So after the last shoot I was feeling pretty confident. It felt nice to have one down and that everything was falling into place. I did all three shoots in less than a week, so it was full steam ahead!
For this shoot I knew I wanted to be outdoors. I had this forest type shot in mind of a girl in a dress walking around with a candelabra looking for something and I wanted it to be really moody. Preferably a grey, foggy day. But I had a realisation once again that I might not be able to get what I was going for in such a short amount of time. So I decided to order some smoke bombs, which I had never used before but had always wanted to try, just in case I wouldn't have any luck with fog, which I didn't. But more on that later.
I first needed to find a suitable location. I talked to quite a few people about where I could bring my vision to life. I had a couple of reference images (again from Pinterest) that I was really inspired by. But since I'm not so familiar with the environment here in Gothenburg just yet I don't actually know about that many good spots. I though long and hard about going to Botaniska Trädgården (The Botanical Gardens) here in the city, but I ultimately decided against it since it would probably involve a lot of walking to get to a proper location there, where I could use the smoke bombs. Also we probably would have to do the makeup and styling on the model on a different location first, which would complicate things since we had a pretty tight schedule that day. Then a classmate of mine, Ellen (who also was my trusty assistant for this shoot) suggested we go have a look at Ramberget, which is a lookout point over Gothenburg and also basically right next to our school. We went there and it didn't take long before I found the perfect spot. Here are a few location scouting shots:
I felt right away that this was the perfect spot to set up my shoot. I settled for this crevice in a slope that would serve as a great backdrop and also would contain the smoke from the smoke bombs and keep it there.
Now that the location was set I was again feeling pretty confident. I found a model, Ragnhild, I got into contact with a few weeks prior and she was really keen to contribute. I hadn't met her before so I was feeling a bit nervous about that. But I really think I found the perfect person to portray. She was already into old dresses and gloomy stuff so I knew it'd be a perfect fit! Since me and Agnes already picked clothes the week before I didn't have to worry about that either. We found some beautiful dresses that we were gonna try.
So then it was time again for another intense day of setting up and everything. The weather was unfortunately really good(!).. So I'm glad I bought the smoke bombs! We got started pretty early since I still wanted to catch some of the light outside and not work in total darkness. I met up with the model, Ragnhild, and off we went to the studio in our school to do the styling and makeup. Agnes had also produced a beautiful wig for this shoot so I was pretty excited about that as well. First she went to work with the makeup and then we moved along to trying on some dresses. And then finally we attached the wig. Process images to follow:
So after a good two hours of makeup and trying on clothes etc. we were finally done and I was feeling really excited! I was once again blown away with the results of Agnes work. So I gathered all my gear and then we headed out to the location. Once we got there we tested some light and I ended up using just the one light. A portable Profoto flash again with a beauty dish (because why not?) and a diffusor to spread the light some more. It was dead cold outside (beginning of december and all) and Ragnhild was a real trooper and didn't complain at all. The wind was just right so the smoke carried down beautifully down the slope. It was perfect! Everything went super smooth except for some focus problems with the Hasselblad. I felt like we had the shot I wanted so I once again rigged for some closeup portraits which also turned out great. Then it was onto the retouching bit, which went smooth enough. They still took some time to edit but I'm happy with how they turned out, so enough rambling, here are the results!
All rights reserved © Rickard Olausson Photography 2015.
Again I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed making them. It was an intense process but I'm happy with the results!
Huge thanks to the following people who were involved in this shoot:
Agnes Duvander & Balettakademien - Makeup Artist/Styling/Wig/Clothes
Ragnhild Olvonsköldhe - Model
Ellen Hamlet - Assistant
Ove Bengtson at Hasselblad - www.hasselblad.com
My teachers Kalle Sanner & Klara Källström - www.fotoskolangbg.se
Götaplatsens Foto for the prints - www.gotaplatsensfoto.se
Stay tuned for part 3!
/Rickard
Link to part 3 - Part 3