Vintage Fashion Light Painting

Since the shoot on Circus Lane, I had been thinking about extending my light painting portfolio to include models. Thus far I mostly had light paintings of musicians, dancers, circus artists and costume wearing tour guides.

I also figured that the light painting look might work well with vintage fashion. So I visited a few vintage boutiques in town looking for someone willing to collaborate. Claire from “Those Were The Days Vintage” was very enthusiastic about the project and she sourced a model and makeup artist for a shoot.

The shop is located on St Stephen’s Street in Stockbridge, and the area has plenty of good locations for light painting. We were also granted access to “Lovecrumbs”, a coffee shop adjacent to “Those Were The Days Vintage”.

I first took some traditional beauty photographs for the model and makeup artist (who also did the model’s hair), since the shoot was on a TFP (“Time for Prints”) basis so they could add them to their portfolios.

Beauty photograph of model Anne Catherine Dahlmann — Model Anne Catherine Dahlmann.

We first moved next door to the coffee shop. The green background provides good colour contrast with the yellow dress and red shoes.

Light painting of model in a yellow dress — Taken at the back of the “Lovecrumbs” coffee shop.

It turned out to be a bit more difficult to find a spot inside the coffee shop for the black dress, and this is my least favourite set up of the night.

Light painting of model in a black dress — A whitish wall is really tough for light painting. Nowadays I would avoid such a set up.

For both the yellow and black dress set ups, I light painted the whole scene, and I now believe that was a mistake. In my more recent light paintings, I would incorporate a shot of the ambient night light (practical lights in movie parlance) to give the scene a moodier look. As they stand, the pics look a bit flat in my opinion.

We next moved outside to Circus Lane to shoot the red dress. We all loved the green bench and all the textures, which work great for light painting.

Light painting of model in a red dress — The green bench and trees provide good colour contrast for the red dress.

The next location was the nearby steps of St Stephen’s church. At first glance, it doesn’t look like a nice spot, but with light painting one can make a mundane subject look interesting. The lines of the steps add a strong element of design to the composition.

Light painting of model in pink dress — By the time we shot this, it was getting late and cold. Anne did a great job of standing still in these conditions.

Finally, the last set up was shot in the bridal section of “Those Were The Days Vintage”. Here again, if I were to shoot this again, I would make use of the practical lights and combine those with the light painting shots.