Creating a story: Elinchrom takes us behind the scenes of high-concept portrait photography

 

 

Fine art portrait photographer Rebecca Bathory loves to shoot high-concept portraits in and around decaying buildings and objects. In a video published by Swiss lighting company Elinchrom and filmed by The Photographer Academy we get to take a behind the scenes look at Bathory working.

Her portraiture is very much conceived and planned out ahead of time, she does storyboards for every significant shot. No matter how much planning you do, if you're shooting on location then you may need to change your approach on the fly. In the case of Rebecca's shoot as part of her "Underworld" series, the conditions were very windy and cold so she used only one Elinchrom light and had to work fast to keep her model from becoming uncomfortably chilly. With that said, the wind created a distinct look.

It's interesting to hear Bathory discuss what story she wanted to tell with her photography. There's a lot of thought and effort that goes into weaving the tale, from location, varying sky conditions, wardrobe, composition, lighting and more, and it's nice to get a peek inside the photographer's mind. Check out the video below.

For more information on Elinchrom lighting, see here. To see more of Rebecca Bathory's work, visit her website and follow her on Instagram.

(Seen via ISO 1200)