Regardless of what anyone else says, you are going to be the person behind the camera.

If you've got that many women asking for nudes and you have no objection to doing them, then why not try one? After the first one, you can either stop, or keep going. Its totally up to you.

16 year old kid with a camera that had graduated to colour enlargements in my own "make shift" darkroom.  Thought that my life would be perfect once I did my first nude shoot (not GWC but TBWC - "Teenage Boy With Camera"!).

Set out to find a model agency to supply me with a "beautiful blonde nude model".  Only one would comply (while I didn't understand it at the time, the "agency" supplied "models" for stags, etc).

Oh man...

3 lessons learned:

- A beautiful nude model and a camera does not make for great quality photos.  Especially when the TBWC is having trouble concentrating and acting professionally.  Wow, it actually takes hard work and experience to take a good nude photo!!!

- For the next month she kept meeting up with me to see how the photos were coming.  And I never, ever "clued in" (she was 28 and the photos were horrible).  I kept showing her the latest enlargements.  I was SO stunned when I snuck in (underaged) to my first stag.  Yes, you can guess who the performer was (Trish?  Is that you...?).

- And the final BIG lesson learned.  NEVER take the darkroom nude enlargement "rejects" (complete with recognizable background rooms) and thrown them in your own bedroom's garbage can.  Your parents WILL find them.

In high school, I took many art classes on scholarship at the big art school. I took a life drawing class and had ice water in my veins the first day and for many afterwards. Always before the model undressed. After the drawing began, it was all about the drawing. I realized the only time it was tense for me was when the model removed the robe and after the pose was over and they would get dressed.

I went to college for graphic design and took figure drawing as an elective as often as I could. The models weren't as nice down state as they were in Chicago. I had a beautiful classmate that I wanted to draw. She posed nude for me in my class' studio on a Saturday. Very exciting to work alone with a friend that way.

Months later I asked her to sit for me again at my apartment. We did figure studies for a few hours. I was taking a b&w photography course at the time and working with a twin lense 2-1/4 (rolliflex?) that I checked out from the school's lab. I had this camera with me at home during our drawing session. I asked if she would pose for photos and she said yes. It went very well, but I was so worried about exposure that I bracketed above and below one stop. I had 5 rolls of 12 frame roll film. 60 frames. Because of the bracketing, I only got 20 images. When I developed the film, my exposures were dead on (I used a meter) and was bummed that I only got 1/3 of the poses that I could have. That was early 90s.

I joined MM in 2011 to shoot portraits and clothed models, but by spending time choosing models to work with, got the idea to find a model that would do nudes and shoot both, clothed and unclothed. It went extremely well. I knew what I wanted and she was experienced. My background in drawing and painting informed what I shot and I really was able to capitalize on the moment.

After that, I was off to the races. Every nude photoshoot has gone well, to the point of being almost routine. If you are driven by art and technical goals and you behave professionally, you can create some epic photos. The best advice I can give to any photographer who is thinking about shooting nudes is to hire an experienced model, shoot in natural light, and review your work and note what worked and what didn't. Rinse, repeat and improve.

College: My first nude shoot was a selfie with a roll of Tri-X film and a long cable release.
All the shots were out of focus and cropped head. Thank god.

I say go for it... It's always a good idea to try a photo concept at least once... sometimes a new concept can be a great way to find a new artistic venue... other times it's a good way to find out what isn't.

A nude shoot doesn't feel any different than any other shoot after about 10 minutes... the mind doesn't consider the model to be nude as much as "wearing skin as the outfit."

If it's not your taste then you can always pass it by the next time but doesn't hurt to give it a try...

As far a reputation goes, either don't publish and do it purely for the artistic development of the concept or publish without watermark or a different watermark.

OMG! I’d rather not think about it. lol

It was the early 1970’s. I was shooting for the newspaper in Oklahoma City. The DA in Oklahoma County was on an anti-porn crusade. After several raids it got so bad that even the 7-Eleven stores would hide Playboy under the counter and only pull a copy out for a regular customer whom they recognized. Of course, I knew the DA and most of his assistants.

Meanwhile it seemed that there were strip joints on every corner. A three-judge panel ruled that stripping was legal. so the DA turned his attention to magazines – until the courts started throwing out his cases.

At one point the DA was hospitalized, and his first assistant decided that he should do something notable, just in case the DA died, so he’d be the front-runner for the job. So he and a bunch of sheriff’s deputies stopped an Amtrak train by standing on the tracks waving lanterns. They busted the conductor, the engineer and some other employees for selling liquor by the drink. Made national headlines! lol

Anyway the model was a friend, and we were shooting at her apartment.

Strobonar made a compact studio flash with built-in slave. Any flash would trigger the others. The photocells on two of the lights wouldn’t trigger the strobes. And I had visions of the DA and his posse busting down the door. I finally got a few good photos…

A year or so later was my second nude shoot – another friend posing in her bathtub. From then on it’s been smooth sailing, and in my past life I had some nudes published or hung in galleries.

Back when I was managing a large camera store we used to have model workshops to demo lighting gear and after I left them I continued to do them on my own and after a year I decided to add a nude workshop to the usual swimwear ones I ran. So my first one was a workshop with five models, ten models and five lighting set ups. It went well, was fun and did many more.

My first nude shoot was with a local model that posed for a total of $45. The shoot lasted about three hours on location. The model was not tremendously experienced. She replied to my online request. We never met until the shoot. I was still shooting film at the time and using hot lights. I had no idea what to expect from a nude model. She was conservative, graceful, polite. I was nervous, but she helped make the shoot less stressful. I was very deliberate with lighting and didn't waste any shots. I think I took only two rolls of 36 exposure film. She was so comfortable she stayed nude the entire time. We became friends and shot again before she moved away. I wish she was still nearby. I think she would have easily become my muse.

My current nudes: https://www.modelmayhem.com/bmistudio

My 1st time doing a nude theme related shoot which was at a hotel too, which was actually last Friday. It all started on here like i always do where I always find new & interesting people to work with. My trip to the location where they were staying i was totally skeptical because it was my 1st time, but surprisingly we all got along great. I did 3 different series w/2 girls: 1 of the girls 1st, then a g/g & finally the other 1.


Its also a plus that i also used continuous lights which 1 of the models had that she bought awhile back but found out photography was not for her, so now she travels w/the lights & the lets the photographers use them which is a really cool thing because since i started i have not yet seen that happened. From the few photos the models saw through my viewfinder they were impressed with the photos, i am just waiting for them to decide which ones they want me to edit now.

Hehe, my first nude shoot was also in a local motel with a friend. I had been shooting costume nights at a bar she worked at with just a point and shoot. I printed some and gave them to the girls, they all liked them and she asked me if I wanted to do a "real" shoot!:-)) the PS'd B&W in my port is from that "real" shoot.

https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/8743673

It was only about my 3rd or 4th shoot. We made contact through another site before MM was around. She was more of a "performance artist" than a pure model. She wanted to do body paint and black light. I was still doing film and information on how to shoot was limited. She was travelling 150 miles to do the shoot because no one closer wanted to attempt it. Let her know up front it would be trial-and-error.

It was rather bizarre to be that new and have someone trust you to paint her! The whole thing seemed a little surreal, but once we started shooting, it was just a matter of keeping track as I bracketed the shots. I learned a lot of lessons that I eventually got to apply to the black light photos I just posted.

Still, she was happy and posted many from the shoot including some she wanted to do with Saran Wrap that were only mildly successful.

find models who actually prefer to be naked. then have fun.

My first nude shot, eh?  Well I was pretty nervous, I mean there I was...All alone...