Demeter and Persephone at the Gates of the Underworld in an Art Nouveau Style
Dec, 2016Views
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Winner in Love For Conceptual Photo Challenge
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Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
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Behind The Lens
Location
In my home studio in Chicago. My main shooting area is my dining space in my loft as the main wall there has a rag paint finish that catches light very nicely. (unless, as in this case, I replace the background, which makes the wall irrelevant)Time
doesn't matter - inside in the studio.Lighting
single beauty dish above the subjects, positioned perpendicular to them, feathering the light. I shoot most of my stuff with this type of setup. I love the quick falloff of beauty dish lighting, but it makes it harder to light a subjects eyes when the dish is positioned this way.Equipment
Canon 50D. I think this was a Tokina 12-24Inspiration
This concept is all from my talented body painter friend Dawn Marie. (facebook.com/DawnMarieFanPage/) She and I have collaborated on many different projects and she always has creative ideas. Here are some of our other creations together (and by "our", I mean "her"): http://dsa157.deviantart.com/art/Art-Deco-Angelica-165083035 http://dsa157.deviantart.com/art/Woodland-Dryad-II-185867534 http://dsa157.deviantart.com/art/Geisha-301155475 http://dsa157.deviantart.com/art/The-Guardian-301155932 In this case, she wanted to illustrate scenes from the Greek story of Demeter and Persephone, at the gates of the Underworld, in an Art Nouveau style. Don't ask me why, she just called up and asked if I wanted to shoot it and of course I said yes! Dawn did all the painting, makeup, wardobe and styling. Also, thanks to our models Demeter (Raminta Zaleckaite facebook.com/ramintazaleckaite) and Persephone (Meg Muhrie facebook.com/meg.muhrie.9)Editing
In this case, from the pose and the story, I knew I wanted Demeter and Persephone along side a body of water, the River Styx. I wanted the tones and the mood to be muted and sad, as this is the end of the harvest season, when Persephone must return to her husband/uncle (yeah, I know...) Hades for her 6 months out of the year agreement/punishment for eating pomegranate seeds while in the land of the Dead. I used several stock images for the sky, the water, the foreground rocky, muddy area. I extracted the subjects using Topaz Remask which did an excellent job although I was sloppy around Demeter's headpiece. I brightened the subjects using a variety of techniques. I don't burn and dodge manually that much, I will screen or darken the image as a whole and then mask away where I don't want that effect. Sometimes I use Nik Silver Efx to create a B&W version and then use it as a Luminosity layer to bring out or mute tones and detail I don't want to see. Sometimes I use Topaz Adjust for the same thing. With any of these tools, subtlety is key. When I composite, I will use a Blur Average layer to color blend the elements to make them look more unified. I don't always get it right, as I am a color blind photographer :) Here is the before and after images: http://dsa157.deviantart.com/art/Demeter-and-Persephone-before-and-after-475751144In my camera bag
Canon 50D, 18-200, 70-200, 24-70, 100mm macro, Tokina 12-24 Paul C Buff Cyber Commander Triggers. Einstein and Alien Bee lights Pocket Wizards Cambuddy Pro (newest toy) Macbook Pro Photoshop, Lightroom Topaz Suite Nik CollectionFeedback
I love to post process add creative elements to my images. I am definitely not a purist about the "out of the camera" image - to me, the final result is satisfying, no matter how you get there. I bounce back and forth between pre-visualizing a concept and just winging it based on what I captured. That said, if you are thinking about doing a composite image, think about your model's poses. Watch the light as best you can and try to find elements with similar light direction, or create it yourself. Have fun! If you are interested, here are more images from this series: http://dsa157.deviantart.com/art/Demeter-and-Persephone-Art-Nouveau-475751167 http://dsa157.deviantart.com/art/Persephone-with-Pomegranate-475751186 http://dsa157.deviantart.com/art/Demeter-with-Wheat-475751180 http://dsa157.deviantart.com/art/Demeter-Profile-475751127
