The Story Behind the Photo
October 2023: Fantasy Portraits (Unlimited Editing)
Monica Miller
This was my first assignment from the Rainier Hills Photo Club, and my come back to photography after a few years break. Thank you very much for selecting my photo!
My inspiration: A scene in the forest, a young hunter with her companion, playing between trees, maybe hunting, or trying to find their way back home.
The location: one tree behind my house, with many thick vertical and diagonal branches adding lines and textures. You can see more trees in the distance, that gives more depth to the portrait.
This was my first assignment from the Rainier Hills Photo Club, and my come back to photography after a few years break. Thank you very much for selecting my photo!
My inspiration: A scene in the forest, a young hunter with her companion, playing between trees, maybe hunting, or trying to find their way back home.
The location: one tree behind my house, with many thick vertical and diagonal branches adding lines and textures. You can see more trees in the distance, that gives more depth to the portrait.
The characters: One of my dogs, Ruby was the mystical creature, with antlers and a big mane, maybe half deer, half wolf? He was the companion of a young lady, my neighbor's daughter Leah, her big beautiful brown eyes will bring magic to the scene. She was wearing deer makeup, that her mom and I learned from YouTube, it was Leah's first time wearing make up!
The outfits: Leah's outfit was my creation, a skirt made with transparent tape and large maple leaves from my yard, a leather belt as a strap, a pouch made with velvet fabric, a rustic knife next to a pink rose, contrasting delicate and rustic details. I looked for textures and colors. Her flower crown was made from my home’s decorations, I was going around the house looking for inspirational details for this character. She also has antlers made with small leaves; I chose the more reddish one to match the crown’s flowers. Ruby was wearing a fabric mane, some antlers decorated with some of his own fur (a brush was scheduled before the photoshoot 😉) and it helped to connect his fur with the head piece.
The pose: I wanted Leah to feel confident in the scene because the forest was her home. I lowered my camera to get the shot below her eye level, the audience was looking up at her. Ruby was placed on the side to have his face at the same depth. I asked Leah not to smile, but to connect with the camera holding her hunting knife, a relaxed pose but ready to defend herself. I got Ruby’s attention by making funny noises in a very high pitch, but he was looking behind me, what we later realized was a bunny hiding in the bushes. Great was to get a dog to stay still!
Equipment: Canon Mark III, Sigma 35mm 1:1.4 DG, no speedlight, gold collapsible light reflector with a LED 4k lumens lantern (improvising on the go).
Challenges: It was lightly raining, we stayed under the canopy of the tree to avoid getting wet, but we were losing most of the lighting coming from the cloudy sky. I didn't want to go under 1/200, my comfortable exposure time was 1/260 s. I couldn't lower the ISO for a more crisp image, I stayed at ISO 500. F-stop at 2.8, separating the forest in the back but keeping Ruby's nose and Leah's hand in focus, I stepped back until I felt I would get their faces in focus. Mom was holding the reflector and the lantern for me. In the original image you can see part of the reflector, but I cropped it, leaving Leah’s on the side.
Editing: First, Adobe Lightroom classic to select 4 images out of 200 using the star rating feature from 1 to 4-star images. I edited tones and presence and shared the images with some family and friends, in particular with my dad who is the one that introduced me to photography. Once I selected the two images with the feedback received, I moved to Photoshop 2024. On this image, I worked on matching Ruby’s fur with the mane, and his antlers. Among other things, I worked on Leah’s face, I sharpened her make-up, eyes, and hair accessories. accessories.