Chiaroscuro lighting occurs near to sunrise and sunset, and as this natural light falls on your female nude from its low angle, it accentuates the fine body textures. It's worth noting that this light is much softer to work with than the harsh midday sun. The trick with chiaroscuro lighting is to get the light to fall across the naked body in a way that it helps your artistic image, for example, outlining the curves of your nude female model or picking out certain body textures (thus creating artistic bodyscapes). One of the classic photos of the 20th century is that of Lee Miller as the model (photographed by the Surrealist, Man Ray), where her naked torso is side lit at an angle by light coming through a venetian blind, and her body becomes striped by the shadows produced by the blind. I've found this striking image to be a very good starting point when creating similar images of female erotic art nudes. It's worth noting that if your nude model stretches her body, it will accentuate the curves and the tone of her body.

To get the best exposure setting on your camera, you should set it mid way between the lightest and darkest areas of the image. So test out your digital camera for the required exposure as it's better to get it correct before you get carried away with the shoot. Also I find that it's worth bracketing the exposure so that when you review the photo at a later date, you might prefer a different image instead of your original chosen one. Therefore, consider taking several photos of the same image either 1/3 under or over exposed, and by setting the correct exposure (or at least within a close margin), this will should save you time later in post editing.

Note that it's possible to replicate this type of angled lighting in the studio, whether you use flash or digital lighting but natural lighting will win out most times. However, if you wish to attempt this in the studio, it's best to study the effects of this lighting first before trying to replicate it.

Chiaroscuro lighting provides interesting challenges to the photographer, and greatly helps in producing interesting and artistic erotic female nudes, that you can be proud of. So now is the time to put the pen to paper to sketch out your ideas and think about possible set ups either outside the studio or inside it.