Three Approaches to Shaping and Styling Dreamy Portraits With Simple Lighting

All photos © M. Bernal, Sofina Fine Portraiture

PUMPING UP PINK
I love motion. With this photo, I wanted to create something that had motion but didn’t have a visible face. I felt that would make for a more powerful image. I designed the dress on paper and bought two very heavy pink parachutes. I worked with my friend and costume designer, Staci Rizner, to sew the pieces. It took two days to make it.

The dress is extremely heavy, so it took some practice on how to hold it in order to throw the dress and several attempts to get the shape I was looking for.

The shot was done with my Profoto 600 lights: one with a 4 x 6-foot softbox in the front and the other directly behind her onto the canvas that was painted for me by David Maheu. I have worked with Profoto lights for as long as I can remember.

Camera: Nikon D810M
Lens: Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
Focal Length: 28mm
Aperture: f/8
Lighting: Profoto 600 at 5950K, 6-foot silver reflector

A MOTHER’S LOVE
When this mom-to-be approached me for a unique maternity piece with her 3-year-old twins, I was thrilled. Once I met her, I immediately saw something quiet with a slight forest feel.

I ordered five cartons of live, fresh moss in order to create the perfect bed on the studio floor. I used my Profoto 600 light with a 4 x 6 softbox and two 4 x 6-foot silver reflectors in order to slightly light up the fabric, and I shot it from 10 feet above them, from the ceiling. I recommend to any photographer that if they have any room at all above their studio in the ceiling to cut a hole in order to fit a lens through it. Shooting from the ceiling is a great way to get these types of images.

The biggest challenge going into the session was the twins. Luckily they were fantastic and perfect and took great direction, but they’re three years old, so it took about 20 attempts by the time we got this image with everyone doing exactly what we needed.

Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
Focal Length: 36mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Lighting: Profoto 600 at 5100K, two 4 x 6-foot silver reflectors

ANGEL WINGS
When this person approached me to create some images, I was so excited because I loved her look with the short blonde hair. She looked angelic to me.

When I photograph people in the studio, I tend not to use Photoshop backgrounds or brushes to create the look I’m going for. In this particular case, we used flour. It’s a great medium to work with, but it is super messy.

The entire studio was covered in plastic—that took several hours to set up. The shot was done with one of my Profoto 600 lights with one 4 x 6-foot silver reflector. I had two people throwing the flour on either side of her. To get the throwers trained to throw at the right angle and velocity at the exact same time, we practiced throws to the rhythm of a song in order to ensure that we got the timing down perfect. With experience, I have found that I can predict fairly well how the flour will react based on speed, angle and method. Last year I taught a weeklong lighting class, and one day when we were throwing flour, people were surprised by how I could predict the way the flour would interact. In this case, we used dustpans in order to get the look we were looking for.

Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
Focal Length: 32mm
Aperture: f/22
ISO: 200
Lighting: Profoto 600 with 4 x 6 softbox at 5100K, 4 x 6-foot silver reflector

Maria Bernal is an international award-winning portrait photographer and a WPPI Master. In this year’s 16 x 20 Print competition, she placed first in the Portrait Individual category, third in Commercial and third in Portrait Contemporary.

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