Cruella Dress in High Key

On August 9^th,  I did a shoot with Kelly, to finally shoot the Cruella dress, which I purchased from Jennifer Suzanne several years ago.  What I like about this dress is that there are three separate parts: the dress, the belt/train combo, and the shrug.  This allows me to mix and match to get different looks during the session, such as combining the belt/train combo with tight pants and a corset top.

For these sessions, I used:

Photography Equipment	Other Equipment
Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 FJ400 Strobes 1 Photix Strobe 2 soft rectangular boxes 1 Octabox 3 C-stands Sandbags 1 Backdrop stands White Seamless Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps Star filter	2 posing boxes Black wrapping paper

The setup

I went very simple for this setup, while leaning into a high-key fashion look.  My base was a bright white, seamless backdrop, which I lit using two rectangular soft boxes.  Depending on how I angled these two soft boxes, I could control the brightness of the backdrop, making it go from pure white to grey.  Then, for the main light I used an octabox with double diffusion.  I also had two posing boxes on set, that I covered with black wrapping paper, which gave the model something to sit on and interact with during the session.

Camera Settings

For the camera setting, I used ISO 100, with a shutter speed of 1/250s, and an aperture of F8.  My focal length varied from 24mm to 70mm, with the most common focal length being 35mm.   

The Photos

For both sets of photos, I did the standard edits of white balance, exposure adjustments, clarity, and contrast.  Though the key for this shoot was ensuring the whites stayed white and didn’t get muddied or lean too far into the blues.  I removed any minor blemishes and dirt on the floor or backdrop.  I also ran the images through the “Retouch4me” software to speed up dodge and burn work. 

My favorite image from the session doesn’t use the whole dress, just the belt/train, which I paired with tight black pants and the back corset top that the model brought.  I think this image aligns more with the interpretation of Cruella de Vil from the movie “Cruella” rather than any of the “101 Dalmatians” movies.

I also like this close-up of Kelly, where I had her lie on the faux fur train and look up at the camera.  This image gives me old Hollywood starlet vibes.

This next image is the whole dress and again gives off Cruella vibes with the pose and little puppy purse.  Also, the light hits the dress perfectly to make each of the little crystals on the dress sparkle even under diffused light.  I did have a star filter on the front of my camera, but the stars weren’t prominent because it was soft light instead of hard light.

Finally, I would like to conclude with an image that conveys movement.  The dress is heavy, and most of that weight comes from the faux fur train piece.  Usually, with trains, you can do a little flip to get movement, but not with this piece; it had to be a full-out throw.  To get the movement, I had the model grab both ends, spin, and walk towards throwing the train outward.  We did several rounds of this to get the shot below.

Wrap Up

I am happy to have finally shot the Cruella dress, it is a beautiful dress that I hope more people choose to wear during their session.  I forgot how hard it is to shoot high-key images, without blowing out the edges of your subject.  The setup is deceptively simple, and if you aren’t paying attention, it can lead to a grey background.  I will admit that in some cases, I used that to my advantage to get a lower key, moodier image.  The other thing I forgot is how hard it can be to keep the whites white in a high key without leaning too much into blue.  I made several rounds of edits to ensure the images all had a consistent color tone when viewed together.   In general, I’m happy with how the photos came out.  You can see images from the session here: Cruella. 

Credits:

Model: Kelly (IG: @kellycarnes)
Dress by Jennifer (IG: @jenniesuesews)