How & where to buy Vintage Props for your fantasy shoot for dirt cheap

So you are planning a fantasy shoot and are looking for that perfect vintage props that will complement your model and help tell the story you are trying to capture? Or you are just someone that wants to have a photoshoot showing a particular time in history and are looking for props for visuals? Then read-on. To illustrate my points, I will use “The Red Witch’s Dead”  a shoot I did a couple of years.

Planning the shoot
This seems a bit elementary but many of us forget to put together a concise plan on what the shoot is about and what elements are needed to tell that particular story.
I always start with a theme. For example, the topic of the shoot below was “Witch” but it was a witch with the quality of a vampire—you know coming out at night and being a huge enemy of the sun.

I wanted the main character to be colorful and somehow in fashion… I mean Dracula is always portrayed as a guy with good taste, why not this witch?. So started thinking about dresses  and other elements that will bring this character to live.
I got this dress for 3 dollars plus 7 dollars to have it clean up— total 10 bucks.   

Where to buy
I started looking for a dress that had the elements needed for the shoot based on the story I wanted to tell. When I’m looking for props there are a few places that I always pay a visit to.
1- The Salvation Army: Love this store. There you will find anything from vintage picture frames to old wedding dresses for great prices. Most of the clothing there ranges from $4 bucks to $10 and so. They get new-old merchandise everyday so the inventory is always “fresh”.
2- Goodwill: Is the same structure as The Salvation Army. The store is divided by departments and have great things but they are a bit pricier that TSA.
3- Your Neighborhood Second Hand Store: If I need vintage furniture for cheap, and I haven’t had any luck at TSA or Goowill I’ll pay a visit to a second hand store. The prices ranges  depending on the furniture and the neighborhood but you always find great things that need little or no repair at all. Other options are garage sales and consignment stores where you can buy and trade furniture.

What to buy
Great, I got my main prop—The Dress. Now I need complementary items that solidifies the whole story. For this shoot I wanted the witch to have a cape, just like Dracula. I used an old bed sheet and some rope I got from the 99 cent store to create the cape that will make her look like a million bucks. I also got me a carved wooden box a found at Goodwill for 3 bucks. These extra props helped a ton on telling the story.

This package cost me around 4 bucks

The shooting
Once you got all of your elements make sure they are in working conditions before they are use. For example, if you buy any wearable wash them before use. You never know.
If you got any furniture check for potential elements that can hurt your model—like loose legs, nails or any other things. But this is something you really need to pay attention before buying.

End results
There nothing more fun to me than doing a theme photoshot.  The whole idea of creating something out of pieces give me joy. But the best thing is to see the end result. Here I attached some behind the scene shoot and the final results of a few of my fantasy shoots. Enjoy!

It was a very cold day but we had lots of fun.

This shoot was done the same day different theme

You can view more about this particular shoot here

If you liked it please share it! MakeUp— Yomaira Beltre