A Mystery Novel Fashion Editorial Photoshoot

Kirsty Stalder, Model // HMUA: Elyssa Anderson @elyssa.anderson.hair
Photo: Wendy Hurst // Production @hello_wayfinder

Kirsty has a timeless face that I've featured in the past as a pirate on a dock and a peacock in a circus (just click the links, it's faster than explaining, wink). It seemed only fitting to place her into a scene that could have come right out of an Agatha Christie novel.

Lighting the Scene
This space was a little tricky. It was big enough to fit at least 50 people if they touched each other. Directly to camera left was a cream-colored metal door, and to camera right was an archway leading into a smaller space where we put up the newspaper "room" for a different editorial scene at the same event. (This one! If you've recently made a backdrop like it, you'll likely click it several times because your fingers will stick to the button like mine did. Wear gloves, people.)

So like anyone who needs a fill flash but the room is so large that bouncing it into the ceiling would get lost, I used the door. I pointed a bare speed light directly into the door to reflect from camera left. (Without it the I felt the photograph was too contrasty.) The main light was in a 43-inch umbrella soft box at camera right, angled down at a 45-degree angle. With more time I would have asked her to explore the space and emotion of the environment, but on the bright side it gives me a good excuse to go back...

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