Bride Bored In Quarantine? Play Wedding Dress Up!

Dreamy and Ethereal Ballerina Bridal Boudoir Inspiration – Samin Abarqoi 11 copy

Whether you’ve postponed your wedding or are just a bride bored in quarantine, we can understand you may be feeling a bit crummy right now.

But as we all go through this together (virtually) we’ve been learning little ways to cheer ourselves up & feel festive. Today’s idea? Put all those wedding accessories, lingerie, ribbons & robes and play a little bridal dress up!

This ethereal ballerina-inspired boudoir shoot photographed by Samin Abarqoi is inspiring us to get fancy at home. With whimsical bridal lingerie, gorgeous flowers (we talked a bit how many florists are offering contact-free delivery right now!) & dainty accessories, this editorial is how we all want to feel at home right now.

And for budding photographers, Samin offers a little tutorial on how to shoot in your at-home lighting & create dreamy shots like these!

From Samin Abarqoi

Photography is reading the light and shadow and working with them simultaneously, but sometimes the natural light is not in our favor.

When I decided to do this styled shoot and started talking to vendors, it was already November which means more cloudy and gloomy days. The heritage house where we were supposed to shoot at, had only one large victorian style window. We all agreed on a date that couldn’t be moved or changed due to everyone’s tight schedules, so I had to make it work despite any weather condition.

So in addition to obtaining high-speed film stocks like Portra 800 and big reflectors, I decided to use an artificial light source as the fill light for backlit shots. So I grabbed a simple LED video light (5600k daylight) and tried to keep the ratio of 2:1 for most shots. I also used a tripod for creating motion-blur when it got darker outside and it was quite impossible to shoot at the speed of 1/60s. These limitations pushed me to get creative and play with the elements of movement and light in a spontaneous fashion.

All in all, you might face some shooting scenarios which don’t seem ideal or feel intimidating at first glance, but looking from another perspective can turn them into learning opportunities for creating something new. That’s what this shoot is for me, stepping out of my comfort zone and getting more creative in using my equipment.