DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

How (And Why) I Shot This Beauty With Beast Feet Portrait

Nov 10, 2015 by Patrick Shipstad Leave a Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Lynsey Haris Feet

If you looked in my closet you’d probably think “Oh yeah, this guy is a cross-dresser”! Although that would certainly make a more interesting story, the fact is, since my photography is 99.9% of the time a DIY venture (no stylists or hair or make-up), my closets are packed with wardrobe (including a lot of women’s clothes) and props for photo shoots. I do a lot of thrift store shopping and when I come across something that is a great price and I think would look cool for a photo shoot, I buy it and wait for the right concept and model to shoot it. And it’s actually kind of fun if you have an eye for fashion. That’s not to say that models don’t ever bring selections. If a model says they think they may have the right clothes for a shoot, I’ll either meet with them beforehand to look at the selection, or have them send me pics of what they have. Either way, leaving wardrobe to chance on a shoot isn’t an ideal situation for me, so all selections are figured out ahead of time.

I was contacted by an actress – Lynsey Nicole Harris – who wanted to shoot a variety of shots, beauty, editorial, etc. And since she is usually cast in quirky comedy roles, she wanted to shoot something funny as well. So for a beauty shot, I thought I would shoot her in a “Vanity Fair” editorial style. I found this beautiful dress in a thrift store that was originally $225 USD and it was on sale for $30. I thought that dress would work perfect for this shoot. She came over for a fitting and the dress looked great on her! After wondering what kind of shoes we’d use with the dress, I thought it would look pretty to just go barefoot. Then it came to me, we could shoot that beauty shot with a funny twist and combine the beauty and comedy together. Something actress Tina Fey might do.

dress_1500

I did some searching online and found these rubber “hobbit feet” on Amazon. That was it! We’d shoot what first appears to be a beauty shot but then just coming out of the bottom of this beautiful dress would be these hairy, dirty hobbit feet. I crossed my fingers and told her the concept and luckily she loved it! As you’ll see, after the feet came in the mail, they didn’t look anything like the picture on Amazon, so it would take a little tweaking in Photoshop to make them work. Lynsey did her own hair and make-up and she looked lovely.

feet_1500

I used a hand painted canvas backdrop on top of a fake fabric floor that I found on Etsy, to give the photo a bit of a traditional, old masters look. The fabric floor required a lot of steaming to get the wrinkles out because it came folded tightly in an envelope. That was an hour of fun (not) the day before the shoot.

It was a simple two light set up with the main light inside an 86 inch umbrella with a diffusion sock, and a V-flat on the opposite side to bounce light back. The second light was a strip box coming over the backdrop, pointing down to be a hair and shoulder light. I added a fabric grid to the strip box to control the light spill and keep it just on the hair and shoulders.

lights_2_1500

set_1500

The main light was a Paul C Buff, White Lightning X1600 strobe, as was the hair light (so two x1600s). The main light was positioned almost completely pointing in front and past Lynsey so the light that was on her was just the very soft edge-light of the umbrella. The V-flat, positioned just out of frame, bounced enough light from the main light to take care of any shadows on her other side.

light_angle_1500

Both lights were metered at ISO 100, 1/125th at F8. I used the Canon 5D MKIII and the 24-70 F2.8L lens. I triggered the lights with the Paul C Buff Cybersyncs and I wirelessly tether to an iPad using the Camranger for reviewing photos and checking focus. I always meter my lights with either a Minolta or Sekonic light meter and set my white balance before shooting with an Expodisc.

We had fun doing this ridiculous concept.. but that was the point! It definitely has received the “That’s beautiful… wait… what?!?” response we were looking for.

About The Author

Patrick is a professional photographer based in Los Angeles. His work has an emphasis on creative portraits, beauty and fashion. For personal work, he loves shooting landscape, macro and working with vintage and experimental art lenses. Check out his site at www.patrickshipstad.com and follow him on Instagram @patrickshipstad.

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Photographer runs epic photo shoot to recreate Beauty and the Beast with his daughter How this Beauty and the Beast inspired photograph was created during a wedding This is how I suspended a model ten feet in the air for a magical shot Natural Beauty Takes A Poke At Fashion Photography By Juxtaposing Beauty With Hairy Armpits [NSFW]

Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: Patrick Shipstad, photo break down, portrait photography, Vanity Fair

« NASA’s Thermonuclear Art Shows The Sun in 10 Wavelengths, 4K and 30 Minutes
Facebook Plans To Scan Photos You Did Not Post And Suggest That You Share Them »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • The best photo-video April’s fools jokes for 2023
  • Clay Cook’s trippy portraits are the perfect combination of AI and real photography
  • Canon is starting to let 3rd parties make RF mount lenses
  • Canon recalls some EOS R10 bodies over “loud noises”
  • Netflix sued for using unauthorized drone footage in advertisement

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy