It’s not often we get together to do a fashion shoot, however today it just worked out. I was trying on this lovely winter gown (which I might have to keep hidden from certain people until next winter when I can wear it to Eden‘s Winter Queen Event) when Aeon turned up with this fabulous looking off-the-shoulder gown. I immediately suggested we do a picture featuring both, only to think, “Oh my, do I have a couples pose that will work?”
You may not realize it, gentle reader, but a lot of work goes into putting a fashion shoot together. First, THE LOOK. What hair style to wear? (Aeon ran out and used this shoot as an excuse to buy the style she’s wearing). What skin? Makeup? Jewelry? Shoes? Do we need hosiery? Nailpolish? Handbags? Hats? Will this outfit work on this mesh bod? Or do I have to wear system (oh dear!) Oh my the list can go on and on!
With the proliferation of mesh bodies and enhancements such as Slink, just where did I tuck that skin applier away in my 50 thousand plus inventory?
Aeon is wearing:
- Womanity – Rosie Maurer off-shoulder gown – red
- Two Sisters Treasures – For Her Heart ruby necklace & earrings
- Chez GiGi – Monaco Gold Evening Sandals
The next question of course is THE LOCATION. What suits the outfits? What mood are you trying to create? What atmosphere will you use (and of course in Second Life, you have the option of selecting from a myriad of WindLight settings, or even creating your own). If you have the luxury of being able to rezz objects (like in this shoot that was done in our photo studio, also known as the roof of our house) you get the option of using lighting and projectors to create shadow effects and so on. I’m not even going to go into some of the camera options you have.
Once you have your outfit set up and a location selected, what pose are you going to use? For solo posts, we mostly use a posing HUD when we can’t rezz items, but occasionally when we can rezz we will use a remote control pose stand which makes positioning and even rotation a breeze.
In this shoot, we needed a couples pose. The first one I looked at was quite nice but needed some serious positioning adjustment. So I quickly threw the poses into the carpet we are standing on and added nPose so we could get everything just right.
And after all that, you point the camera and go *click* only to realize that someone’s eyes are looking the wrong way… “Can you go into mouselook and look over my shoulder love?” *click*
And don’t forget post-processing. I tend to eschew most post-processing other than crops and some smoothing if needed, although I have been playing around with some soft focus techniques in The Gimp recently. I’ve also recently seen some lovely examples of added lens flare that have got me thinking…
Wow you finally have your pictures! Which to choose to post? How should we crop that? Does that angle work? Ahhh, are you still here love? Let me get one more pic…
And what story to tell with the pictures? You should have figured out by now that Aeon is a better story teller than I am. I’m too busy putting pictures together and thinking about the next outfit and where are we going to shoot and on and on.
From start to end, this one post probably took 3 hours (although they hopefully average much less).
So now you know 🙂
Blue is wearing:
- Gown: Winter Princess by Humble Beginnings
- Hair: Jill by Exile
- Skin: Poly Milk by Wow Skins
- Hands and feet: Slink
- Shoes: Girl’s Best Friend by BHB Nerdy Girl
Aeon’s body:
- Hair: Calico Dae reds
- Skin : Glam Affair Cleo Europa
- Freckles: Adam n Eve (ae) Body Freckles Applier for Slink Physique
- Lipstick: Glam Affair Cleo Prezioso Lipstick 01
- Eyes: Amacci Emerald
- Body: Slink Physique
- Hands: Slink Hands Casual
- Feet:Slink Feet Mid
