I had a plan. I had a shopping list of stuff I had seen that I loved and had an idea for a picture. The dress, the hair, the flowery arm wraps. The birdie, perched on my hand. A blooming garden and soft light. It should have been a cinch.
Instead, I fought the depth of shadows caused by the ruffles and pleats of this dress. Don’t get me wrong; I love it. It is everything I adore – romantic and feminine and delicate, the textures and construction are impeccable. But all of those folds played havoc with getting a photo that didn’t end up looking like the dress had been shot through with holes.
This is also a dress that is designed for standing still. The way the skirt puddles and flares is lovely when posed for a portrait, but when I walked it reminded me of a duck. I laughed when I waddled across the garden to find a position for this shoot. The designer had the right idea; the limitations of mesh make anything created static and flexi-prims just wouldn’t work, either. I am hopeful for the day that there is the capability in Second Life for mesh to have movement.
I had another picture I was going to add to this post, showing the front, but after spending almost an hour trying to soften the SL-rendered hard edges to the ruffles and shadows, I had enough. You’ll have to either imagine how it looks or go get it yourself.
Pretty stuff I’m showing off:
Dress: =Zenith=(Begie)Lana Long Dress by Miffyhoi Rosco (available at FaMESHed May 2014)
Arm wraps: Lark – Briar Arm Wrap by Sienia Trevellion (for Enchantment)
Necklace/earrings: ::: Krystal ::: Eden – Jewelry Set – Gold by Krystal Jenkins (available at OneWord May 2014)
Hair: *ARGRACE* KOTO – True Red [headband] by rika Oyen (New release)
Skin: [PXL] Creations [PXL] JADE NAT PetalPink MEB C2 (FR) by Hart Larsson
Hands: Slink Mesh Hands (av) Casual by Siddean Munro
Hand appliers:[PXL] Creations – [ PXL ] Slink Hand Appliers NAT by Hart Larsson
1st pose: Bounce This Poses – Birdy Pose 1 by Bouncer Criss (gacha prize)
Photo taken using the LumiPro HUD
Pics by Peep 
This is great! Makes me smile good job!
Thank you, and thanks for stopping by 🙂
The photo still came out great!
Good grief, I hope so after all the time I spent on shooting and processing 😀
I think it came out exactly as you described and a lot of times I like just seeing the back of a dress gives that little mystery to wait and see if you are going to turn around…those pics i Just love..great blog and even if I am not a big ruffle person this looks nice….again another stunning blog
Thanks, Tigz 🙂 I’m a fan of the back, too. This isn’t the first one on my blog and I can pretty much guarantee it won’t be the last 😉
I hate that about mesh dresses. I bought a stunning white gown which looks great until I started walking so obviously I wont be dancing in it. I love the deep shadows in this photo…just what the trees would cause in the early morning.
I guess we’ll never be completely happy. After getting past having to have massive bums when wearing a system skirt though, I’m happy to stick with mesh. Although for gowns, my favourites are the hybrids – mesh base with flexi prims so the gown moves 🙂
It’s a beautiful capture Peep ♥
Thank you so much, Cougar 🙂 xoxo
Such a sweet picture ♡
awww thank you, lil Cao ❤