You’ll often hear photographers claim that a lot can be achieved with very little, and for the most part it’s true. However, that tidbit doesn’t offer a great deal of actionable information. In this behind-the-scenes video, you will see just how far creativity can take you.
Irene Rudnyk is a superb portrait photographer and she has some superb equipment in her arsenal, but what makes this shoot special is it isn’t the camera or the strobe light that makes it possible, it’s her creativity. These types of shoots are not uncommon; portraits of people lying in pools that are made to look like ponds of oceans for an aquatic fantasy aesthetic. However, you could be fooled into thinking they require vast bodies of water, lots of lights, and a ton of setting up to achieve. That is not the case.
Rudnyk uses an inflatable children’s paddling pool for this, masked in two ways: the first is water coloring and the second is a close crop. The water coloring sets the whole mood and can hide the ugliness of a cheap pool’s linings, which would break the spell being created in the final image. The close crop does much the same thing, ensuring the viewer doesn’t detect that the image wasn’t in fact taken in some mystical, watery wonderland. A final tip that is admittedly more difficult is styling. If you can rope in a great stylist for this sort of shoot and get them to tie in hair, make-up, and accessories to fit the color of the water, you are setting up the basis of a fantastic image.