Winter Lady

On January 16^th, I worked with the lovely Vee the Doll. This shoot was split into two parts, the first part of the shoot used a Russian aristocracy inspired outfit, while the second part of the shoot used a silver gown and a pearl and crystal headpiece.  Because I was going for a specific glam look for this shoot, I brought in a make-up artist (MUA).  Tanvi was MUA I worked with for this shoot, and she did a wonderful job creating a glam look that worked with both outfits and really highlighted the eyes.

The set for the shoot revolved around the first outfit, which was a long coat with fur trim and a large fur cowl collar. This was paired with a pill box type fur hat with a feather in it, and a fur muff. Note all the fur is fake fur. Because of the coat I went with a winter theme. Originally, I wanted to shoot this outside in the snow, however we did not have snow on the ground that day, thus I improvised by making my own snow.  I have a product called “SnoWonder” that when mixed with water make instant realist biodegradable fake snow. The manufacture recommends either letting it dry out to use again later, or mixing into your garden soil to help retain moisture. I made about 15 gallons of fake snow and spread that out onto a clear sheet.  I then shoved some silver sticks into blocks of foam and added those to the background. I used this setup for both sets of images.  

The lighting setup for this shoot varied slightly throughout the shoot. However, my main set up was a was a beauty dish placed in front of the model and angled down towards her with fill light being provided by a gridded soft box place to the models right.  For a few of the shots where I had the model lay in the snow and look up at the camera, I had the beauty dish positioned directly over her head pointed down, and shot down towards and used a reflector for fill light.

For this shoot I used:

• Canon 80D
• EF 18-200mm lens
• Tether
• Flash Trigger
• Grey backdrop
• Backdrop Stand
• C-Stand
• Boom Arm
• Beauty dish
• Phottix strobes
• Silver reflector
• Grey card set
• Clear plastic tarp
• Fake snow
• Sticks
• Foam blocks

 For this shoot I did not use my standard 18-200mm lens since I was shooting both full body and headshots. During this session I used ISO 100, a shutter speed of 1/200s, and my aperture varied between F4 to F5.6 with most images being taken at F4.  My focal length varied from 18mm to 130mm with most shots falling between 24 – 35mm.  

As mentioned previously this shoot was divided into two separate looks, and have several favorite images from both looks.  For the first look, my favorite image is a head shot that highlights the large fur cowl collar and the fur hat. I like how you can just see one eye and the overall expression on the model’s face, which gives it a bit of a stereo typical Russian aristocracy feel or a fem fatal feel. This image was light only with a gridded soft box placed to the right of the model. When editing this image, I ensured the background went to almost pure black, and balanced the image slightly. I did very little frequency separation work to balance out the skin, and added a few highlights. I then added a slight vignette to finish off the image. 

(ISO 100, aperture F5.6, Shutter 1/200, Focal Length 120mm)

The second image I like from the first look is that of the model sitting in the snow. While I didn’t have a full winter woods scene, the background gives the impression of one and I feel is more along a minimalistic fashion shoot. I like the image because it sows off the full coat and its length.  Overall, I like the mood and feel of the image. For this image the main light was the beauty dish pointed at the model’s face and the gridded soft box was lowered to provide fill light from the side.  When editing the image, I added an exposure gradient to the lower left-hand side of the image to bright the coat slightly and bring it more in line with the exposure of the body.   I then went in and used the patch and content aware fill tool to add a bit extra snow, so it would reach the edges of the image and fill any blank spots. From there I added some highlights to model’s face to give her a bit of a glow, then finished the image off with a slight vignette. 

(ISO 100, Aperture F4, Shutter 1/200, Focal Length 32mm)

For the second look my favorite image is headshot. I like this image because it has a bit of mystery and seduction to it. This image was light with just the beauty dish.  When editing this image, I used a bit of frequency separation to ensure even skin tones. Then went in and highlighted a few areas to five that nice glow.  From there I ensure the background went to black and added a very slight vignette to the image. 

(ISO 100, Aperture F5.6, Shutter 1/200, Focal Length 100mm)

My second favorite image from the second set is of the model laying in the fake snow.  I like this image because I feel like it is part of beauty campaign. The image is bright, you can clearly see the make-up, the model looks relaxed but flirty. It just seems to work.  To get this image had the model lay down in the snow, and place her head on a small foam ball to lift her head up slightly. I then positioned the beauty dish almost directly over her head, and filled with a reflector on the right-hand side. When editing the image, I did a little bit of frequency separation, then highlighted a few areas to give that glow. I used the healing brush to fix a few spots in the snow, and finished the image off with a very slight vignette. 

(ISO 100, Aperture F4, Shutter 1/200, Focal Length 20mm)

Overall, I’m very happy with how this shoot turned out.  I liked how the set worked with both outfits and I feel the make up really made the model’s eyes pop.  You can see the full set of final images here.  A selection of these images are published in “The Portrait Project".  The images are in Volume 2 Issue #25.