Creating Cinematic Indian Bridal Portraits Using the Felix Kunze Method

For me, photography is more than capturing a moment. It's about the intentional play of light and colour to evoke a mood. Lately, I've been wanting the viewer to feel something when they look at my images. I view my role as a Creative Director and Photographer as someone who is not limited to just cinematic lighting, but one who can flex at any given moment to create a mood, whether the look is clean or moody and dramatic. That said, most of my previous work has been clean and commercial. I wanted something different from this shoot, something more cinematic. So when Rhythm approached me for this shoot, I couldn't say no. I owe this lighting Scenario to learning Signature Lighting from Felix Kunze.

Cinematic Indian bridal portrait with dramatic lighting and detailed makeup

Discovering Felix Kunze’s Lighting Setup

To elevate my craft, I signed up for The Portrait Masters and purchased The Location Lighting Series. Because my location and outdoor work haven't been my primary focus, I wanted to challenge myself and take on more on-location shoots this year. I was blown away by how simple, yet intentional, the lighting setup was. This course changed the way I began thinking about mixing ambient light and strobes to create an atmospheric look.

For this Bridal portrait, I started by metering the overall ambient light, intentionally underexposing the background to create a dark and moody base. From there, I introduced my strobe at a very low power, feathered off to the side.

The key elements I focused on were:

• Ambien light as the base was metered first to create a natural, moody look.

• Soft key light positioned on the left parallel to the model and feathered slightly away to create gentle shadows.

  
  

The results are cinematic aesthetic. A perfect balance between painting and film.

Bringing the Makeup Artist’s Vision to Life

The makeup artist, Rhythm, who brought me on board, developed the concept. I took a few images she had and leaned into that moody aesthetic. I created my own secondary mood board, curated vibe and poses to create an overall aesthetic. I meticulously curated the colour palette to create cohesion in the mood board and exude the emotion of regality.

The mood board included:

• Colour palettes of red, crimson, oranges

• Cinematic images of moody lighting and a curated story

• Unique editorial poses and a strong aesthetic to exude strength and elegance

  
  

This mood board helped me create a strong game plan going in, making it easier to experiment while ensuring the core mood was never lost.

Lighting Techniques That Made a Difference

Lighting is crucial to create a mood! Here are some tips I applied that you can use at your own shoot:

• Feather the light. Position your light in front of the model or off to the side and slightly feather away to create dramatic shadows.

• Balance your fill light. Too much fill light can flatten the image, and you can lose the depth.

• Get creative and add rim light. Create a mood by adding a rim light or slight colour gel to fill the room to give the overall vibe a pop.

  
  

Composition Tips for a Strong Portrait

Here are some composition tips:

• Start wide. This creates a sense of grandeur by capturing the entire room.

• Close shots. Vary your composition with tight shots to create a different vibe and a more intimate story.

• Start top down. Work with the model standing up first and then move to seated shots so you don't mess up clothing.

  
  

These choices helped me create a portrait that feels both personal and cinematic.

Final Thoughts on the Journey

The power of collaborations is a rewarding experience. You can experiment more, try new ideas, fail at them and try again. The Felix Kunze lighting setup gave me a strong foundation to keep experimenting and leaning into the cinematic look, and working with Rhythm gave me the creative push to think about light in a whole new way. And the mood board helped me solidify my creative vision, giving me a clear direction going into the photo shoot.

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Credits:

Creative Director, Hair and Makeup: @artistrybyrhythm

Photographer & Retoucher: @studionirvaani

Model: @tunjotbenipal

Designer Clothing: @chandanheritage

Jewellery: @jewellerybynusrat

Base Retouching: @evotoai