On December 6th, I did a holiday-cosplay session with Gabby. This was holiday session based on her Marth May cosplay from the Grinch movie.
For this session, I used:
|
Photography Equipment |
Props/Miscellaneous |
|
Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix strobes 1 Westcott FJ400 2 c-stands 1 Backdrop stand 1 Fuzzy White
Backdrop 1 bell reflector 1 blue gel Sandbags 1 rectangular soft
boxes 1 60-inch umbrella
with sock 1 Platypod stand 4 LED tube lights |
Christmas Trees Stuffing to act as
snow Styrofoam blocks Ornaments Boxes Wrapping paper Posing box Wooden crate Ribbon |
The set up
Let’s start with the set design set up, which I wanted to be representative of a Whoville Christmas but not as busy to ensure focus stayed on the model and the dress. I also drew some inspiration from 1950’s and 1960’s holiday themed photoshoots to help with overall aesthetic.
I started with a fuzzy white background, which I chose because
I could change it color buy using a strobe with a gel. Once the background was
in place I started with the background detail, which was two 4-foot pencil pine
trees wrapped with red ribbon and a few smaller pine trees around them. I then added fluff to act as snow. Then I
move to the foreground element diagonally from trees. I started with crate
turned on its short end to make it look like its contents were spilling out. I
then added some small pine trees and fluff for snow. Once that was in place I
added ornaments of varying sizes, starting with large ones and working down to
smaller ones. They ornaments needed to look random but still be well
placed. Finally, I added some boxes
wrapped in shiny red wrapping paper with bows as a finishing touch. I also wrapped my posing box to look like an extra-large
gift so it would fit into the scene.
When setting up my lighting I knew I wanted this to be high
key with very light shadows. I also knew I didn’t want a pure white background,
and it was going to need some color to help pull the whole scene together. I started with the background light which was
a Westcott FJ400 with a bell reflector and dark blue gel attached. This was
placed on the ground centered along the back edge of the backdrop, using a Platypod.
This light would be hidden by the model’s dress. The second light also my main
light, a Phottix strobe with a rectangular soft box, was
placed about 45-degrees to my left. When shooting I raise this light up high
and angled it down towards the model. Note, I didn’t use a grid on my main
light because I wanted the spread to ensure even illumination of the model. The
third light, which was my fill light, was a Phottix strobe with a
60-inch umbrella with sock on it, was located a little less than 45-degrees to
my right. During the shoot the
background light was at about 1/16 – 1/8 power, while the second
lights were around 1/4 power.
Camera Settings
For this session, I used ISO 100, with an aperture of F8
for wide shots and F5 for closeup shots and a shutter speed of 1/200s. My focal
length ranged from 24mm to 105mm, with my most common focal length being 35mm.
The Photos
All the photos from this session were edited the same way,
because the lighting didn’t very much, and I kept it simple. For all the images I adjusted white balance then
applied Color Checker profile to all the images. I adjusted the exposure slightly up, to add
to the high key look. I also adjusted the vibrancy and saturation slightly to
ensure the red and greens were not overpowering the image. In Photoshop, I did have to extend the
background using generative fill for a few of the images. I also used the
remove tool to remove some distractions, mostly seams from the backdrop. I then
used the RetouchForMe, plug in to do some minor dodging and burning to ensure a
nice even skin tone. While I used a variety
of crop ratios I cropped to 2:3 (11x17) to ensure I got the length, and 4:5
(8x10) which is the ratio best suited to Instagram.
My favorite image is below.
I like this image because it is very elegant and also gives off some nostalgic
vibes. I could very easily see this being a still image from a 1950’s Christmas
movie. It just has a timeless vibe.
This next image took a bit of photoshoot, and several takes to get. To get the shot, I had the model and my assistant through ornaments into the air. Note when doing this ensure all ornaments are plastic and not breakable, lesson learned. I then took the best image of the model and pasted ornaments from the other images onto the selected image. Now I did try using Adobe’s AI to do this but was happier with the results using traditional cut and paste methods. The AI results didn’t align well with the scene, and I did not want to spend a ton of time on refining the AI prompt. Overall, the traditional method was faster and resulted in a better image.
I also took a lot of headshots during this session to focus on facial expressions and show off the beautiful wig by C80sThingamabobs. I also have to say that Gabby’s make-up was on point that day.
Finally, we wrap up with shot that is a pose from the movie and show off the whole beautiful dress. This image also shows how I altered the set as we went through the shoot. One thing I like doing is modifying the set as the model and I move through the session, which allows for creativity and a wider variety of images.
The Wrap Up
This was a fun shoot and really scratched my itch to do a holiday
session. I love doing holiday sessions, because I have so much holiday stuff. Plus, Gabby is always a pleasure to work with
and brings a lot of energy to a session.
Though next time I’m just going
to allow my Christmas playlist to play from the beginning instead of random,
because random kept the non-upbeat songs.
You can see all the images from this session here: Martha
May.
Credits:
Cosplay:
Martha May
Model:
Gabby (IG: @gabby_kun13)
Wig: C80sThingamabobs (IG: @C80sThingamabobs)
Ring: Crowning
Beauty Tiaras (IG: @crowningbeautytiaras)
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