How to shoot a 3D printed dress

You've got to love this 3D printed dress, created by Aiman Akhtar for a tutorial in issue 201 of 3D World magazine, on sale now.

The tutorial features in the new issue but, as a teaser, we thought we'd take you behind the scenes of the photoshoot that captured this amazing creation.

Greg De Stefano is a commercial photographer, retoucher, and compositor. "I was born into being a nerd and have had a computer since I was two years old," he says. "Digital photography was the natural artistic expansion of being a nerd, allowing us to bring the real world into the digital imaginary."

Right now he's working on bridging the digital and real worlds photographically, both by adding 3D models into real world scenarios, or bringing real life subjects into video game worlds. "Sort of how they do in movie productions, but in the high resolution one off scale of photography," he explains.

What's your general workflow for editorial fashion photo shoots?

I love shooting tethered and creating a fun creative environment to shoot in. I love the varying subjects and experience levels of the people I shoot.

Sometimes new blood can bring a fresh vibe and new ideas while at the same time I am constantly amazed at the quality that a room of consummate professionals can create.

What were the challenges in this specific shoot, working with fiber optic cables and a 3D printed outfit?

The hardest part about shooting LEDs or fiber optics is doing them justice and to be able to see them I needed to use continuous lighting.

However I don't normally like the look of video style lights, so I used the modeling lamp on my strobes and balanced the exposure of those modeling lamps with the fiber optics.

This allowed me to keep the soft style of lighting that my strobes would normally generate, but at an exposure level that worked with the 3D printed dress and its lighting.

Any advice to artists interested in photographers doing this kind of editorial fashion photo shoot?

Give your photographer a good idea of what you want and what you are going to be shooting. Collaboration can be hard without communication, and being clear is key.

Each style of artistry has a different language with how we describe the things we do. Oh, and don't forget to have fun!

What's the next project you're really excited about?

I'm working on a huge personal project creating a cyberpunk Los Angeles series. I have been having a lot of fun using virtual sets, making props, creating costumes, and shooting background plates all around Los Angeles.

Buy issue 201 today!

Issue 201 of 3D World, on sale today, celebrates the art of games. 343 Industries and Axis Animation reveal the work that brought Halo 5: Guardians to life. Artists from Kojima Productions, Insomniac and Camouflaj reveal how to concept, model, texture and animate characters for video games. Plus there's a free copy of animation software iClone, a previz training DVD, and game-ready model from Creative Market. No to mention video training, scripts, setup files and much more...

Get your copy today!