I am fascinated by the light and atmosphere of classical paintings, and since I also love ballet and dancers, I organized this creative shoot in an old castle in the forest around Montreal. There were 5 models, 3 assistants, 2 stylists, 2 MUAs and 2 people shooting video and BTS images. Great care was given to lighting and costumes, but the setups are actually quite simple.
See a BTS video here: http://richardblouin.com/renaissance-bts/
For as stylized as it is, nothing here takes you out of the scene. It really does look like a live painting down to the yellow cast. Epic work.
Thanks Mitch. Lighting the scene was the key. I balanced the colour of the single Elinchrom flash on the left (simulating the sun) with CTO and green gels so that it matched the colour of the ambient candelabra. The creamy diffusion comes from a smoke machine.
Enjoyed your BTS, thanks for the insight of this shoot :)
Merci Lucas. The BTS is the work of Mateo Cassis. He wanted to capture the spirit of the shoot and also comments from the participants. Sorry everything is in French, but I believe a version with English subtitles is coming soon. :-)
Great work! Love the lighting.
Thanks Mike. I like to keep my setups as simple as I can, because I hate lugging gear around. On location I use Elinchrom ELB-400 packs with Ranger Quadra heads. They give me 400ws, 1.5 sec recycling at full power, 350 flashes and 7 stops range, all in a 2Kg palm-sized package.
Damn this is on point! Great job! The harp player really brings this to life. 10 stars!
Beautiful!!!
Awesome shot man!!!... I'm just not sure about the typography in the bottom right hand corner... it kinda detracts from the overall feel of the image.
Thanks James. This is the standard way I sign all my images on the Web given the carelessness about re-use and appropriation, but I can see your point. In any event, when people order prints, I only put the red stamp as signature.
Super belle photo!!! Beautiful image!!! Je suis curieux de savoir ou ca ete shoote.
Au couvent Villa Maria. Permission spéciale!
This is F%*#(@&% amazing.
The atmosphere is really amazing. Congratulations on pulling together such a complex and creative event!
I have a few bits of constructive criticism. Some of the layering distracts me, like the hand over the chandelier, hand in the flowers, and harp lined up with the back of the head. I wonder if a few feet of movement could give these items some space. I see you deliberately included the candlestand on the left for balance, but it seems to push the symmetry of the models off-center. The last thing I notice is that with all of the diffuse atmosphere, the dancers' shadows are still razor sharp and give away the powerful flash from the left. All that being said, I wish I had images as lovely as your portfolio, great work.