The ghouls are out. Spooks are around. Every dead soul is getting down.
Halloween is here! And everyone is dressing up in their creepy and wonderful costumes. So what better time to do some stylized photos.
I wanted to do 3 types of photos this year.
An on location photo shoot.
A studio photo shoot.
Finally some composite Photoshop work.
The three bring with them completely different things to the photos. Location you get to work with what is around you, you can really make a feature of your environment using things that you can't replicate in a studio. In studio however everything is completely controllable for that space. More importantly you get the lighting you want, which really sets the mood of a photo. And Photoshop...well assuming you have the skills, you can do pretty much anything you want.
For the location shoot I was fortunate to be working with my male model Kayvan. We went with a clown theme seeing I.T. had the big comeback not too long ago. The overall brief that I set myself was that often the scariest thing is that you see out of the corner of your eye. So Kayvan being off in the distance or partially hidden or partially hiding myself. Some photos he is at top frame or side frame. We went to a lake which had woods around it not too far away from me. As a creepy clown in a creepy woods worked well for me. We were out there for maybe 2 half hours took a good variety of shots, Jo helped massively as an assistant. Then as it got dimmer I got to use a bit of flash which I haven't really used that much since buying and got some much needed practice with it.
Studio shoot I worked with my partner Joanne who was kind enough to be pressured into it. I went for a gothic weeping woman. I had a few simple props and accessories which I purchased from Amazon.com. A lace looking period gothic choker necklace along with a lace hand jewelry piece to match, also a black rose headpiece with a veil. The rest come purely down to make up and lighting. Going for dark eyes, lip and nails. Lighting up the skin with a white powder. Lighting is important here, the angle and how soft the light is can change the photo completely. Incorporate some cooler temp editing to some of the photos bring a slight blue edge to it and that fits in with the theme.
Photoshop I played around with some stock photos of skulls and putting them onto people's bodies. One looking like a Minator skull on someone body and the other a x-ray effect on a woman's head.
Photoshop/editing is also a major factor of the studio and location as well. Infact when shooting in RAW rather than JPEG, editing is essential to get the best out of your photos. Teaching yourself along with watching videos on YouTube or doing a course can be time consuming and takes time to fully understand but you find you get better each time you use it.
Well it has been a fantastic October for me so far. I really enjoyed the photoshoots I have done for this, they were so much fun, which is the most important thing whether pro or not is having fun while taking photos. Actually I well may do more shoots and blogs for other significant times of year.
Hope you enjoyed reading and seeing the photos. That's all for now.