The Halloween Serial - Shoot 1 of 5 (for now)

Pictures from shoot at Studio
Model/s: Aiden
Make-Up: Ebony
Photographer: Henrik

Equipment : Canon 40D
Lens : 28-105 F3.5-4.5
Aperture : F8
ISO : 100
Shutter speed : 1/166 - hey thats what the properties say???? was set to 1/160


Welcome to the start of my little pet project: The Halloween Serial.
Yes I'm not kidding and just in case you are wondering, yes, it is getting close to Easter.
No, I'm not anti this or that, I just figure that the sooner I start the project the sooner I can finish it. Maybe I can even sell a pic or two before the insane rush for posters, I wish. (This pic may just already be ready for print on one).

Well I was a just minding own business a while back and one of those thoughts, you know those ones that that are guaranteed to require lots of effort to fulfill, popped into my head.
Well the thought is a bit cheesy but I like a bit cheesy, Halloween is cheesy, so cheese it is.
The theme will be the 4 main characters of Halloween and one extra as the intro. Each of these characters will be serial killers that like to prey on their victims using their weapon of choice. Jack likes his knife, hey that's how you make a jack-o-lantern.
Who knows? I may add an extra one or two later.

The day was a bit odd. It started out by photographing two female models, well groomed and looking lovely on camera.
Ebony, IMO one of the Durban's best theatrical make up artists, can do wonders with that set of brushes and pallet of colours. She first did the lovely make up on the models and then set down to the task of making Aiden look like the Jack-o-Lantern serial killer.
These shoots can be really enjoyable. I will explain.
The model type shoots are cool and I do enjoy them. You get to know the models and most of the time it is really nice.
The themed stuff with someone like Aiden can be really fun. Like when the make up is being applied to Aidens ear he cringes and shouts out "its like a dog licking my ear" well that set the tone of the shoot for me.
When you are doing a theatrical type shoot I feel the sillier and funnier type things can give you better results from facial expressions than a whole series of, "lets try this or that".
Models don't have to look pretty because that's not the point.
"Aiden growl" Aiden goes,"GGGRRRRRR" that sort of thing is fine and everyone seems to enjoy the relief of it.

The other thing that feel is important when you are not working with professional models is that you choose them carefully. I'm not shooting stock or for an agency yet so my models are generally not professionals and while I do understand that for certain shoots a professional model is required, for my projects enthusiastic people are just great. I try to find people that are interested in what I want to shoot and match the theme. Like Goths for a Goth shoot - metal heads for a serial killer, shoot you get the picture. A Pro can do just about anything you ask of them. An amateur won't really know what you are after, but if they are say a metal bassist, and you ask them to do the classic wide-stance-while-they-are-playing-the-bass-pose they will know exactly what you want, and hey presto not too much "move your legs apart - some more - some more - just a bit more" directing.

Enough waffle, on to the shoot. This one's simple: one light and big soft box. I wanted some dramatic lighting so I moved Aiden close to the softbox and checked to see how the light fell on the far side of his face. The more the light fall off the more dramatic the subject will look. Well that's the classic photographic thinking anyway. So close to softbox Aiden. I then draped him with a black cloth. All I really wanted is his face and the knife. The back ground was also a black sheet and nicely out of focus so it was pretty much pure black. The 500WS strobe was at about 50% power, not that it means much, but the histogram for Aidens face looked good so I went with that. The softbox was about 45 degrees to his face and and about 50cm away from him.

This one's a bit of a long one on the post processing side and I'm no 'shopping expert. I don't have a big studio, so guess what, you can see all my paraphernalia in the background to the one side of the backdrop. Away with a few easy brush strokes, that done, onto the next step.
I wanted the yellow orange in the face and hand so hue saturation adjustments were done. Also I had to colour Aidens hand as It was not painted. A selection and a few clicks and hey he has a yellow hand. I don't think you could do anything like that to the face as it would look to shopped but the hand lacks the detail so I think it looks OK. Everything you do needs to be in layers - my partner has drummed that into me (I'm a SP - Shop-a-phobe you see). Next I make a copy of the background and blurred it with Gaussian blur and then went to blending properties and selected linear burn.
It darkened it and gave just the right effect that dark rich edgy feel that I wanted.

Well that's how I did this one. Please feel free to leave comments. Jack will get back to you