I’m always looking for ways to create beautiful sets that feel otherworldly yet modern. This is not always easy, but it gives me a ton of inspiration. When Fumihime visited me, we decided to use my couture dress from Alice Corsets and black wings from an online supplier to create a set that would walk the line between a fantasy and a cinematic look.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to use a soft light which would work for an image inspired by paintings, something that always comes back in my work. For this I used my broncolor Siros 800 L with a broncolor Octabox 100cm which had both its diffusers attached. The Octabox itself gives a nice as well as soft light and is also big enough for an incredible fill in. I placed the Octabox as high as I could in my studio so the light would fall both on her and the black backdrop. Like this I was able to ensure enough separation between the two of them – something that would also allow me to bring in digital backdrops from The Backdrop Studio in post-production.

The light itself was positioned almost directly in front of the model, slightly angled to the left so I could keep shooting without having any interference of my tripod. For the light strength, I decided to work at only 3.0 and instead experimented with shutterspeed and aperture to ensure a correct exposure (slightly on the darker side).

Once I had my light placed, I knew that I needed some fill on the right side of my model in order to keep the details sharp and the shadows not too dark. I took my giant reflector and placed it on the right side, in a 45 degrees angle.

I achieved a slightly more modern touch using my broncolor Move 1200 l with a broncolor MobiLED and attached a broncolor Stripbox 30x120cm to it. I positioned the light on the left of my model so it wouldn’t spill on the backdrop yet give a beautiful rim light. No matter which direction she turned with her face or her body the rim light would stay more or less the same. Since I wanted this to be a strong fill in light, I decided to set the strength of my Move 1200 l to 3.0.

Because most of the light came either almost directly from above or the side, I used a smaller reflector and placed it angled on my battery so it would bounce a bit back to fill in the shadows on her dress and her chin for a more flattering outcome.