OmoroShoot briefRoll 038Ser.05
Surrealist Fashion aesthetic photography reference
RecTC 00:00:00:00

Surrealist Fashion

One illusion per picture, built in real cloth, with the body, the light and the ground kept completely ordinary

Roll 0385 frames0 / 5 shot
Frames00/05
surrealist fashion
SET

The setup

Shoot briefHD[surrealist fas]00:00:00:00Stop ■
Brief Int(surrealist-f.BRF)

Surrealist Fashion

01 LightConventional and photographic: one soft key, a little fill, a clean shadow. The light must never be part of the trick. If the lighting is strange as well, the eye stops believing the garment.
02 WardrobeDuchesse satin, wool felt, leather and boned or wired interlinings, in shocking pink, black and bone with one flat blue. One illusion per look and nothing else asking for attention. No floating objects, no distorted bodies, no quotation of a known surrealist piece.
03 LocationA plain studio wall in bone or flat blue
04 Palette
DIR

Director's note

Decide what the garment appears to do, then build the construction that actually does it, and write that construction down so nobody reaches for retouching. Everything except the illusion stays ordinary: the pose, the light, the ground, the expression. Two illusions in one frame cancel each other. The strangeness has to be physically legible, so a viewer can work out how it was made and still enjoy it.

All 151 director’s notes, printable: Director’s Briefs, $8 →
VF

Viewfinder

Live

Four controls on the brief's own plate · the meter is real, so you can blow a frame

Surrealist Fashion reference frame
Standby50mmMeteredf/5.6 · 1/125 · ISO 400

Running the list sets the camera for every shot in turn. Load your own photo to light and expose a frame you actually shot.

LGT

Light the set

3 lamps

Drag a lamp and watch the frame above change. The brief's own note is the preset

KeyThe light that makes the pictureSoft, farEye level
FillHow far into shadow you can seeSoft, farEye level
BackRound at the front, where it is just another fillOffEye level
On the brief
CS

Contact sheet

00 / 12

Nothing on the sheet yet. Set the camera, then take a frame.

SEQ

Shot list

00 / 05

Tap a pad to mark the frame shot · saved on this device

Full-length shot of a figure in a black wool dress whose skirt appears to fold through its own bodice, the effect built from a wired interlining and a concealed opening, plain bone-coloured ground, even lightsetup50mm
Waist-up shot of a jacket with one sleeve at four times the scale of the other, the oversized sleeve holding its shape on buckram, the wearer's expression neutralsetup50mm
Close construction detail of the wire and buckram armature inside the oversized sleeve, photographed on a table beside the finished garment so the trick is explaineddetail100mm
Close textile detail of shocking pink duchesse satin against black felt, the two surfaces meeting at a hard edge, one raking lightdetail100mm
Campaign scene of a single figure against a flat sky-blue wall wearing a sculptural felt accessory that reads as a familiar object at the wrong scale, nothing else in the framesetup50mm
Rolling
Take it to set: all 151 briefs as one PDF · $8
LOC

Locations

04
A plain studio wall in bone or flat blueA bare room with a skirting board and nothing elseA pale floor with a visible horizon lineA doorway used plainly, for scale
REF

Explore the aesthetic

Style guideColor palette
DOC

About this brief

How do I photograph the Surrealist Fashion aesthetic?

One illusion per picture, built in real cloth, with the body, the light and the ground kept completely ordinary.

Decide what the garment appears to do, then build the construction that actually does it, and write that construction down so nobody reaches for retouching. Everything except the illusion stays ordinary: the pose, the light, the ground, the expression. Two illusions in one frame cancel each other. The strangeness has to be physically legible, so a viewer can work out how it was made and still enjoy it.

Director's note

What shots should I get for a Surrealist Fashion photo shoot?

Leave with every frame on this list.

Shot list

  1. Full-length shot of a figure in a black wool dress whose skirt appears to fold through its own bodice, the effect built from a wired interlining and a concealed opening, plain bone-coloured ground, even light
  2. Waist-up shot of a jacket with one sleeve at four times the scale of the other, the oversized sleeve holding its shape on buckram, the wearer's expression neutral
  3. Close construction detail of the wire and buckram armature inside the oversized sleeve, photographed on a table beside the finished garment so the trick is explained
  4. Close textile detail of shocking pink duchesse satin against black felt, the two surfaces meeting at a hard edge, one raking light
  5. Campaign scene of a single figure against a flat sky-blue wall wearing a sculptural felt accessory that reads as a familiar object at the wrong scale, nothing else in the frame
What lighting works for Surrealist Fashion photography?

Conventional and photographic: one soft key, a little fill, a clean shadow. The light must never be part of the trick. If the lighting is strange as well, the eye stops believing the garment.

Light

Where should I shoot Surrealist Fashion photography?

Scout these before anything else.

Locations

  1. A plain studio wall in bone or flat blue
  2. A bare room with a skirting board and nothing else
  3. A pale floor with a visible horizon line
  4. A doorway used plainly, for scale
What wardrobe works for Surrealist Fashion photography?

Duchesse satin, wool felt, leather and boned or wired interlinings, in shocking pink, black and bone with one flat blue. One illusion per look and nothing else asking for attention. No floating objects, no distorted bodies, no quotation of a known surrealist piece.

Wardrobe

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