The Paper Doll Project, A Conceptual Photo Shoot

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Intro by Jes Gwozdz:  I had the pleasure of meeting Cat Vreeke from Blue Umbrella Photography this winter at a local photography conference and I was really intrigued by a creative personal photography project she told me about.   She was working on making a dress totally out of paper for a living “paper doll” conceptual photo shoot.   Cat shared the project on her own blog (click here to see), but I asked her if she would share a little more detail about the project here on TPW’s blog along with what she learned during the process.  I think Cat’s project is pretty cool and I hope it inspires our readers to try their own themed shoots!

I had been thinking about creating an outfit from paper for months late last year and after spending many, many hours on playdates with my awesome friend talking it over, in February I decided it was time to stop putting it off and dreaming and actually get down to it.   The outfit was MONTHS in the making, but only because I was lazy.   If there is any advice I can offer it’s to get your butt in gear and stop procrastinating; if you have an idea, start working on it even if the full concept hasn’t come together.   Having a nine month old can make it sooo easy to do something less involved, but really it was a poor excuse, and it just kept me up at night even when my baby slept through (heaven!).   I would lie in bed trying to figure out how I was going to make this darned thing and running through all the various possibilities.   One day, as mentioned above, I finally pulled out the paper.  Once I finished making my skirt the rest went fairly quickly.   Here’s how I did it:

1) the idea (of course!)

I knew I wanted to make a two piece outfit and I wanted it to look like something you might actually wear.   I wanted a cute skirt with a little puff and I wanted it to be adorable.   That was the beginning of this shoot.

2) crafty craft craft-crafting

I cut out LOTS of paper hearts.  I used computer paper because that’s what I had on hand.   Each heart was dyed by tea (brown [orange pekoe if you’re wondering – the other teas in my house are too delicious to use just for color]), blueberries (blue), or blackberries (purple).   The heart sat in the dye for about 5 mins to really take on the color and then I hung them up to dry on my clothes rack.

3) rethink, rethink

I hit a stumbling block trying to figure out the belt, the base for my skirt.   I wanted it to look continuous, and I didn’t have paper long enough to do a full waist, even on this tiny little model.   Then I remembered some woven purses I had found somewhere, the ones made of candywrappers and voila!  Thank you to YouTube for the plethora of tutorials!  This is a twist on the purse weaving since I wanted straight lines instead of diagonal.   Once made, I dyed the belt in more tea, made with MORE teabags (still orange pekoe) and let it steep for about 10 mins, then laid it out on a cookie sheet to dry for a few days (being thicker it took much longer).

4) crafting, crafting

With glue in hand, I attached the hearts slowly to make sure each created the right look; color, placement; flow.  With a little finagling I ended up with the skirt I wanted.  Not too many stuck together in one area so the skirt could move, curled tops of the hearts to give it volume, enough length for my model.

5) Stuck:  Where to shoot?  

Luckily our local photographer group was able to help me solve this problem when we had a little event called PhotoLUSH in March.   My amazingly talented friend Rachel Vos had a spiel on Friday night about her projects and how things don’t need to be perfect because you’re not going to shoot the back of the dress anyways.   AND she tricked everyone into thinking she had a brand new studio which was really a picture of her girls doll house room.  AH HA!   That was the moment I realized what was wrong; why I was stuck.  This look wouldn’t work in a real environment.  Not any that I knew of.   So I made the room.   I had a cracker box laying around so I disassembled it, measured paper to the “walls” and painted my own room.  Cut out windows, made windowsills, made a chandelier and table and even a bowl of flowers.   I didn’t spend too much time creating the room since I knew it was going to be mostly blurred with the depth of field I was intending.

6) Stuck:  How to make the top of the outfit?   

This was the most challenging of all.   I figured early on that there should be a matching piece to the belt and the main part of the top would hang from this.   I measured and re-measured my model and still I couldn’t get a top to either fit her properly or work with the skirt.   I glued paper together and dyed them only to have them fall apart again when wet.   The style wouldn’t work, the length wouldn’t work… blah blah blah.   Finally I had my model come over for 20 minutes while I literally held the paper to her chest and mapped out what I wanted, cut, taped, fitted.   Finally I had 7 pieces cut out, dyed and glued together. (WHY hadn’t I done this weeks ago?!)

7) Shooty McShooterton

A fellow local photographer loaned me his backdrop stands and seamless white paper.   I pushed my kitchen table out of the way and used a mix of natural window light, overhead and fill flash.    Why the overhead?  I totally zoned out and forgot to turn them off!  But I like the warmth and you know, it REALLY works especially when you see the chandelier in the “room”!  I thought a book, since made out of paper, would be a great addition and I had this super colorful one of a Lewis Carroll collection which in itself is perfect; so on a last minute whim we incorporated it.  Images of the room were shot both before and after my model.  In future, I intend to shoot after to ensure that I have the right angle; fixing it later is extra work that could have been avoided.

8) Finally Editing (phew) 

Adjustments in LR were needed to balance out her skin tone since the light was a bit uneven given the shooting conditions, but most editing was completed in Photoshop.  I needed to expand the backdrop (it was a short one at only 5’ since my space was so small) in some images and in others do some serious cutting and pasting. I made sure the warm light from my overheads that was on the model was the same in the room, and fixed some of the problems with the room such as super uneven floors, and finished off with a few editing actions and textures (FloraBella, various textures) to create a more coherent/unified/organic look.

Here are some of the final shots.

Lessons learned:   stop procrastinating; if you don’t start, you’ll never reach your goal.  Be patient and flexible because your look will change as you move forward with it.   Shoot your model first; matching background angles is easy to do when you don’t have someone waiting on you.  Turn off unwanted lights unless you want a surprise later; sometimes it works!

A big thanks to my neighbor and her wonderful, beautiful little girl who modeled for me.  She was so awesome to work with, taking direction perfectly and added so much fun to this project.

Cat Vreeke

Cat is a stay-at-home mama to the most adorable little boy in Lynden, WA.   When she’s not heading to the park or on playdates, you can find her photographing babies and young kiddos.  Cat’s photography goals for 2014 include personal projects that push her creative boundaries and explore her crafty side.

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