Steampunk Portrait Session

Steampunk Themed Portrait Shoot

 

Portrait Photography Dundee

It was an overcast rainy day in Dundee, the portrait shoot I had for the day had already been postponed due to the weather a couple of weeks before.  As I had arrived early I surveyed the location as I awaited for my model for the day to arrive, and thought it best to use the only area that is protected slightly from the rain.

In the intervening time between the original date and today, I had attended a session of my continual development course (MMoS – Mentor Me on Steroids) at Damian McGillicuddy’s Studio in Chester, this meant I had been given some homework to complete before our next session.

I decided that I would use this portrait shoot as some of my homework along with my original intention of getting more shots for my portrait portfolio.

The location

A little about the location, Camperdown House in Camperdown Park, the largest public park inDundee.  Camperdown house is a stunning neo-classical building. The house itself was designed by the architect William Burn and built by the Duncan family.  The house is named after the battle of Camperdown.

Why Steampunk?

Back to the portrait shoot.  For quite a while now I had been looking to get some Steampunk themed images for my portrait portfolio, but it seems Steampunks are as rare as hen’s teeth in Dundee.  After placing numerous ads and casting calls a lovely young lady responded and a date for the shoot was set, well eventually after being postponed.

As I had decided to use this portrait shoot as part of my homework, I was restricted to using just one light.  Not wanting an easy run of it I restricted myself to one lens (45mm f/1.8), and the just the Olympus OM-D E-M5.

I just have to say the costume the Model had was fantastic and I hope to be able to shoot with her again in the future.  Hopefully the weather will be a little better.

Click on a thumbnail to see larger images, move you mouse over the image to see the slide controls.

Portrait Photography DundeePortrait Photography Dundee

Technical Stuff

As mentioned above for the entire shoot I used my Olympus OM-D E-M5 and the 45mm f/1.8 lens.  For the lighting I used a single Canon 580EX mounted in a 19″ Beauty Dish, configured as a softbox.  To fire the flash I used a Pocket Wizard TT5 on the flash and a Pocket Wizard TT1 on the camera, I had to set these to basic triggering mode to work with the OM-D.  Some of the shots had the inclusion of a white reflector to bounce light back in for fill.

Editing was performed in Photoshop CC, where adjustments were made using the new camera RAW filter, followed by adding a vignette  and black background with white key lines.

Please feel free to leave comments, until next time

Gareth Williams

Photography by Gareth Williams – Portrait Photography Dundee

All photography and text on this page © 2013Photography by Gareth Williams

C o n t a c t   &   A r c h i v e s
F A Q ' s