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1920's Heiress


On January 20th I worked with Vida Muerta on a 1920’s heiress inspired session.  The session was originally supposed to occur the day before at the Dayton Art Institute’s great hall, but weather forced us to reschedule for the next at Something Old DaytonVintage Rentals.  Even though we were forced to reschedule in a new location, the shoot went well and still maintained the 1920’s look I was going for.  

For this session I used my Canon 70D, a 18-200mm lens, strobes with power supply, large octagon soft box, 30-degree Grid, C-stand with boom arm, light stand, RF-transmitter, tether line, laptop, white loveseat, mirror, pop up changing room, and a handsome assistant.  The dress is from Retro Stage, and the jewelry is from the Alley Vintage& Costumes. 

For this session I shot 147 frames and kept 80 and delivered 58 final images.  All images were shot at ISO 100 using a F5.6 aperture.  The focal lengths varied with the most common being 20mm. The shutter speed also varied, with the most common shutter speed being 1/50s.  I shot in two locations within the studio, 1) a large white wood wall, where I used two strobes and 2) the large window where I used only one strobe.  The large window was giving me difficulty because I was picking up the reflection of the soft box in the window on several of the frames.

ISO 100, Focal Length 32mm, Aperture F5.6, Shutter 1/40s
Since this session was supposed to have a vintage feel, I kept my editing along those lines, which resulted in several black and white images.  I must say Vida looks stunning in black and white due to here pale skin tone.  I’m going to start with a black and white image.  This image (right) is from the back and outlines her figure nicely.  I had to edit this image to remove the reflection of the soft box in the window. I did that by brightening the window and then using a combination of clone stamping and the healing brush. I also added some additional light along her face, while darkening the rest of the image.

This next image (below) is simple repose.  I feel it channels that bored 1920’s rich woman. For this image the strobe with the grid was angled down onto the model from the photographer’s left and a strobe with a soft box was perpendicular to the couch to add some fill.  When editing the image, I maintained the angled light coming from the left by adding just a bit more light to her face. I then added some vignetting and faded the image slightly. 

ISO 100, Focal Length 40mm, Aperture F5.6, Shutter 1/60s


ISO 100, Focal Length 28mm, Aperture F5.6, Shutter 1/25s
This last image (right) uses the mirror that was in studio.  I personally love working with mirrors, even though they can be challenging.  I like this image because it captures a flattering silhouette from behind and the look on the models face.  For this image the soft box was placed to the photographer’s right slightly off from 90-degrees from the windows. When editing I lighted the image in the mirror slightly and cleaned up a few spots on the mirror. I really should have cleaned the mirror before shooting with it.  I then added a slight vignette and called the image done.  The image overall was very good straight out of camera and needed very little in the way of editing.


Overall this was a very good set with Vida Muerta, she is very good to work with. Hopefully, once the renovations are complete at the Dayton Art Institute, we will be able to do a shoot there, like originally planned.

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