.

f/2.8 and below is the "shallow focus" regime. Now you're really having to choose your focal point carefully, because only a shallow slice of the scene at that distance from the camera is going to be sharply rendered. Notice in the 35mm head-and-shoulders shots that at f/16 the telegraph wire behind Ariel is not quite sharp, but very obvious. By f/2.8, it is so defocussed that you can't even tell it is there, and even in the full-length shot for 35mm f/1.4 the wire itself is really de-emphasised, although it's obvious where it meets the pole if you crop that out the wire is significantly less visually intrusive.

By f/1.4 you are having to choose your focal point with millimetric precision. At 35mm, eyes and mouth are in focus but forehead has drifted out of focus and the hair at the back of Ariel's head has gone to a soft glow. At 85mm, one eye is sharp and the other is definitely out of focus, if you look at the full-sized image! And the background has become an impressionistic blur. Stu Maschwitz calls this "the ability to shoot abstract art in Burger King".

Notice also the subtle effect on how integrated Ariel appears to be with the rest of the scene. In the full length shot at 85mm and f/2.8, she's almost floating above it. At f/1.4, it is like the background has faded away leaving our eyes with nowhere to go but Ariel's. At 35mm and f/1.4, she's the focal point but we can still see the whole world as a glamourised glow behind her (this is an expensive look, much beloved of hotel brochures). At 35mm and f/16, it's a hyper-realist painting or IMAX documentary.

Lastly, just flick between the end-point images for me: 35mm f/16 and 85mm f/1.4. These are two photos of the same model in the same place in the same lighting! One looks like it is out of Mad Max Fury Road. The other like it is out of 1970's Playboy.

That's why the choice of focal length and shooting aperture are the two most important decisions when you start making art with a camera. You need to shoot focal length and aperture series yourself and start getting a visceral appreciation of what they mean artistically for your final image.

It also explains why some lenses have become the go-to for photography. The 24-70 mm f/2.8 standard zoom straddles the wide angle through normal to telephoto focal length range. For people photography it is a bit too wide at the wide end and not really long enough at the long end (a 35-135mm lens would be better) but critically it allows access to f/2.8 aperture. This is partially for usability in low light, but mostly because it provides access to the magical shallow-depth-of-field regime which you just can't access with a f/4-f/5.6 kit zoom.

It also explains why photographers are willing to pay an extra thousand pounds and carry around an extra kilo of weight to get prime lenses which go to f/1.4 rather than sticking with the cheaper and lighter prime options at f/2.8. The 85mm f/2.8 headshot is nice, but the 85mm f/1.4 is sublime. It totally de-references the location, which is a very valuable thing to be able to do in the real world where you can't always control all the elements of your surroundings.

It's also why full-frame 35mm remains the go-to option for most photographers. Smaller formats struggle to achieve the shallow depth of field regime. Physically, because they are shooting with shorter focal length lenses and cropping in to the centre of the image - you end up with something that looks more like the 35mm f/1.4 rather than the 85mm f/1.4 shot because you are literally shooting with the 35mm f/1.4 lens, you're just not seeing the outer bits of the frame that you'd see on full-frame. Look at the two shots in this sequence: you can see that the dreamy background blur effect is much more marked for the 85mm lens than the 35mm lens. Larger formats struggle because although this effect is in their favour, it is physically hard (and expensive) to construct f/1.4 lenses that cover the whole of a medium format image, so you're stuck with f/2.8 lenses at best, and sometimes even f/4. The market isn't big enough to support massive investment in that direction, so full-frame becomes something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Larger and smaller formats have other strengths and weaknesses for different photographic styles and subjects. But if you want the most flexibility for people photography, full-frame is it. Thats' why I've got a Sony A7RIII as well as a Hasselblad.

You don't have to shoot everything at f/1.4 by the way.It's in fashion but a bit over-used. Your viewers might well find it frustrating if they can't see details of the whole of your model's body in a bondage shot! But it's a really lovely option to have in the toolbox.

College Hall Monitor Tied

Added 22-08-2018

Tags: rope bondage, ballgag, barefoot, blonde, dress, uniform

Hannah is ever suck a stickler for enforcing the rules. No guys in the dorms. Lights out at 11. No beer in the kitchen. Honestly, you'd think it was the 1950's or something. Naturally she got herself selected as hall monitor- no other student was going to waste their time doing THAT job! And of course that made her even more insufferable! Her dorm mates finally have had enough and they are going to teach Hannah a lesson!