This post covers the last shoot I completed in 2021. It was a collaborative effort with local stage actress Mandy.

In Greek mythology Pandora was the first woman created. Her curiosity led her to open a jar that Zeus has filled with a whole lot of bad things. As a result mankind was subjected to all of them.

Mandy wanted to bring the myth to life. I knew this would mean some elements would be shot in camera, and others would be created in the computer.

I built a muti-layered set in the garage using lengths of lace. We also fashioned a simple robe for Mandy to wear.

The lighting in the two images above was very simple. A single large soft box was positioned camera left. The camera was set at 1/200s f8 ISO200 and an equivalent focal length on 24mm.

For the images where Pandora was looking into the box I positioned a speedlight in a snoot at the edge of the frame. This was aimed it Mandy’ face.

The post processing mainly involved toning the image and then adding the elements coming out of the box. This involved blending in images I had of smoke or creating beams of light mainly using exposure and colour.

The faces in the first image are self portraits captured direct into the computer and then distorted. I also added the flames on the candles.

In addition to the three images shown above I edited a further eight with differing effects. These were shot at various parts of the day. You will note that the costume changed slightly as evolved it.

It was a great shoot and a great way to finish off the year.

When Lucy and I were discussing her shoot, she mentioned that she wanted to create a dark angel look.

Lucy had brought a black top and skirt but it was not really working. So I grabbed one of my wife’s old ball dresses and a set of small angel wings. The wings were intended to be a simple placeholder with the intention of replacing them in Photoshop later.

We reduced the amount of light on the set to a single light in a beauty dish. That would provide some punch to the image but also allow for a lot of shadow.

The images were all shot on my Lumix G9 at 1/200s f8 ISO 200 and with focal lengths ranging from 34mm to 60mm.

Once I had the image selected in Photoshop I added wings that I had downloaded as a transparent PNG. I had to warp them to make them fit completely and then adjust them to fit the lighting.

I was really happy with the way the image came out. Recently I tried to use the new Generative AI features in Photoshop to create the wings. I cannot say that this made the process easier as it took several attempts to get what I wanted. That image is shown below.

Once I had all of the images it was now time to put them together.

I created a Photoshop document and built it up layer by elements as I went.

I had already gone through the Lightroom catalogue containing the bird photos and classified them into potential positions in the final image. From these I selected around 36 images taking each one into Photoshop, making a rough selection, copying it into my main document and then masking out the bird.

I realised that this would be a large file, hence I did not copy across anything that I did not need. Even with an effort I had to use the Photoshop large file format as the resulting file is 2.7 GB.

The image was tweaked over several sessions. The video below takes you through the photoshop document showing what each layer does. I alway work non-destructively so adjustment are always applied on their own layer.

I have shot Rachel several times and so I approached her with a mockup of the image to see if she would be interested. She thought it would be quite fun so we scheduled a shoot.

I had always envisaged a Victorian style outfit and so I made one using a corset and then placing lave over a hoop skirt frame. I attached the ring to a belt for strings and positioned it at roughly same height as it appeared on the feeder.

I borrowed a handpainted canvas backdrop and set up a studio in the garage. I knew that the final image would be a composite but at that stage I was not sure whether I would leave the background as it was or replace it. One of the hardest things of bringing a person into a new scene is getting their feet to look right on the new surface. To make this process a lot easier I had collected leaves and I sprayed those around Rachel’s feet.

I also collected a number of nests during the previous year and we fixed one to Rachel’s head and she held the other one. It was the a simple matter of shooting her where she was interacting with birds that would be added later. I only provided minimal direction as Rachel is an experienced model. Plus I find that letting a model find their own rhythm makes for better images.

For the lighting I used two lights. My main light was a Godox AD600 in a 1.5m Octobox positioned at 90° to Rachel. The light was covered with a grid so that I could control the direction of it. This lighting positioned closely resembled the angle that the sun had been when the birds were photographed.

Although the image below shows it as a square was actually octagonal. On the opposite side to the main light I positioned a white polystyrene reflector to provide a bit of fill and at the rear of the studio I had an Elinchrom D400 firing into the 7 foot umbrella covered with diffusion. This was solely to fill-in the shadows. While Elinchrom and Godox lights operate on different triggers, I could use the optical slave on the Elinchrom and this worked really well.

All of the images on this page were shot with my Nikon D600 f7.1 1/200s ISO200 using a prime 50mm lens. The camera was mounted on a tripod that was set at the same height as when the birds were shot.

We also shot some images from a different angle but these were never taken any further in post.

You can see a behind the scenes video of the shoot below

In part three we will cover putting it all together.