Not too long ago, I was asked to make a mock historical portrait for Kristin’s mother, which looked like an actual painting of Baroness.
Her imagination was to see her daughter in a grand dress from the Rococo period, and she’d specified that she wished it to look like a painting, as opposed to a photograph. To have it printed on canvas would make it ever more real, as well as the inclusion of brush strokes, for the desired effect of a “real” painting.
This was all inspired by my favourite painters, and I decided to keep everything classical.
We acquired the dress from a costume shop, and prepared for photo session.
Photographing with Mamiya 645AFDIII camera with phase one IQ140 back
I used one big diffused light source (Elinchrom Rotalux Softbox Octa 135cm trying to achieve chiaroscuro kind of light.)
For bounce, I used a polyboard which I placed opposite to the light source.
Lighting Diagram
I didn’t do much postproduction on the photographs, just kept the tone temperature more in the warm tones area, and did some light skin retouching.
I sent my print ready images, to a printing company and awaited for the result. As soon as the package arrived, I started the second part of the process; altering the print to look like a painting.
In the local arts shop, I was able to find what I needed-mediums soft gloss gel Acrylic polymer dispersion.
I placed two coatings of golden gel dispersion, onto the canvas which seemed to be enough for the effect.
The result was quite satisfying and believable, to me, but the real test would be if Kristin’s mother was satisfied.
Needless to say, she was more than satisfied with the finished product, rather overwhelmed and taken aback by seeing her daughter in what looked like a very real painting from the Rococo era.
Another job done and I’m pleased that I could make someone happy with my finished product.
Published on , Categorised in: Blog, Tagged as: chiaroscuro, elinchrom, IQ140, mamiya, phase one, rotalux