How to Create Captivating Fairytale Photography

In this article, we’ve got the best examples of fairytale photography by the finest fantasy photographers. We’ll give you some tips for bringing your own fairytale photography to life using their amazing examples.

Build Characters with Costumes

The characters form the heart and soul of every fairytale. We follow the heroines and heroes as the forces of darkness test them. It’s their story, which is why the character is the perfect place to start with fairytale photography.
To build strong characters in fairytale photography, you need to use strong visual imagery. Unlike literature or film, you can’t use words for exposition. The visuals need to show the audience who the characters are. They need to know who is good and who is evil.
Kirsty Mitchell is a fantasy photographer who has mastered the art of character building. She uses elaborate and intricate costumes that give her subject a strong identity. Looking at her portraits, we can see the association and connotations of her design work.

Set the Scene with Props

Once you’ve established the characters, we need to know their location. This adds more to the character and starts to form the fairytale’s narrative. Like Rapunzel in the tower, their location plays a vital role in the story.
The location can be a keep in the tallest tower of a castle. Or it can be a dungeon or a retro kitchen or bedroom. But the imagery has to tell the viewer this is a magical world, not just a kitchen in Stoke-on-Trent.
Props and set dressings play an essential role in fairytale photography. They create visual cues that transport the viewer into the fairytale world. They can be physical or digitally created. And you can use different types of photography, like portraits or fashion style photos.
Jovana Rikalo shows us how to set a scene in fairytale photography. She’s an expert with the camera, but she also knows how to dress a set. In the image below, we have an ornate bed in a garden. The subject is in a huge flowing dress, surrounded by plants and flowers. The imagery is gorgeous, but we’re left wanting to know more about the tale.
Jovana is one of our fantastic collaborators. You have to see her Fairytale Portraits course if you love fantasy photography.

Create Magical Worlds

Beyond the confines of a single scene, you have the dream world of your fairytale. Building a landscape for your characters brings the fairytale to life. It’s a series of connected locations where the moments of your story take place.
You can create your world with landscape photography, using natural wonders to set your epic scene. Or you can create portrait photos that use powerful or mystical landscapes as a setting.
Photographer Lizzy Gad does exactly that. She combines landscape and portrait to create stunning images that engage the viewer. Her subjects explore the landscape, leading the viewer through the magical world with them. It’s a powerful narrative technique that grounds the story in a physical environment.

Use Movement to Progress the Narrative

Few fairytales take place in one location. The princes and princesses always need to move from one situation to another. Showing this movement adds energy and a sense of narrative to your fairytale photography.
If it’s a race against time, you can show the hero on horseback galloping to save the fair maiden. Or perhaps the journey is more leisurely. You can incorporate portrait and landscape photography, like Lizzy Gad. Or you can add a surreal touch for a magical journey.
Joel Robison is a fantasy self-portrait photographer with a whimsical narrative style. He often shrinks himself down. This transforms our world into a surreal and wonderful place. His small stature allows him to travel across the landscape in novel ways. He often uses bees and bugs as transportation.
Showing movement in your fairytale photos moves the narrative forward. And it also quickens the pace. The viewers want to know where the character is going and why. If you make the style of travel more unique, the viewers will be even more interested.
Joel is another wonderful Expert Photography collaborator. His Fantastic Photo Adventure course is exactly what you need if you want to tell stories with your images.

Use Portals to Connect Worlds

Magic portals are a common feature in fairytales. From the wardrobe in the Narnia tales to the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland, storytellers use passages to bridge worlds. That makes them an excellent subject for fairytale photography.
The portal can be anything that fits your fairytale’s imagery. You can use doorways, windows, and mirrors. Or holes in the ground and cracks in the wall.
You can have your characters interact with the portal. They can go through, climb out, or dive into the portal. It’s another device that adds magic and strengthens the narrative in the images. It builds tension and heightens the viewer’s interest in the tale.
Rosie Hardy provides us with the perfect example. Her images are full of narrative, and portals are devices she often uses. She uses two juxtaposed environments. We have a warm home and a dark forest. And a hole in the wall creates the portal for her subject to explore.

Use the Power of Magic

Magic plays a part in every fairytale in some form or another. And thanks to digital photo manipulation techniques, you can bring the magic to life. It means anything is possible in your fairytale photography.
Image software like Photoshop allows you to make the impossible possible. You can use this to give your character powers of their own. They can control the snow and ice, as seen in Frozen. Or they can cast spells of love or eternal sleep, like Sleeping Beauty or Snow White.
We can see Anya Anti explore similar ideas in her photography. She uses modern techniques to capture classical fairytale themes in her images. In this example, we see a princess pulling the moon in chains. There’s a strong message that she has control over the moon.
It’s a surreal work of photography. Anya uses magic to build her strong female character, and surreal imagery creates a story we want to follow. And the use of the moon is also symbolic as it has many mystical connotations.
It was a pleasure working with Anya Anti to create her Creative Portrait Concepts ebook. You’ll see beyond the magic so you can cast your own visual spells.

Introduce Mythical Creatures

Fairytales aren’t just stories about men and women. They also involve creatures that don’t exist in our reality. You’ll find mermaids, dragons, and griffins. Or perhaps you’ll come across trolls or elves, and you can’t forget fairies.
They can have leading roles or bit-parts in your fairytale photography, but no fairytale is complete without them. These creatures add another element of imagination and magic.
Bella Kotak has a strong visual style. And her mythical characters take center stage in her photos. Her fairy in the image below is strongly linked with the forest, which is their traditional home. And the costume and the props are floral and natural.

