Maybe it is the lockdown that has affected my work but the other day I was going through several studio shots which were taken in February at the end of last year and I thought to myself, as no one else would listen, how could I make these better?

Below you can see the studio shot, both Captain Bang Bang and Stormina Teacup are standing on plain grey roll paper. I prefer using plain roll paper as it is easier to add different backgrounds when I like in post. The right-hand photo shows the finished shot, a single spotlight and a slight blur to the digital background to add some separation.

Directional Light

The directional light, coming from the top of the frame lights up part of the background but stops at the centre of the image. The layer that holds the lights in Photoshop is above the background as well as the iconography layer so it lights both. The light fall-off is soft to provide a slow fade rather than a harsh line of light.

Iconography Layer

The flat background is blurred out and iconography layer is added to spice up the image. This layer is a simple Photoshop brush provided by https://www.obsidiandawn.com of a cog with another layer on top with smaller cogs. Each layer has an independent pattern attached to it and separately blurred to create different depths of field.

Shadows Layers

The shadows layers consist of a vignette around the whole image, a dark gradient from the bottom of the frame upwards, this is to control the light to remain in the centre of the image.

There is also a dodge and burn layer to darken areas between the steampunk clad sirens and lighten the skin as well.

Additional Layers

There are a couple of other layers that control the ambient colour. Additional selected sharpening is completed in Capture One editing tool.

This style of editing really struck a chord with me… The lighting, iconography and directional light all came together and showed that there was a proper progression from the old style to the new.

I have produced several images in this style, some darker and some lighter than this inception image. You can see them here. More will be added over time.