Mood board for photo shoots

A collection of images, notes and random ramblings to inspire my creative process and to share ideas.

Best viewed on a desktop. Click on thumbnails to enlarge, command (or control) click for the next image add shift for the previous, unmodified click to restore.

Objectives

Shoot reference images for paintings.

There are two, three, several scenes I'd like to shoot reference photos for:

• A pretty girl in dramatic chiaroscuro.
• A pretty girl lazing in the sun.
• A pretty girl with a shiny horse.
• A pretty girl in wet clingy drapery sitting on a waterfall.

Can you see any recurring pattern yet?

Beauty in images

Simple shapes

Images that are easy to read

Images that tell a story

Lighting options

Soft Rembrandt

Key, rim, fill, backlight

Good core shadow

Soften by bouncing off large reflectors

Backlighting to provide separation

Depth

To provide in terest, scale, context and to focus attention

Separation

Simple backgrounds contrasting with the objects, back/rim lighting to outline objects

Contrast

To separate objects and focus attention

Palette

Simplify with a one or two coloured light

Focal point

Draw the viewer's attention with leading lines

Dramatic chiaroscuro

The execution of Lady Jane Grey

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey - Paul Delaroche, 1833

This is my favourite painting from the National Gallery in London.

I want to create a painting full of interesting light and texture.

I'm not so delusional that I think it's going to be anything like this but "shoot for the stars" and all that.

This and all other great paintings tell a story or present an allegory. I'd love to find a story for our shoot but the first draft of this mood-board is about the look and feel rather than any story. I'm hoping we can come up with something serendipitously.

Because the end goal is a painting and the reference photographs will be for the main subject of the painting, then we don't have to worry too much about the background/setting/location for them. Background references will be sourced separately (if required at all). The only consideration for the shooting environment would be light bounce or lack thereof.

I'll get some black material to hang for a background and light absorbance.

My compositions are likely to focus on the main subject and have little or no background.

Tighter composition

Other chiaroscuro

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump - Joseph Wright

De koppelaarster - Gerrit van Honthorst

Saint Jerome Reading - Georges de La Tour

…and some of mine

Susan - Burrage

fallout42 - Burrage

rubythebean - Burrage

Lighting for chiaroscuro

High contrast, side and rim lighting. It adds drama

Rim lighting can make it seem like the viewer is part of the scene too. Like they are with the subject rather than with the audience.

Practical lighting

Lighting whose source is within the image.

These images with candles are great. I like when the candle itself is hidden by something such as a book or, even better, something translucent like a page or particularly a hand.

Alice lit by a register - Burrage

Split colour lighting

I'm also fond of split colour lighting.

u/taylorhb

Though I think it works better in photographs than paintings.

I like this too

@itsallinsideus

Damian Lechoszest

Daniel F. Gerhartz

I like his use of shining back-lights through transparent materials.

Lazy summer

Flaming June is another of my favourite paintings. I like the feeling of quiet relaxation, the following cloth and the warm colour scheme.

Flaming June - Frederic Lord Leighton

Top down shot sleeping in piles of cloth

Comfy. Lying in piles of fur might be comfier still.

Satin

I loved it the The Execution of Lady Jane Grey and in many other paintings.

Dawn - Edmund Hodgson Smart, 1907

Desnudo de mujer - Joaquín Sorolla, 1902

Pensive - Czachórski, Satin and side lighting

Gorgeous satin dresses aren't easy to find but satin drapery is a cheap way of looking expensive and luxurious. And it always fits.

I'll be buying an assortment of colours. Any requests?

@_KikiBrook_

Loise

Tom and Loise photobash.

Venecia Troncoso - Burrage

Venecia Troncoso - Burrage

Channing - Burrage

I also like the idea of recreating classic. Might be a lot of work. Even selecting a target is tricky. Maybe another time.

The Rokeby Venus - Velázquez?

Makeup

I'm not asking for any particular makeup. It's not my place and I don't want you to feel uncomfortable.

But just to let you know I'm a sucker for dark eye liner!

Characters

Paintings should tell a story. One way to come up with a story is to start with a character. Here are some starting ideas.

Albeit some very clichéd ones. Please add more unique or specific suggestions.

These may be limited by what we can come up with for clothes and props, but bare in mind that we can just use place holders which I can fill in when painting.

Don't pay too much attention to the thumb. They're just to trigger ideas. But if there is anything in them that you like, props, mood, lighting, etc. then please mention it.

I'd like the character to be someone you can really get into. Who (what) do you want to be?

A priestess

Priestess of Delphi - John Collier

Priestess of Bacchus - John Collier

A witch

Magic Circle - John William Waterhouse

Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus - John William Waterhouse

and turning her guests into pigs!

Magic Circle by John William Waterhouse above is supposed to have many semi-hidden features such as faces in the column of smoke but I can't see any. I like the idea though.

