Blue. Just Blue.

Studio beauty portrait with blue editorial eye makeup, crystal face details, hand at collarbone, dark blue background

The idea for this shoot was simple: deep, intense blue. I already had the lighting in my head, the backdrop sorted, and a clear sense of what I wanted the final images to feel like. What I needed was a makeup artist who could actually bring that vision to life. So I put the word out. Ania hit me up and it was obvious pretty quickly that we were on the same page. We figured out the details together — crystals on the skin, wet hair, everything locked into that blue palette. For the model, I reached out to Natalia, who loved the concept from the moment I described it.

Starting with macro

I kicked things off with macro — the makeup was freshly done and that’s when you want to shoot it. A few test frames first, just to make sure everything looked right on camera and nothing needed a quick fix. When you’re dealing with hand-placed crystals, you really don’t want to find out halfway through that something’s off. One light, the Nikkor Z MC 105mm, and a lot of detail to work with. Ania’s precision gave me plenty to shoot.

Setting up the clamshell

Then I moved on to portraits. Clamshell setup — my go-to for beauty. Key light up top: Elinchrom Rotalux Go Octa Softbox 60cm, curved silver reflector below. Clean, even light, all about the face. Dark blue backdrop to tie in with the makeup. I shot most of the portraits on the Nikkor Z 70-200mm.

The water mist idea

Somewhere in the middle of the shoot, Ania had an idea. She grabbed an atomizer, stepped between Natalia and the backdrop, and started misting the air. My job was to freeze that movement with the strobe — water particles suspended mid-air, catching the light. It worked beautifully. The mist picked up the strobe and started playing off Natalia’s wet hair in a way none of us had planned. Definitely not in the original brief.

Working with the model

Natalia was great to work with. Beauty photography asks something pretty specific from a model — it’s not really about self-expression, it’s about serving the makeup and hitting precise marks in the frame. I gave her some direction and she delivered every single time.