Fantasy Studio Portrait Tutorial

How do you create a stylized shot of a girl with an umbrella in hand being blown by the wind? To make matters a bit more challenging, how do you create such a shot in a studio environment? This interesting video tutorial takes you step-by-step to show how it can be done:

The video takes the concepts of studio lighting and combines them with the use of simple elements intelligently placed in the scene to create a beautiful photo setup.

The Gear

exposure setting

Exposure Settings

The Lighting

  • The key light was a Dynalite Studio Head with a PhotoFlex medium soft-box with a grid
  • The background was lit using three PhotoFlex Flex Heads. They were set on the floor pointed up at the background. This resulted in the top being darker and the bottom being highlighted, which gave a bit more depth to the image.
  • The last light was a Dynalite Travel Head without any modifier used as a rim light. It created a harsher light that outlined the model and the grass against the background.
studio portrait lighting arrangement

The Lighting Arrangement

The Props

  • Clumps of grass placed in the foreground
  • A tree branch held in place by a clamp mounted on a combo stand
  • A grey backdrop

The position of the grass was adjusted to see the kind of effect it had both closer to the lens and away from it.

The tree branch satisfied two purposes. One, it provided a frame for the shot, and, two, it added a bit of punch.

The backdrop is grey and gloomy and when illuminated properly it does the look of a stormy sky.

To get the pose perfect, the model leaned forward a little. That was made possible by using a small structure.

The arrangement was complete with some clever use of fishing line, safety pins, and a fan to blow the dress.

fancy studio portrait scene setup

Behind the Scenes

Quite a mess isn’t it?

studio fantasy photo shoot

Final Image

But when the results are something like this, who cares?

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