[Marie cosplay] A Film Portrait Stroll of the French Queen from the Fate Series

This photoshoot was taken with a Mamiya RZ67 paired with a 90mm f3.5 lens, loaded with Kodak Portra 800 film. The operation logic of a medium format camera is completely different from daily digital mirrorless cameras. Every time the shutter is pressed, I feel the pinch of consuming silver halide grains, but it is precisely because of this physical restriction that I become more deliberate and focused while focusing in the viewfinder, capturing those moments that truly fit the character's personality.

The theme of this styling is the elegance of the Queen of France. Therefore, for the outfit, I chose a complex twin-tail hair ornament with white feathers and black ribbon bows, paired with a black off-the-shoulder dress, a pearl neckline, and an emerald gemstone pendant on the chest. Black short gloves were worn on the hands, adding a delicate sense of ritual. To fit the character's temperament, both standing and sitting postures needed to maintain a straight elegance; even the angle of the slightly raised arm and the direction of the gaze had to be repeatedly scrutinized.

The shooting location was selected around a historical building in Sydney. Originally, I was worried about a stylistic disconnect between the pure British vintage architectural lines and the French court style, but upon actual observation, the deep green shutters, classical benches, and mottled stone walls here turned out to form a very textured background. In particular, the striped light and shadow filtering through the shutters formed a beautiful contrast of light and dark on the film negative, creating an excellent sense of dimension without requiring any extra flash.

In terms of lighting, we fully utilized the diffuse reflection of the afternoon sun to avoid overexposing the light-colored wig under direct harsh light. The shallow depth of field brought by the 90mm lens paired with the f3.5 aperture also separated the character well from the complex background, highlighting the bright headpiece and the lace details of the costume. For the posing design, in addition to the dignified standing posture, we also tried a low-angle composition sitting on the bench, aiming to present a contrasting sense of relaxation yet nobility. When sitting, the placement angles of the arms and the skirt had to be very precise. The physical latitude of the film brought a solid color density, allowing the lace edges on the black dress to retain their texture even under bright light.

Not only did we experiment with standing and sitting poses, but we also used the depth of the arches for multi-angle compositions. In the indoor half-body close-ups, we focused on expressing the echo between the neckline and the jewelry. The unique warm tone of film photography gave the overall frame a fairy-tale-like tranquility. This retro film portrait method indeed gives every shutter press a weightier sense of ritual, and it is a deep restoration of flat portraits. Under the color rendering of Kodak film, French elegance and British classical architecture collided to create a wonderful visual spark, making it a very successful photoshoot collaboration experience.