SHOOTING STEPS
1 SELECT LOCATION
Choose a location with neon/fairy lights such as a bar, café or arcade, preferably with good window light. Or, shoot outside in a location with neon lights in the background. Using a café/bar window can help to give extra reflective interest.
2 COMPOSITION
Take care in considering your composition, use leading lines and flattering poses. Beware of distractions, and move unwanted objects. Have the neon lights behind your model, maybe inside a window, reflected in a window or by your model’s face to light the model up if light is low. Try different compositions.
3 LIGHT YOUR MODEL
Make sure your model’s face is well lit – if window light or the venue’s lights are not enough you can use a reflector to bounce extra light in, or place fairy lights close to your subject. If necessary you can use flash, but it can alter the ambience and create unwanted shadows.
4 CREATE BOKEH
Place fairy lights in an area to create more bokeh in front of or behind the model. You can ask your model to hold the lights at one end and you hold the other end. Use warm white fairy lights to light the model’s face, or colourful lights to give extra interest. Place some on a shiny surface for double the bokeh.
5 POSE MODEL
Choose flattering poses for your model and maybe ask them to hold props such as glasses or a drinking glass to add in more reflections. Having a prop can help your model to relax and offer a wider variety of poses.
6 BOUNCE REFLECTIONS
Hold a small piece of Perspex, glass or your mobile phone in front of your lens and try lots of different angles to bounce reflections into your image. Watch for distortions affecting the area close to your model’s face. If outside you can bounce trees, clouds and buildings etc into your image.