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DespayreFX

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How to make a fashion model...

How to make a fashion model...
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Canon EOS 6D

settings

Aperture f/9 ISO 100 Shutter 1/100 Focal Length 73/1

upload_date

Mar, 2018

Views

4680

Likes

+448

Awards

Zenith Award

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Achievement in Originality

Peer Award

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Outstanding Creativity

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Absolute Masterpiece

+25

Superb Composition

+16

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Behind The Lens

Location

I shot this in my studio at the end of a creative shoot that was focused on something else entirely, but I noticed that she had a very similar physique to my studio mannequin ("Cinthia", if you were wondering!), and the idea just popped into my head, so I explained what I was thinking, and she was onboard too, and that's how that started!

Time

We'd been shooting all afternoon, and at the back of the studio where we were there is no natural light available so everything has to be lit with strobes so this could be done any time, since the light is all from strobes.

Lighting

I believe I was using 2 gridded strip boxes on this shot, I know I wanted to avoid the head on lighting, because I wanted to create some shadows on the torso and really make the shape of her stand out, and I would have had the camera-right strobe on higher than the camera-left, which I used more as a fill to create some softer shadows.

Equipment

This was shot with 2 Profoto D1's each with it's own large gridded stripbox placed on either side, and just behind the model. I used my Canon 6D, the lens was my EF70-200 2.8. I put the camera on a tripod to make the 2 images easier to line up.

Inspiration

This was a flash of inspiration for me, as she just happened to walk past the mannequin and I realized that her physique was so similar to the mannequin that if I wanted to do something creative with the 2 of them, it wouldn't really be that difficult, since the proportions were so close to begin with, a win/win for sure, I figured I might be able to create something interesting, and without spending all day in PS. That works for me. :)

Editing

There is some post processing here, but not as much as some people think. The first thing that's photoshopped is all the other mannequins, I only have one. I didn't reshoot them each in place, although you could, and there would be some small advantages to that if you shot with a tripod, but I'm happy with the cloning I did here too (don't look too close, it's not perfect! :) ), and it was reasonably quick. Other than that, I obviously created a composite of the mannequin and the model standing in the same place, and then used a layer mask to reveal the parts of her I wanted to and keep the mannequin parts I wanted. Obviously I wanted to keep her face, and I just used a desaturated adjustment layer to pull all the colour from her face so it matched the colour of the mannequin. I also used a little more skin smoothing than I normally would, just so her skin would more closely resemble that of the mannequin.

In my camera bag

My go bag has been pretty stable for a few years now, other than the addition of a second case for the drone I use these days as well. For gear though, I usually have my main body a Canon 6D (which despite all the new cameras available, I still think is a great underrated camera!), I have a backup body of a 60D, which allows me to have a little extra reach with my long lenses if needed. Both bodies have camera grips, and I keep 2 extra sets of batteries for them in the bag as well. For lenses, you will always find my 70-200, 24-105, and my 50 1.4, in the bag, and often my 100mm macro lens as well, (which takes surprisingly good portraits too!). I keep one flash in the bag, along with my lens cleaning kit, spare batteries for the flash, a few memory cards, and just because you never know when someone will ask, some business cards too. :)

Feedback

While the process is fairly straightforward, there are a few steps, I used a tripod to make lining things up in post a lot simpler, and set up the lighting with the mannequin first. I marked the spot on the floor where he mannequin was standing, and after I got the lighting how I wanted it, I moved the mannequin just off to the side. Then I helped get the model into as close to the exact pose of the mannequin, while she stood on the floor marker to make everything line up as well as possible. I think you could do this with almost anyone and a mannequin, but I saved a lot of time by using someone that has almost the exact same dimensions as the mannequin to begin with, it made the compositing process a lot faster than you'd expect. Nothing overly special about the camera settings either, I was at 1/100th, f9, and ISO 100 for this shot, on my 70-200, @73mm. If anyone finds this helpful or interesting and tries to do something similar, I'd love to see it when you're done!

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DespayreFX

DespayreFX

Identity Factory

How to make a fashion model...

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow DespayreFX

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