Conclusion

If you’re a fan of stories filled with magic, fairytale photography is the perfect way to bring your imagination to life. You can remake the stories you loved when you were a child.
With props and costumes, you can build characters and set scenes. Using camera and editing techniques, you can capture the magic of your favorite wild and whimsical stories.
We’ve shown you some of the best examples of fairytale photography from our favorite fantasy photographers. Now it’s your turn to tell a story with fairytale photography.
Learn how to create mind-bending digital collages in Photoshop in 15 minutes or less with our Digital Dreamworlds eBook!

One simple way to dive into the world of portrait lighting is to learn the butterfly lighting setup. It is easy to set up, simple to understand, and the flattering results will make both you and your subject happy!

Versatile And Affordable

Neewer NW-670 TTL Flash

Achieve stunning butterfly lighting portraits with ease using this professional-grade off-camera flash. With a high guide number and wireless triggering, it’s perfect for portrait techniques.

What Is Butterfly Lighting Used For?

The Basics of Butterfly Lighting

The essence of butterfly lighting is the lighting setup. In this setup, the light is placed directly in front of the subject, right behind the camera. It is about one foot above the subject’s face to create a slight shadow under the nose.

Let’s walk through what you need for the butterfly lighting method.

What Equipment Do You Need for Butterfly Lighting?

Off-Camera Flash and Triggers

One of the best things about the butterfly lighting setup is its simplicity. You need very little gear to pull it off.

The least you’ll need is one off-camera flash and a set of triggers. I use the Canon 430ex II off-camera flash, and this set of triggers from PocketWizard.

The triggers are a pair of devices that you can use to wirelessly set the flash off. One piece goes on your camera’s hot shoe. The other goes at the base of your flash unit.

This lets you position the flash anywhere you need it so that you can get the lighting effect you want.

To have the flash in the right position for butterfly lighting, you’ll need an assistant to help hold it. Or you’ll need to put your flash on a stand. But make sure the stand is sturdy enough and will not tip.

Often, grabbing a willing family member to help hold it does the trick!

One final note about the flash and triggers is to make sure that the flash unit you have is compatible with your camera model.

The same goes for the triggers you buy. They need to be compatible with both your flash unit and camera model.

Triggers often will not work well with off-brand flashes. Be sure to read the specifications before purchasing to ensure there is no problem with the butterfly light setup.

Reflectors

Adding a reflector into your butterfly lighting setup is a great way to add light and soften harsh shadows.

There are basic reflectors on the market that are very inexpensive. I recommend looking for one that is double-sided. This means each side is a different finish. Often one side is white and the other is metallic.

This gives you options in case you want to play with warmer or cooler tones.

You can also experiment before committing to buying a reflector. A simple white piece of poster board will do the trick!

Another great idea is to grab a large piece of cardboard and wrap it in aluminum foil so that it reflects. Now you have a silver reflector!

With the reflector, you can have someone help to hold it. Or, if the subject’s arms and hands are not in the image, the subjects themselves can hold the reflector underneath them if needed.

Camera and Lenses

Finally, let’s talk about the necessary camera and lenses. There’s no specific lens you need for butterfly lighting setups, so any lens that you would use for portraits works well.

This means you should not use any lens that is wider than a 50mm. This is because lens distortion becomes noticeable once you shoot too wide. When you are taking a photograph of a subject, rather than a distant landscape, the distortion becomes more noticeable.

But what if you have a telephoto lens like a 70-200mm? This lens can work for portraits. But, you will want to make sure that the space you are using for this setup allows you to move back and focus.

How to Set up Butterfly Lighting

First, you will want to position your subject directly in front of the camera. You can turn them slightly for a bit of added interest. But be careful not to turn them so much that their nose creates a shadow on the cheekbone.

Your one and only light should be aligned with the subject. In an ideal situation, this is several feet in front of the subject, and a foot or so above their head.

You should position the reflector a foot or so below the subject’s face. Angle it so shadows are softened. But, make sure that the reflector is far enough away from the subject’s face. The shadows should be slightly filled in, but not too bright.

You want to avoid losing that butterfly-shaded shadow under their nose. That is the signature of these lighting setups.

The diagram below shows this basic setup in both plan view and from the side.

Butterfly lighting is that simple! While it is a basic setup, you will still need to experiment before you become fully comfortable with it. Try using your family and friends as test subjects before taking this method to a paid photo shoot.

It is important to remember that you can adjust the power of the flash, not only its positioning. This allows you to control the intensity and direction of the light.

How to Add Interest to Your Butterfly Lighting Portraits

Once you have the butterfly lighting setup, you can experiment with the rest of the elements in the portrait.

For example, you can add fairy lights like in the image below. Have the subject hold the fairy lights to create a cool bokeh effect. Or, hang the fairy lights in the background to create a dreamy look.

Play with the angle of the subject’s face. In the image below, the butterfly shadow is not created but the lighting setup is the same. The light is still above the subject, just the angle of her face has changed.

Because the subject’s face is looking upwards, the shadows on her face are much softer. Alternatively, if she was looking down, the shadows under her nose and chin would be enhanced.

You can also play with harsh butterfly lighting that creates strong contrasts, like in the image below. The black and white edit adds even more to the dramatic tattoo, the harsh shadows, and the subject’s strong jawline.

All portraits don’t have to be realistic or professional beauty-shots. You can also experiment with fun, creative portraits. Don’t be afraid to play with interesting ideas and concepts, they might end up to be your favourite shots.

Conclusion

Versatile And Affordable

Neewer NW-670 TTL Flash

Achieve stunning butterfly lighting portraits with ease using this professional-grade off-camera flash. With a high guide number and wireless triggering, it’s perfect for portrait techniques.