“Electric Reverie” was shot during a small home-studio session where I wanted to see how far I could push color on skin while still keeping the portrait intimate and human. The model is lying on a dark fabric so that her hair becomes the only texture around the face, and all the attention falls on her expression and the gradients of light.

I used a Canon EOS 6D with a zoom lens at portrait length, working fairly close to keep the frame tight and the background completely out of focus. The main challenge was shooting with continuous light in low ambient conditions: to keep the image sharp I had to balance a relatively slow shutter speed with a moderate ISO and careful breathing from both of us so the eyes stayed crisp.

The lighting is entirely artificial: two small RGB LED panels, one high camera left set to a deep blue/violet and one lower camera right in a yellow-green tone. A small white reflector just out of frame lifts the shadows on the far cheek. The idea was to let the colors wrap around her face like shifting neon, with the transition line running through the eyes.

In post, I refined the palette using selective HSL adjustments and a gentle split-toning: cool blues in the shadows, warm golden tones in the midtones, and a slight magenta shift in the highlights to keep the skin luminous. I added subtle dodge and burn on the cheeks, lips, and eyes, plus a soft glow layer to enhance the dreamy, cinematic mood without losing pore detail.