More test shoot!

Forkie · May 14, 2015

This is one of the main shots from my test shoot the other day. It's just a concept shot and the costume is not complete. In the final, she will be wearing a very long, floaty skirt-like thing around her waist and with the help of a wind machine, it should fly up and provide some amazing movement, something along these lines: colour storm by creative photoworks 500px

The headdress was made by my own fair hands and the corset is custom made for Marie (for herself - I didn't have it made for the shoot!)

Really happy with the lighting and the way the headdress catches little specular highlights and the iridescent green just about shows through without actually making it green - it's just what I was going for (phew!).

The pose needs work - I want her to look much more aggressive and menacing, but for a starting point - I couldn't be happier!

Again - opinions welcomed!

Concept shot by Ian Forknall, on Flickr

mmaria · May 14, 2015

as you said the pose needs a bit work, the area below the waist is a bit odd, maybe liquify the corset a bit above her right leg... and do something different with her right leg. pp, lighting and everything else I LIKE!!!

bribrius · May 14, 2015

primitive.
i like.

Forkie · May 14, 2015

mmaria said:
as you said the pose needs a bit work, the area below the waist is a bit odd, maybe liquify the corset a bit above her right leg... and do something different with her right leg. pp, lighting and everything else I LIKE!!!

Thanks Marija!

What's wrong with the right leg? Is it the "squashing" effect of it being leant on that's the problem? I can see what you mean about liquifying the corset though. I won't bother for this particular shot, but in the real shoot, I'll look out for that. Thanks for your help!

mmaria · May 15, 2015

Forkie said:
What's wrong with the right leg? Is it the "squashing" effect of it being leant on that's the problem?

Because it's squashed and because it's positioned with the knee pointed to the lens, it looks much more bulky

I guess it's just a nitpick

can't wait to see the real stuff!

frommrstomommy · May 15, 2015

The kinda hot spot on her nose bugs me a bit for some reason.. but I really like what you're going for here. Did you try any with her lunging forward vs seeming to be leaned back? I feel like that would make her look more "aggressive" I guess. Very cool!

Forkie · May 15, 2015

frommrstomommy said:
The kinda hot spot on her nose bugs me a bit for some reason.. but I really like what you're going for here. Did you try any with her lunging forward vs seeming to be leaned back? I feel like that would make her look more "aggressive" I guess. Very cool!

Yes, we did actually - but I haven't got round to editing them yet. Both me and Marie have already discussed being more menacing in the real shoot, so we're picking up bits and bobs that we want to make sure we get.

The highlight on the nose annoys me too, actually. The studio we rented was a cheap one for the test shots and they didn't have much in the way of light modifiers. Only 2 softboxes, which I placed behind and either side of Marie, or a beauty dish, which I couldn't use because it was too big and the ceiling wasn't high enough to use it and still get the top of the tallest feathers in any standing shots! So my key light was much smaller and harder than I would have liked which meant I had to soften a lot of shadow edges in post-processing.

Thanks for the feedback! It's really useful to know what things other people spot and also that people have spotted the same issues and me and Marie!