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Zelbel, Michael - Skin-and-Nylon-Special-Edition PDF
Zelbel, Michael - Skin-and-Nylon-Special-Edition PDF
Bonus chapter
with How To’s
and lighting
setup included!
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©2009 michael zelbel | www.zelbel.com
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©2009 michael zelbel | www.zelbel.com
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©2009 michael zelbel | www.zelbel.com
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©2009 michael zelbel | www.zelbel.com
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©2009 michael zelbel | www.zelbel.com
Models: Emily, Nitu
Black Tights: Youkon
White Tights: MoveOn
Nail Polish: Anna Sui
Lipp Pigment: MacPro, Mellon
I’d like to reveal that the production of this photos involved no magic, no
big fancy equippement, no professional studio or anything of signifficant
cost. I did shoot the photos in our livingroom in Duesseldorf, Germany.
I was fortunate that my wife and our good friend Nitu volunteered for
modelling. No big planning, casting, booking or similar on that part either.
Photographers, it’s easy to shoot something like this. Try it out. If you don’t
have any really good ideas for artistic photo yet, then how about you just
try to douplicate this photos as a starting point? Start by shooting nylon
photos exactly as shown here in the eBook. Very soon your mind will start
ticking and you will have ideas how to improve this or that nylon photo or
how to change this or that element in order to make something truely
unique. Do it, and please share your ideas and results with me later on.
So I kept my eyes open for oversize nylons that match this criteria. As a
result I found really huge black panty hoases at a Metro market:
! Brand: YouKon
! Bought at: Metro, Duesseldorf
! Size: XXL, 52-54
! Strengh: 20 DEN
I did not find XXL sized nylons in white, but at least I found them in size
44-48 at a local supermarket.
! Brand Move Up
! Bought at: Drogeriemarkt Müller, Düsseldorf
! Size: 44-48
! Strengh: 20 DEN
For most of the photos we cutted off a leg from a pantyhoase as the single
legs were easier to handle than the complete pantyhoase.
©2009 michael
©2009 michaelzelbel
zelbel| www.zelbel.com
| www.zelbel.com
The Set
The series was shoot in the livingroom of our flat in Düsseldorf. As you can
see on the photo, over there I have a gray paperbackrop mounted under
the cealing.
The lighting setup for the nylon photos was rather simple:
Two striplights throwing frontal light onto the subject and one standard
reflector lighting up the gray background so that there is a gray gradient in
the photo.
The lighting setup scribble shows the exact distances between strobes
model and background which I used when doing the nylon photos. I also
noted there the exact power setting that I did set the strobes to: Both
striplights fired at 75ws each and the flash in the background was set to
40ws.
©2009 michael
©2009 michaelzelbel
zelbel| www.zelbel.com
| www.zelbel.com
Makeup
Covered by nylon tights, the makeup of the model is toned down quite a
lot. No holds true for the makeup of the face as well as for the nailpolish.
As I like to show strong makeup on my photos, we applied quite a strong
makeup for this series. We used strong and brights colors, allowing the
makeup to shine trough the nylons.
I believe it really payed off that we mainly worked with Mac Pro pigments.
We used them as eyeshaddow as well as for the lipps. However, we
learned that colorful makeup and white nylons are not such good friends.
Once the nylon touches the makeup - no matter which part of the makeup
- lipps, eyes, lashes, whatever, there are really obvious staines on the
nylon. Removing such staines later in Photoshop would be very tideous
work. So what we did was every time that happened, we just disposed the
nylon and used the next one.
We also used very bright and shiny nailpolish - from Anna Sui. As we
allowed the nailpolish to dry long enough, it never left stains on the nylon.
But we learned, that long nails can break nylons very, VERY easily. And
the other way round - nylon easily scratches away nailpolish.
©2009 michael
©2009 michaelzelbel
zelbel| www.zelbel.com
| www.zelbel.com
Hard work for my Models
My wife Emily and her friend Nitu vonlutered to model for this photos. I
was very very happy having two models who are so beautiful.
Modelleing for this photos was much harder than expected. All of us
thought, that pulling some stockings over head, arms, legs or similar and
standing still for a moment is a piece of cake. But... it is not. Pulling nylons
over your head while deperately trying to leave the makeup intact actually
costs a lot of energy .
And also, pulling the tights away from your legs into any direction might be
very easy if done for just 3 seconds, but it’s hard work if done for a couple
of minutes.
For some of the photos my models did hold the end of the stocking
between their teeth in order to pull it tight over their arms. For other photos
we used a boomstand to which we attached the tights.
©2009 michael
©2009 michaelzelbel
zelbel| www.zelbel.com
| www.zelbel.com
The Equippement
I believe that for this type of photos the equippement used does not matter
at all. However, constantly speaking with fellow photographers about the
equippement that I use and that they use, keeps me up to date regarding
the market. And it usually comforts me when I learn that my equippement
is not too outdated.
©2009 michael
©2009 michaelzelbel
zelbel| www.zelbel.com
| www.zelbel.com
The First Exhibition
We showed arround the photos among our peers. One of our friends is
Coco. She is a Chinese designer with a big heart for art. In her nice JoCo
Coffeebar in Düsseldorf she features monthly rotating exhibitions. Seh
really liked the photos and she wanted to exhibit them in her bar.
www.zelbel.com/nylonfeedback
Good light!
-- Michael