We recently took on the challenge of matching the colours of a masterpiece in oil painting. Fine art photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten recreated John Waterhouse’s "The Lady of Shalott" for her ongoing project Old Father Thames:
"…choosing, investigating and photographing a selection of cultural and historical narratives from along its banks.”

She commissioned a tapestry to match the intricate original, and after a long wait for the perfect model, the shoot took place on a beautiful summer’s day. Julia introduced fog to the atmosphere, which softened the light, reducing the sharpness and contrast to naturally enhance the mystical and painterly feel of the image.  

Go behind the scenes with Julia Fullerton-Batten's 'Making Of' here:

There was some initial compositing involved - we adjusted the prow of the boat to match the original image. As the scene was shot in the open air, the boat, water and leaves were all moving, so needed some work, and we added details like the leaves on the water to make the time of year appear later, and the birds in the painting, which were shot separately.

In the painting, Waterhouse made a conscious, careful decision about every single colour. 

In a photograph, there’s a pre-established relationship within the colours which is then all contained within the gamut of the print (or, increasingly, screen).   The depth and richness of Waterhouse’s brushwork in oils is astonishing - as you study the painting closer, you see the physicality of the pure oil colours. The actual shape of the brush strokes have their part to play. This is part of why even the very best quality print or book does not exactly match the original, so we had to think creatively about how to achieve this in post-production, finding different ways of deepening the painterly quality of the image.

This involved a great deal of research. Julia photographed details of the painting for reference:

Pepe Alram of our London studio had already seen the original at the Tate. We looked at a huge range of different reproductions of the painting to see which were most successful, eventually choosing the contrast levels of one, the saturation of another, the balance of a different one, and so on.

The final grade creates the optimum balance of colour whilst echoing the subtle autumnal glows and moods of the original. 

See how the layers build up in our video: 

The project has been featured in many publications including Creative Review,  The Eye of Photography and The Association of Photographers, and the series will be shown in Barcelona later this year as part of the 5th Biennale of Fine Art & Documentary Photography.

Credits:

Photographer: Julia Fullerton-Batten

Photoshoot Team:
Model: Lorna Foran
Digital Operator: Gideon Marshall
Assistants: Sebastian Niespialowski, Ken Street, Iris Sanne Van Der Aar, Connor DAly, Elio Ruscetta, John Whitmore, Katie Watson, Eva Brooks
Location Finder: Key Ransom
Hair and Make-up artist: Enzo Volpe
Stylist: Alice Timms

Post Artist:  Pepe Alram / Recom Farmhouse London

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If you enjoy our 'Making-of" videos, there are more here.
More work at recomfarmhouse.com and our blog madlove.net.

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