Fairy Queen Headpieces

On April 9^th I did two flower headpiece sessions.  For these sessions I worked with two models, Tekeya and Sarah who wore the fuchsia peony and cherry blossom headpieces respectively.  I also worked with Marlena, who is a very talented MUA.  For these two sessions the theme was fairy queen, and I divided each session into two parts. For the first part, I focused on getting beauty shots to highlight the headpiece and the make-up and then for the second part I did full body with the model sitting in a throne made of flowers and sticks.

For this session I used:

Photography Equipment	Props/Miscellaneous
Cannon 80D Trigger 2 strobes 2 c-stands 1 boom arm 1 Backdrop stands Grey backdrop Sandbags 1 octabox 1 beauty dish 2 tiny soft boxes 1 curved reflector (gold) 3 light stands 3 speedlight Purple and Pink gels	18-inch tall styrofoam triangle Sticks Fake flowers White and silver fabric Chalice Smoke machine

The set up

For this shoot I already knew I was going to do a mix of beauty and full lengths shots so I wanted my light set up to be versatile for both, and not have to switch light modifies.  For my set up I chose a simple grey backdrop, as my base. For lighting I went with a beauty dish mounted on a boom arm, which makes it easier to position in the center of the studio without having to figure out how to shoot through a light stand. The beauty dish would be the main light for the shoot. I then placed a large octabox to my left pointed as the center of the backdrop. This would be the fill light for the full body shots.  In the center of the backdrop about two to three feet from the back I placed the fairy throne. Behind the throne I place a gelled speedlight on the floor pointed up at a 45-degree angle at the back drop. The speedlight provided color to the backdrop to add interest to the full-length images. I then placed two speedlights with tiny soft boxes on light stands on the left and rights sides of the throne. I feathered the two speedlights away from the backdrop so they would act as side lights for the throne and the model.  Also, when doing the beauty images, I used a curved reflector mounted on a light stand, which was place directly under the model’s chin to help reduce shadows. I placed this reflector to the side when taking the full-length shots.

Quick note about the fairy throne.  The throne base is made from an 18-inch-tall piece of triangular foam. This foam is recycled packaging material from a table I bought.  I then collected sticks from the backyard and jammed them into the foam to make the back of the chair.  I then shoved fake greenery and flowers into the sides of the foam block, and wrapped some fake cherry blossoms around the sticks.  I then placed a layer of gauzy white fabric on top of the foam, followed by silver spiderweb fabric. Finally, I filled around the bottom and sides with a few more fake spring flowers, to hide the edges of the fabric.  The only problem with this design was the throne could not be moved once fully assembled, but it worked well for the shoot.

Camera Settings

For this session I used ISO 100 and a shutter speed of 1/250s.   I used two distinct apertures. I used an aperture of F5 for the beauty images to for the shallow depth of field to ensure the background was soft. I used an aperture of F8 for all the full-length images for the increased depth of field to ensure the image was crip from head to toe. My focal length ranged from 18mm to 145mm with most of the images being taken at 32mm and 50mm.

The Photos

I’m going to start with my favorite two beauty images. The first image is of Tekeya, who has a beautiful facial structure and the second is of Sarah, who has lovely eyes. To get these images the beauty dish was almost directly above the models and pointed down, then below their chin is a curved reflector to bounce the light back up to fill in the shadows. You can see both the beauty dish and reflector based on the catch light in their eyes. These were lovely images right out of camera, but I did do some post processing on the images to give them some polish. First, I did basic adjustments, then got rid of all the normal little blemishes. I then used some frequency separation to smooth out the skin tone.  I then did a little dodge and burn to brighten the eyes and accentuate the cheekbones. I finished off the image by adding a light vignette.

This next two image are of Tekeya, and they remind me of the nine of pentacles in the Morgan Greer Tarot deck and a mystic.  I think it is the overall pose and dress in the first image makes me think of the tarot card. To get this image the beauty dish was aimed directly at the model’s face and the octa box is a little more then 45-degrees off to my right, which acted as fill for the image. I also had two speed lights to either side of the throne to provide side lighting to add dimension to the image. You can also the hint of a purple glow behind the model which is coming from a speed light with a purple gel. My grey backdrop sometimes presents towards a grayish purple depending on the white balance so the strong pop of purple light helps to give separation to the floor and the wall. In post I balanced the image, increased the overall exposure slightly, and then brightened the models face slightly using a mask. I then cropped the image and added a vignette to complete it.

This second image makes me think of mystic or oracle, by how she is holding the cup and the feeling I’m getting from how she is gazing at the camera.  To get this shot the lighting was the same as in the previous image but I filled the cup with smoke from my tiny smoke machine to give the image a little extra oomph. In post I cropped this image from full-length to three-quarters to bring more emphasis to the face. I then balanced the image, increased the exposure slightly, and brightened the model’s face using a mask. I wanted to brighten her face since the headpiece was placing it a bit of a shadow. I then finished the image with a vignette.

These next two images are of Sarah. This first image shows is a nice profile, showing a regal confidence. To get this image I turned the beauty dish off, and used the octabox and the two side speedlights to light the model. I had the model look towards the speed light located to my right parallel to the throne, which became the main light. I then filled with the light from the octabox. The pink gelled speed light on the floor behind the throne give the image some depth and helps separate the model from the background.  In post I balanced the image, and brought up the exposure. I then cropped the image down to 8.5x11 and added a slight vignette to finalize the image.

This final image reminds of a simple forest princess. I used almost the same lighting set up as in the previous image. The difference is that I brought the power of the octabox up, so it would now act as the main light while the two speed lights on either side of the model now acted as fill. This changes the mood from the previous image from hard and dramatic to soft and bright. In post I balanced the image, and brought up the exposure, and then used a radial filter to add a little more light to the model’s face. From there I added a vignette to finalize the image.

I’m very happy with how the images from these two sessions turned out.  The editing in Lightroom was quick because I kept the same lighting profiles throughout the shoot. However, since I was doing beauty shots, I did do a fair amount of work in Photoshop to get that nice polished beauty shot look.  The MUA, Marlena, was great to work with and did a wonderful job on both models and look forward to working with her again.   Images from these sessions will be published in Gilded, Vigor, and Philocoly magazines.  You can see images from both sets here under Mystic Queen and Cherry Blossom Fairy.

Credits:
Models: Tekeya (Instagram: unapologetically_keya91)
Sara (Instagram: coleslawg)
MUA: Marlena (Instagram: marlena.hanna.mua)
Dress: Ewa Jobko (Instagram: ewa.jobko)