My favorite thing about The Thriving Photographer™ is the people who are a part of it!  Inside our private groups, they are always helping each other by talking about their own experiences. Recently Mandy Hough of  Hello Sweetheart Portraiture (who’s hair I’m obsessed with!!) posted in our group about the ‘bag technique’ she’d recently tried and her result.  I was so inspired by Mandy that I asked if we could showcase her and her plastic baggy trick here too!

Mandy photographed the images below using a Nikon D600 & a 35 1.4 lens. She positioned her models in order to have her subjects backlit at golden hour. BTW – Have you tried the app Magic Hour? It tells you when that dreamy shooting time is coming! Okay! Back to this tutorial! She first used a zip lock baggie colored with red sharpie with the bottom torn out.  I ‘m sure you’ll agree, the effects of this common household item is really dreamy and so worth trying yourself!

Next Mandy decided to try a lacy ribbon around the lens, so she stapled a sparkly, gold ribbon into a circle and placed it around her lens.  The photo of the vintage Argoflex on her bookshelf is with the gold-shimmer ribbon. She noticed the ribbon made a really cool hazy effect, but didn’t pick up as much of the sparkle as she was expecting.

Mandy shared that the effect works best with a wide aperture, so with all of these photos she was wide open at f/1.4. Practice in your home with soft, window light & I think you will find it also creates a soft glow and haze. I hope this gets your wheels spinning  and that you take it a step further and consider what you might have laying around your home or studio that you can incorporate into your next session to create a different feel to your images.

Thank you so much Mandy for sharing your insights!
Take a minute and jump over to Mandy’s Facebook Page and SAY THANK YOU TOO!