I started experimenting with conceptual portrait photography a couple of years ago when Peter and I made a portrait every month inspired by a famous couple. I found our “costumes” at Goodwill, and developed a habit of checking back every so often to see if I could find clothing that would photograph well. Now, I have a closet full of dresses that I use all the time. Our friends’ daughters had fun checking out the closet, and would come up with characters and outfits. I then put together lighting and backdrops to complement their costumes. This is the first in a series of posts that show the efforts of our collaboration over a two-day period.
The Setup: The background is the silver side of a large reflector, and I lit this image with a strobe and a large rectangular softbox. That was it. Simple.
We also used a bubble headdress I created for another project. I took a wide velvet headband, and glued clear plastic Christmas ornaments into a cluster on the side. The whole project took less than 30 minutes.
Post processing: I experimented with different processing techniques and using a combination of filters in the Nik Color Effects Pro plugin.
pamphotography 