Petra Joy "Picture Perfect" or "How to shoot your lover"
Creative techniques for shooting erotic photos

"Forget everything you know about glamour photography and porn !" is the best advice I can give couples who would like to create erotic images of each other.
Many of my female customers have sensual portraits taken by me because they felt uncomfortable with their partner's attempts to do so. The reason is that many men have been brainwashed by "glamour" photography and porn from an early age and have a image bank of "sexy looks" stored in their mind: a woman is supposed to pout, suck on her finger, look alluringly into the camera, cup her breast and open her legs as far as she can. Every person is sexy in their own unique way. Trying to turn your partner into a glamour clone, will make her or him feel uncomfortable. This insecurity of the model shows in the pictures and this is the reason why amateur erotic photographs do not look sexy. I believe that for someone to look sexy, they do not have to be naked. It's all in the eyes. If the eyes say "I am happy with who I am, where I am and what I am doing", they exude confidence and that is usually very sexy.

"Open your eyes !"
Look at your partner with fresh eyes give her or him a chance to be themselves and give yourself a chance to create images that have never been done before rather than copying what has been done a million times.
Women shooting their male partner face a different challenge than their male partners: Where men have been overwhelmed with female pin-ups, there is no real pin-up culture for straight women. Most straight male nudity or sexiness is hidden. This is true for traditional fine art as much as it is for contemporary sexual visual culture: sexy photos of men tend to be for gay men. This is why men are often paranoid "to look gay" when being photographed in sexy poses (not realising that many women actually fancy gay or bisexual men). Just as much as women do not want to be compared with on pin-up clichés, neither do men. So as a woman erotically photographing a men you have a disadvantage that could turn out to be an advantage: there is not much that you could draw inspiration from and therefore you can start afresh and photograph your partner in the way you feel he looks sexiest.
If you photograph each other using the self timer whilst having sex, forget traditional porn clichés. Do not get too hung up on set positions or the "money shot" but be playful and will get unique images that capture your chemistry and essence as a couple.

"Let there be darkness !"
Traditional glamour photography and porn tend to be so brightly lit that there aren't even any shadows. This is one of the reasons many people do not find porn sexy anymore: everything is on show, there is no mystery.
I love just using the available light whenever possible, rather than a flash or big bright spot lights that are too harsh for my taste. If I use a light or two I deliberately use them, so that they create a shadow. I think this is actually very sexy as it leaves things to the imagination rather than baring it all. A good picture always tells a story and I would like people who look at my pictures think "I wonder what's going to happen next" rather than knowing it all already.I also like shooting silhouettes. They are abstract and you can really focus on someone's profile or body outline. All you have to do is to have a bright light source such as the sun, a spotlight etc. behind your model and disable the flash on your camera. If you do not turn off the flash, it will automatically pop up and fire, as the auto setting of your camera "thinks" that there is a low light situation. You will also need to stabilise the camera, ideally on a tripod, so that in a low light situation the images will not look blurred because the camera tries to compensate with a slow shutter.

"Play with colour !"
Another creative technique is to use coloured gels when working with spotlights. Gels are translucent thin sheets of plastic. They come in all the colours of the rainbow and are not very expensive. You can also use the gels wrapped around a domestic light.. Just be careful that the gels never comes too close to whichever bulb you might be using as the heat of the bulb might melt the gel. Different colours create different feels. Brown gels give a nice warm skin tone and go well with candle light. Dark Blue is a "cold" but very dramatic colour and creates a feel a mysterious night time feel. Red or pink are very extreme colours but can also give great results depending what feel you are after. Do experiment with gels. Get at least four colours and each of them in a thick and thin density.

"Add another layer !"
Shadows and coloured light add "layers" to an image. These are two techniques how you can create a mood and tell a story. Another way is to add textures. I am a big fan of shooting through material and have a wide range of materials that I use, stretched over the lens. These bits of material (a strip of lace or a cut up fishnet stocking) are make shift filters that create a "keyhole effect". Depending on the texture, it looks like the photographer is catching a glimpse at the model through a curtain or a fence. The texture adds to the mystery and excitement. I do find these organic "filters" less clinical than using a standard filter as it is a lot harder to tell for the viewer what is actually going on here. If you shoot with a compact camera this technique might not work as you need to focus manually and not all compacts allow you to do so. If you can not manually focus, the cameras auto setting might ruin the effect by focusing on the material rather than the model. But it is worth a try.

"Play with props!"
It will enhance the qualities of your erotic photos to work with sensual props rather than aiming always at full frontal nudity. A simple and affordable prop that allows you and your partner to slip into a different character are masks. They also guarantee your anonymity if you would like to publish your erotic photographs or film. Feather boas, hats and satin sheets are also worth investing in as they allow your model to get into character and be playful. A Satin sheet also works well as a neutral backdrop that you can hang up to mask off clutter and create a calm background. Props do not have to be expensive, if go on the hunt for them on e-bay, car boot sales and charity shops.

"Let it flow !"
If you have manual options on your still camera, you might be lucky enough to adjust the shutter speed manually. The shutter speed determines how long the iris remains open and how much of the action is being recorded. You have the choice between a fast or a slow shutter. If you shoot at a fast shutter like a 1000th of a second the image is frozen in time as the shutter opens for such a short time (literally only a split of a second). This short shutter speed is used for example in sports photography to create sharply focused images that freeze the action.
I am a big fan of using a "slow shutter". It means that you "record more of the action", as the iris remains open for longer. Slow shutter speeds start from about a 30th of a second and can go up to various seconds depending on your camera model.
Depending on how fast your object is moving, some part of the person or maybe even all of them will be blurred. It is best to stabilise your camera, ideally on a tripod when using a slow shutter as your body movements (even something so small as you exhaling) will move the camera and can create blur of the whole scene rather than just your model.
Do experiment when making love with the camera on a tripod and self timer setting with many different shutter speeds Ð you will be amazed at the results you might get.
One of my favourite techniques is using a slow shutter combined with the flash at night with some fluorescent or candle light around. This creates a unique look: The slow shutter will allow the available warm light from light sources such as candles to be visible and the flash will "freeze" part of the action, so that not all of the image is blurred. If you had used the flash without the slow shutter you would completely loose the warm glow of candle light or candy colour glow of fluorescent lights so this is a great creative technique to play with if you like to reflect rather than kill a romantic mood with your images.

Be creative, cross boundaries and let yourself be surprised when you shoot your sexy stills. Enjoy yourselves and your sexy uniqueness rather than copying what you see other people do over and over again. You might be surprised what a great turn on it might be to see yourself in sexy images rather than porn stars who just do their job.

Maximum numbers of participants: 20
Fee: 10,-- Euro
Workshop language: English
Please register at office@pornfilmfestivalberlin.de.