From basic to complex, from fashion to avant-garde & from emotional to documentary styles, from playing with tones & color, there are tons of creative aspects of fine art nude photography.
Some commercial projects allow you to experiment but personally I feel that such experiments should be done with your own money, so that you do not set yourself a limit & end up in a trench even before you begin.
Practical creative nude photography ideas
1. Using Go Bo for creating shadows & light patterns
Go Bo is any piece of element that goes in between the light source and your model so that a pattern shows up on the model. Various types of GoBos can be used from opaque ones that leaves hard shadows to translucent ones that will leave very subtle shadows on the subject.
2. Using foreground textures for a mysterious look
Using a simple fan or a hair blower you can create a mysterious foreground leading to the model. You can use numerous things to create that effect – from your kitchen flour to fine sand.
You will get completely different effects if you are using a wide angle lens than a telephoto lens. Again, experiment with the way you level your camera with your model. Holding the camera at a low level or in line with the model will give a completely different composition & effect than if you hold the camera high up.
3. Creative use of Depth of Field for a soft focus & bokeh
If you are aiming to experiment with mood shots, then you must try creative uses of the Depth of Field. Although this might require you to have some fast lenses. I prefer to use the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 or the Nikon 105mm De-focus Control f/2 lenses although various other options from new manufacturers are available in the market.
The Nikon 105mm DC f/2 lens requires some experience to use & deliver results but you can actually control the depth of field in front or behind your plane of focus with this lens & create a subtle visual effect with bokeh.
4. Creative simple vintage nude photo
Retro images are fun & also tax your creativity. One way to help improve your creative vintage photography is to flip through medieval painting books & especially if you could lay your hand on paintings from Louver’s, Prado and museums like those.
The important thing to not in recreating such paintings with a nude model is to pay attention to lighting. You may way to use one directional light source for this. Since I prefer to use natural light (as opposed to flash or strobe lights), I prefer to do these experimental vintage shots during day, indoors with one large door or one large window as my only source of light.
5. Creative double exposures in nude photography
I love this technique of using double or multiple exposures to create the final picture. When I started my photography journey 20 years ago there was no digital and I loved doing multiple exposures on Fuji Velvia.
With the coming of digital, multiple exposures have become simpler & easier and you can correct them as you shoot, while in the olden golden days of film you had to wait days if not weeks to get the processed films back before you could take alokk at what you created.
6. Creative light painting & nude art
Erik Pare showed how much you can push your creativity with just a flash light! Ever since his images and tools hit the internet, photographers all over the world started experimenting with light painting and thousands of tutorials emerged online.
You can also create amazing artistic nude photographs using simple light painting tools & technoques. All you would probably need are flashlights, some reflectors and maybe some reflective screens. The images above used gels, tinsel reflectors and light brushes, most of which you can buy at a local dollar store.
7. Simple garden variety avant-garde nude photography
Simplicity is always the key to great nude fine arts photography and what could be simpler than walking into your backyard for some creative avant-garde styles. Props like the ones used here, flowers, butterflies and numerous similar objects are available at the local hobby & craft stores like Hobby Lobby or Michael’s.
8. Creating mystery using positive & negative spaces
I love these simple high key creative uses of positive and negative spaces especially when combined with the curiosity of nude photography. These can be done indoors without any preparations and with simple daily use light bulbs without having the need to color correct them.
You can also experiment with color casts when making creative photos like this since cast simple adds some additional drama to the frame. I would not recommend doing these in your photo software but most of the latest editors ptovide tools to manufacture color casts digitally.
9. Create high drama with fog & water
Fog is the first thing photographers think of when asked to create dramatic compositions. You can combine simple fog and / or water to create dramatic nude photos.
Lighting here would be key to evoke the sense of suspense. One of the ways to start off with fog is to use the key light behind the model and using colored gels on your side lights.
10. Using plexiglass and mist for create nude photos
This is a relatively easy technique but the outcomes are very creative. You have numerous ways to experiment with lighting, mist and glass or plexiglass. You can also try with colored plexi glass or use colored gel on your lights.
Most of these dramatic nude photos can be done using a single light source while if you intend to over dramatize it, you can use different colored gels on multiple strobes.
Another aspect of this technique is the creative use of the plexiglass. In these images above the nude model and the light is behind the glass that completely covers the frame. Experiment with using plexiglass that covers the frame partially, broken / shattered edges of the plexiglass, using very mild mist or gel on the plexiglass to soften the image.
Although that completes the 10 creative nude photography tips, please do not stop there. Combine these techniques, mix and match them up, help your models realize their creative potential you will end up finding even more creative ways to create stunning avant-garde nude shots even while using simple composition and tools.