Dry Water

On March 16^th I did a session with the lovely Breathlessaire in her Miaka Priestess of Suzaku from Fushigi Yuugi based a Dessi-Desu Cosplay design.  The inspiration for this session was Mylar and several Asian Art Pinterest images.

For this session, I used:

Photography Equipment	Props/Miscellaneous
Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 1 FJ400 Westcott Strobes 60x90 soft box 1 bell reflector 2 C-stands 1 light stand Sandbags Backdrop stand Grey hand painted backdrop White fuzzy backdrop Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps Pink gel snoot	Flowers Three-tiered flower stand White fabric Pink Tulle Mylar sheets Tiny stool

The set up

The inspiration for these images was cherry blossoms and work posted on Pinterest that uses reflection and a full black background to isolate the subject.  I didn’t want to go the full isolation route, so I went for a more traditional set and a lighter look.

For the set I started by hanging my large 10x20 fuzzy white backdrop, which acted as a base.  I then hung a hand-painted grey canvas background and draped some pink tulle around the edges, to create framing.  I then laid two pieces of mylar on the floor.  I then placed the three-tier flower stand and draped white fabric over it.  The white fabric was like a little island on the mylar.  I then arranged the flowers. 

For the lighting, I used three lights.  The main light was a 60x90 rectangular soft box about 45-degrees off center to my left.  This light was raised up and angled down.  The second light, with only a bell reflector on it, was used as a general fill light that I placed about 30-degrees to my right, pointed away from the set, and up towards my ceiling.  I used my white ceiling as a bounce to create a nice diffuse fill light.  The third light, with a bell reflector and a pink gel, was more of a background and rim light.  This light was placed next to the background stand on my right and pointed so the light grazed the background and also lit the model from behind.  

Camera Settings

For the camera setting, I used ISO 100, with an aperture of F5 and a shutter speed of 1/250s.  My focal length varied from 24mm to 50mm, with the most common focal lengths being 35mm, 37mm, and 39mm.   

The Photos

The base edits to the photos were exactly the same.  I started with adjusting white balance and contrast, then ran the Spyder Color Checker program to adjust colors.  I then increased the exposure slightly and adjusted the sharpness and luminance.  And in this case, I brought the clarity down just slightly to make the images a touch softer to add general softness and dreaminess to the image.

My favorite image from the session is below.  This was taken after I adjusted the set slightly by removing a part of the flower arrangement.  In Lightroom, I removed a few distractions from the background I also added a slight blue (shadow) / orange (highlight) color grade to the image.  I went with that color grade to enhance the shadows and add a little warmth to the skin tone.  Then in photoshop I used generative fill to increase the amount of tulle on the right hand side of the image.  The tulle just wasn’t fluffy enough, and you could see the edge of the grey backdrop.  I then did some dodge and burn work on the image to finish it off.

In the next image, I changed the lighting a touch, by removing the soft box and replacing it with a snoot.  This created a spot of light and darkened the whole overall image.  In light room I cleaned up a few little spots and applied a violet (shadow) / blue (highlight) color grade to the image.  I went with the violet/blue color grade because the violet helped bring out the pink tone in the shadows, while the blue gives the highlights more of a feeling of moonlight and softens the highlights.  In photoshop, I again applied generative fill to fill out the tulle on the righthand side of the image.

I like this image because it has a nice romantic feel to it.  In this image, I completely removed the island of white fabric and had the model kneel directly on the mylar.  I then moved the main light, so it was directly in front of the model and replaced the soft box with the snoot.  In the post, I added a few circular gradients to highlight the flower and the model's face.  I also added a violet color grade to the shadows to bring out the pink in the image even more.

And we will end with this final image because it is just cute and shows the “water” effect well.  This image just used all the base edits and no special color grading or gradients.   It is just a nice, clean, simple image.

Wrap Up

This was a fun session, and I know it achieved its goal when someone asked me if I put a pool inside my studio.  While I do kiddie pool shoots with actual water, I think my husband would not be too happy if I put a pool in our dining room.  (My dining room also doubles as my studio.) So, mylar to the rescue, plus I don’t think I could achieve such a perfect mirrored surface with water.

I think the key to this type of shoot is light placement, because you don’t want to see the reflection of the lights in the mylar.  Also, depending on how you angle the light, and how hard the light is, you may get bounce reflection off the mylar onto the background.  It is also key to remember that the mylar is going to reflect some light, so you may not need as much fill light as you think.   

Overall, this was a good setup, and I look forward to refining it in the future and doing more “dry” water sessions.  I think this is perfect for soft romantic or fantasy type sessions.  I also think adding Mylar to my equipment list is going to add a lot of creative possibilities to my sessions.

 You can see all of the images from the session here: Mika Priestess of Suzaku.

 

Credits:

Models: Breathlessaire (IG: @breathlessaire_designs)

Design: Dessi (IG: @dessi_desu_design)