A vampire

Vampire - Edvard Munch

Envelopted (sic) - Cloaked Vampiress 🦇🦇 - @ninjacapers

A warrior

Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret, William Etty (1833)

Zenobia's last look on Palmyra - Herbert G Schmalz

An assassin

A demoness

Siren's song - Boris Vallejo

Succubus - ArtofTy

Demoness - MariannaInsomnia

Lilith and Eve - Yuri Klapouh

Demon Lover - Boris Vallejo

A murderer and/or victim

Meurtre au sérail - Fernand Cormon

Nothing to stop you playing two parts!

I just have to be careful about lighting and adding the appropriate cast shadows. Similarly Lilith and Eve above.

A nature goddess or nymph

Circe - John Collier

Girl holding a snake - Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach

The water nymph - Ludwig Von Hofmann

Nymphs and Satyr - Bouguereau

great light

A statue

Psyche Revived - u/Pomelo_Past

I love the light in this.

Statue girl - Burrage

High key edit - Burrage

A reclining nude

Nude beauty - Maria Szantho

implied nudity

hidden nudity

Crawling - Federico Ferro

wet clingy material would be fun to paint!

but I'd be too timid to ask.

long gloves and stockings

I love having an excuse to search the web for this kind of thing ;-)

"Plain" nude seems like cheating. Whilst undeniably intrinsically beautiful there has to be more to it than that.

A dancer

Bouguereau

Bouguereau

Whoever these guys are!

In a Roman Osteria - Carl Bloch

This is an intriguing painting. How are these people connected? What do their various expressions mean? Why is he carrying a knife? Is that carafe of wine deliberately phalic and is too it's placement near the girls mouth? Why is the table covered in flys?

What is the cat thinking?

Props

Timeless items for allegory:

The same things crop up a lot in classical paintings. Most of these should be relatively easy and cheap to source.

• candles, candle holder, candelabra, lamp, lantern
• keys, padlock, chest, piggy bank
• ropes, chains, nets
• clock, astrolabe, sextant, magnifying glass, googles
• quill, pen, scroll, leather bound books
• hat, mask, shoes
• ballet shoes
• wine glasses, goblet, drinking horn, amphora
• bottles (and food colouring)
• barrel, keg
• skull
• coins, ingots, jewelry, crown, tiara
• dagger, sword, axe, arrow
• cauldron, pestle and mortar
• grapes and other fruit, bread
• mushrooms, crystals
• broom stick, spinning wheel, bucket, umbrella
• bell, gong, harp
• hammer, horse shoe, anvil
• statue
• flowers
• translucent fabric/mesh/netting
• pillows, blankets
• satin
• fur, hide
• flowers, loose petals
• a mirror ( Rokeby Venus effect)
• bubbles
• balloons

Girl with horse - meh

I've painted a couple of "Girl with horse" before and they've been well recieved. I like painting horses and live not far from some stables. I'm sure we can borrow a horse or two.

Winter months only or the horses will be wearing fly hoods.

I'd like to get some shots in the "golden hour" if the time and the weather permits. Pretty standard fare.

Joey and Timber

Alexandra and Sugar Rush

Other found shots.

If we can work some sort of story into the shots that would be great but it's probably not essential.

They might be bit sugary and banal without a story but should be pretty none the less.

John William Waterhouse - mermaids

Charles-Amable Lenoir - drapery

Other example photos

straight on head down eyes up

hidden light

Lorde

Highlights

Detail

Flaming June, - Frederic Lord Leighton

Desnudo de mujer - Joaquín Sorolla - 1902.jpg

The Rokeby Venus - Velázquez?

John William Waterhouse - Magic Circle

straight on head down eyes up

hidden light

Notes

Scene 0

Standing next to the easel to display an as yet unpainted painting

Scene 1

360 static shots for 3D scanner for an as yet unsculpted sculpture
revisit the pose from the marble and copper AI edited image

Scene 2

Revisit hugging the fur
Reproduce the lighting from AI images, warm tavern, split lighting - orange and teal
Curled up like a cat - lit from within

Scene 3

Revisit the waterfall Details to capture

Reproduce the lighting from AI images, back-lit golden hour
Focus gaze on near / far / high / low positions
Will she let the weeping willow wind its branches round

Scene 4

Set up a frame for black mesh drapery over a bed
The mesh drapery can also be used as a veil

Stories

Murder (the British in particular are fascinated by murder)
Leaning over and teasing someone's ear
Greeting a dragon
Talking with animals
Sistine chapel ceiling - elegant flying weightless poses
In uniform

Ideas and props

Dry ice / aerosol fogvisit u/Historical-Engine906 for ideas
Projected lightset up a venetian blind shadow mask
Shadow performing a different act to the subject
Fur
Feather boa
Feather fan
Baby oil
Mirror, lying on a mirror, non-matching reflection
False shadows

Locations

Fireplace
Waterfall
Fire pit
Bathroom - bath
Bedroom

I'm enjoying scrolling for ideas here, here, here and here.

…and relax