Our challenge for week 4 was PORTRAITS and my goodness, you all delivered! The submissions to this challenge were incredible and varied!
For this blog post we are showcasing the pictures that you loved the most in the community group as well as those that we felt conveyed emotion particularly beautifully through the subject’s pose and expression.
Join the groups to get involved with this week’s creative challenge!
Fairytales and Fantasy & The Color Lab Collective.

Snow white. I would like to share a portrait with you that I made in spring this year. Christina and I only had half an hour because we had been looking for a good location for so long and I still had an appointment afterwards. Sometimes you just don’t need a lot of time. I hope you like it as much as I do.
Model: https://www.instagram.com/imaginarie/

Color toned with the Marigold Light action from the Aurora Collection

The idea of this concept started from the realization of my first headpiece months ago, from there I saw them settle in my mind as I would have liked everything else, dress, makeup and accessories. I recovered old white wings and painted them in gold, the same thing for the wig. The dress is of the model, while the chocker was made by Sewas Design. I called this series “Aurel”.
Model: Francesca Quaresmini

This was taken in New Zealand on the way to shoot at a beach location – it was an empty lot between roads and other houses and was overgrown with wildflowers! Score. 🙂

For this weeks portait! This is my first contribution to a Bella Kotak challenge. I miss going out to spring flowers so much! So I made this new edit of an old photo.

I wanted to share this portrait that is clearly different in so many ways from what I usually do.
It was shot outdoors in an inflatable pool with 3 different strobes. Thats a unique portrait that is dear to my heart.
The make up is by the talented Aure Make up and modelling by my muse Paloma Houze
Photography by Anna Lucylle Taschini
“Memento Mori / Vanitas”
The idea behind these pictures was to combine the victorian mourning photography with the concept of Vanitas, following the typical renaissance light toned atmosphere instead of a dark one.

This is a bucket list concept with Jayde Rankin. I’ve been aching to do a Jane Austen-inspired shoot of a beautiful girl in a high collar vintage dress topped off with a painterly aesthetic. I imagined this being a painting that could be hung up in a middle class family’s home, hence the simplicity/modesty.
Jayde was mostly barefaced so I did some “digital makeup” to create that dewy no-makeup makeup look. The challenge was to avoid losing the definition of her face, so simply painting a single color on a layer and changing the blending mode would’ve looked too flat. I used my extremely limited knowledge on makeup and used several layers and shades of pink, red, and orange to create the blush and to lighten her lids + brows while maintaining her bone structure. It was definitely a painting exercise haha.
Since I only use my own photos, the biggest challenge was finding a wooden oval frame. 😅 I didn’t have anything suitable in my photo archive so I stalked through many neighbourhoods until I stumbled upon a boutique that had the perfect oval frame.🤣 I was thrilled when the owner let me take photos of it, haha! Finally, back in Photoshop land, I used a tooooon of layers to create the shadows and highlights to give it the right amount of depth. What an adventure!
Model: Jayde Rankin

I’m not a professional photographer, I’m simply a passionate. I find the works of all artists here amazing and I always have a look at them with a great pleasure .
This work was born in a windy day in a beautiful abandoned place in Italy , where lives an only human being.
Model: Giulia Roncagliolo

I took this portrait back in 2017 when I started my project series “Earthy Portraits” ( #earthyportraitsproject ) inspired by nature. I wanted to create a unique portraiture style where I can capture the rawness of the soul.

Inspired by Carrie Underwood’s song Cry Pretty.

“Drowning girl”
Model: Anna Limanets
MUAH: Olic Lens Foto

“LILITH BOUDOIR”
Model: Fumihime Kurosawa
Photo/Retouch: Iseris – Photography
Headdress: IVY-Design
Dress: Avalon Saez
Assistentin: Janina Gold Photography
Ps: no animals were harmed 😉

I used natural light from my window and I just love how tulle looks when natural light hits it. I was trying to go for a “painterly” feel for this one as I still am searching for finding a “style”… sigh this editing stuff is so hard!
The Fairytale Collection by Color Lab is winning me over a million and one times! This specially curated set of presets by Bella Kotak and Lillian Liu is really gorgeous, and I wanted to properly play with them so I tried it on this image I shot about a fortnight ago! I was waiting for my “composite” skills to improve because I had to set the crown in the middle as it was wonky (I think it managed to just work…).

For this new work of mine I got a lot of inspiration from the Anne With An E series. We went to this flower field close to sunset I hope you like it.

Anya climbed into the water again and I made one of my favorite portraits.

Self portrait in the most magnificent flowers – lilacs.
To join this week’s challenge and for a chance to get featured yourself –
join the groups, read the rules, and share away 🙂