For C2E2 (the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo) 2023, Gaby and James Martineau hired designer Erin Gallagher to create some uniquely glamorous Star-Wars-Rococo-themed costumes. Shortly after the event, Gaby and James hired Distant Era to make their portraits, wearing those costumes. Last week, we featured James Martineau. This post follows last week’s format, where we feature Gaby Martineau’s solo portrait from the session!
Gaby the Great
Gaby last appeared in The All Worlds Traveller as “The Wood Wife” in The People of Light and Shadow series. We’ve photographed many creative projects over the years, and this session provided another opportunity for us to hang out and experiment.
Gaby’s Star Wars Rococo costume interprets the Darth Vader, as you can see with the sequined mask she’s holding in this bonus shot from the session.
Photography, Editing, and Composition
As I recall, we used many different lights in many different positions throughout this session. We blocked light with flags, placed big lights overhead, placed small lights to the side. In this particular portrait, I believe we used a beauty dish to the left of camera, with some fill light opposite. For the background, we used a blue canvas I painted with Elizabeth in the summer of 2020.
I thought the blue canvas might make a cool backdrop for stars, as in the first iteration below, which we decided this was too much. It took some time to figure out the direction I wanted the solo portrait to go in, as I felt the blue overpowered the neutral tones of Gaby’s costume and skin. I tried various experiments, eventually desaturating the blue into a more neutral gray, which made way for the costume and skin to come out as the strongest elements.
Another challenge was composition. Ordinarily, I might crop the image much closer to the face, like the image below, in order to emphasize the subject’s eyes. However, the Death Star fascinator is a key part of the costume. I looked for a middle ground where the subject’s face and eyes were the focus points, then drawing the viewer’s eyes to the mask and finally up to the fascinator at the top of the portrait.
The Final Version
At last, we present Gaby’s official portrait selection in its full glory.
Our goal was to fine-art-style Star Wars chic Rococco portrait as you might find in a gallery, and I think Gaby pulled that off to magnificent effect! When next we meet, I’ll show off the final couples portrait we made with Gaby and James. I am so grateful to both of them, and to Erin Gallagher, for creating this awesome concept.
For now, here are a few more bonus shots from Gaby’s session!
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