Moon Goddess

On September 11, I did a fantasy moon goddess session with Emma. The inspiration for this shoot was the moon and all the fake cloud tutorials that were flooding my feed.  

For these sessions I used:

Photography Equipment	Props/Miscellaneous
Cannon 80D Trigger 2 strobes 2 speedlights 3 c-stands Bell reflector Beauty dish 2 flags 2 gels (blue & magenta) Grid (5-degree) Backdrop stand Fuzzy white backdrop Printed backdrop A-clamps Sandbags	paper mâché moon 2 pillows 8 DVD cases 5 pounds of fiber fill (aka. fluff) silver dress Ewa Jobko silver circlet

This session revolved around the love of the moon, and I wanted to make sure the model had a moon to love, thus I made one.   To make the moon, I bought one of those 24-inch round balloons, blew it up, and covered in three layers of white tissue paper using a standard paper mâché technique.  When covering the moon with the tissue paper, I didn’t worry about wrinkles because those would add dimension to moon once it was lit up, thus imitating craters and mountains. Once all the layers were dry, I mixed mod podge, silver, and grey paint to paint the moon.  I did two standard base coats, then used a dry brush technique with a darker silver and grey to add extra dimension to imitate craters and mountains.  When the moon was all done, I popped the balloon and made sure the hole at the bottom could fit a flash with a diffuser on top into the moon, so I could light it from the inside.  Once the flash was inside, it turned the moon into a large domed flashed diffuser.   I did do a light test with the moon before the shoot to determine the best power setting, based on my camera settings (see below). About a ¼ to ½ power produced reasonable results. 

Moon Lighting Test

Lighting Setup

To create the set overall set for this shoot, I used a printed backdrop and lots of fluff. The first thing I did was hang a large 10x20 foot fluffy backdrop so it would also cover the floor. I then hung the printed backdrop over that.  I placed two pillows on the floor under the backdrop to create a little bit of height for the clouds, then artistically covered the whole floor with fluff. I can tell you my dog gave me an odd look, since I usually give him an exasperated look when he de-fluffs his toys all over the living room floor.  Now the fluff itself looks dull and texture less when hit with a direct over head strobe. To fix this problem I placed two gelled speed lights, one on either side of the backdrop, just above the top of the fluff to get the texture.  I flagged the top of the speed lights so the light would stay focused down on the fluff.  I chose blue and magenta/pink since those colors matched the backdrop and when mixed create a nice purple.  I went for a very analogous color theme for this shoot.  Once the fluff was properly lit, we brought in the strobes. The strobes were to light the model, we used the beauty dish for a nice soft fill, and a gridded bell reflector to spot the model’s face. Additionally, the moon (with the flash inside) added a nice soft light to the overall scene.  

Now for the actual photo session. For this session I used an ISO of 100 and an aperture of F5, with a shutter speed of 1/125s.  My focal length ranged from 18mm to 90mm with 50mm being the most common focal length.

My favorite image from this session is of the model lying in the cloud wrapped around the moon. In this image you can really see the light from pink gelled flash and a bit of the light from the blue gelled flash. I really like how all the colors of light mix on the silver dress.  I also like how the soft light from moon plays on the model’s face. This was enhanced with a spotted strobe and fill from the beauty dish.  The real secret to this image is the editing. I did all the basic edits and used the standard beauty retouch techniques but really worked the dodge and burn layer to give the clouds texture.  I went in on the dodge and burn layer to brighten some of the highlights on the top of the fluff and then darken some of the crevasses or thin spots to really bring out the texture in the image. I also kept the edges of the image dark to make it feel like the moon was proving most of the light for the image. (I realize in actuality the moon is reflective and doesn’t provide its own light.) Overall, I feel the editing help with the overall feel of the image of soft glowing moon lighting a goddess in the clouds.

This second image has more of a mysterious and mystical feel to it.  The dress had a hood attached to it, which I think helped add to the mystical feel of the image.  You can the magenta/pink and blue light from the flashes being reflected in the dress and helps the overall feel of the image. With this photo, the post processing played a large role in creating the overall mood for the final image.  When editing the image, I did the basics then went in and brighten the models face slightly to make it look like the moon was lighting her face. I then went into the doge and burn layer to bring texture to the fluff to make it feel more cloud like. I also used a little bit of a blur on the fluff to soften the edges to increase that cloud feeling. I finished the image with my standard vignette. 

Overall, this was a good shoot that let me use several different techniques while shooting and editing.  I’m starting to use gels a little more in some of my images to create mood. Though if I were to do this shoot again, I would flag the gels off the background as well, so I could keep some of the white in it and it wouldn’t go all pink/purple.  Also, I would work to better balance the magenta/pink with the blue.  I think I had the right amount of fluff for the shoot, but would have liked to try it with dry ice or a fog machine to create a more realistic looking cloud.  I general I’m happy with how the final images from the session turned out.