Regency era photoshoot for book covers

I love the Regency period, Pride and Prejudice eat your heart out!

French publishers in particular love regency era images for their book covers, I think they generally have a bigger Regency audience/readers than the rest of the world. But Regency photographs sell very well in general so I made January the month to set-up a ton of Regency photoshoots.

This one was my first of the year. I had three models including a great male model! They are hard to find and generally I like mixing my models up a bit so it doesn’t get repetitive so often I’ll seek actors out instead. They don’t mind wearing costumes either! In fact Stephen my male model below loved it and was very taken with my sword (not featured in the images below!)

My regency era photoshoot for book covers:

I hired some costumes from Masquerade and used a few bits of my own too. The location was superb and made the whole photoshoot come to life, I couldn’t photograph fast enough as the light started to disappear at 2.30! Working quickly on photoshoots is something I’ve come to just expect now. Luckily all my models are professional and understood this problem too so just smashed through the day without complaint despite the fact it was freezing cold!

Photographing for book covers is about creating character and story so making sure your models are comfortable is a starting point for sure! Then creating movement and slight emotions is something we all have to work on as a team. My direction and vocalising the emotion I’m after is a huge part of photoshoots, again why I love working with actors, they understand direction straight away and can easily convey emotion in subtle ways. It takes a little more time with models but generally they get there and love it!

Also I have to be aware of copy space all the time! Making sure there is placement for type so designers don’t just pass on by the images.

I particularly love the photograph from above with Olivia and Stephen lying on the grass (it was very cold and wet bless them!) There’s something so fairytale-esque about it, reminding me of Snow White a little!?

If you’re interested in learning how to get your own photographs on to book covers, check out my course, it goes through step by step process.

Have any of you done any Regency inspired images? I’d love to see them! Feel free to tag me in Instagram or comment below.