Over the weekend I worked with York-based actor Celeste North Finocchi, recent drama graduate of York College.
She was particularly interested in having shots that had a period look and sent me a short clip of a favourite tv series ‘Outlander’. I managed to borrow some costumes from Helmsley Arts Centre and also got permission to use Saint Mary Magdalene Church, East Moors (Saint Aelred’s Pilgrim Trail).
Bit of a delayed start with trains not running, so hasty trip to pick Celeste up from York, but after that we did some work at the house before heading up to the church. I’d watched some videos from Martin Castein on YouTube during the week and enjoyed his commonsense approach to gear. He also had an interesting exploration of the 85mm portrait lens and thinking carefully about background, so wanted to shoot with that up at the church, particularly outside.
Here’s a selection from the session:
Celeste has family (and an agent) in Sweden and was interested in a scandi noir look.
The church was perfect for some atmospheric images:
Poor Celeste had freezing cold fingers – they were even redder than above so I had to reduce the red saturation a bit!
We also did outside shots where the autumnal colours worked well with the red of a different costume:
I’d not done these kind of portraits before and must admit to struggling giving Celeste good movement direction. I’ll need to research and plan that a bit more next time. It’s very different to studio shooting.
We finished at the church as the light faded among the trees:
We also had time to do some quick studio shots:
I like to experiment with my editing and her gaze here reminded me of Imogen Cunningham’s portraiture so added a slight sepia filter.
A more natural portrait to finish with.
Super day.