My goal for the Winslet shoot was to visualize my own ideas into a project and leading a team. I teamed up with a model and a make-up artist who were exited about the concept. After sharing my plan and creating the moodboard, I started collecting the needed props.

Creating the props

The golden crown is the prop I made. The idea was based of on images I had found before. With my experience working in art departments for feature films, it wasn’t too difficult creating the crown. I used a headband,  tie rips and wooden sticks. Glued them all together and sprayed them gold. Later in Photoshop I could fix the details and make it look like a real crown.

The make-up artist used a hot glue gun to create fake tears and painted it gold with nail polish.

On set

On the day of the photoshoot, we used my small living room in where I built a studio. The gear I used was also very minimal. One light and a reflection screen to shine a spotlight on the model’s face. And a black backdrop to make her standout in the photos even more. 

Lastly, we had some extra time left that day to also shoot something different. I dressed the model in white and used the white wall in the living room. The natural light was shining bright through the big window and I asked the make-up artist to hold the reflector that could also be used as a diffuser. This way, the sunlight filtered through the diffuser and created soft light on the model. 

Editing process

The editing of the photos took quite some time because there were a lot of details I wanted to improve. After making the final selection, I started with the color correction and grading. After doing this in Lightroom, I moved the edited photos into Photoshop. In here, I always focus on improving the skin, removing any blemishes, removing dust or hair. The crown needed some smoothing out in certain areas where you could see glue. Also, for the black background I had to fill in a bit more. 

The video

The footage of the video that I shot was an extra bonus. I love combining photography with video to bring out the feeling of a story even more. The moving images and music really set the tone.