Spooky Szn is here.
I didn’t end up having a new blog post last week, because I really have no fresh content or any new photos to share. I really didn’t want to keep putting out half ass “filler” posts that didn’t showcase any of my new work or any projects I’m working on.
But, we are finally back this week with some fresh new work! I’m really proud of these photos. I learned a lot and also got frustrated A LOT. Though it may look simple and easy; I’m not gonna lie, this was tough. When photographers tell you that it is difficult to shoot in low light situations, trust me that shit is REAL.
These photos are product shots I did for my girlfriend’s flower business. She wanted to make some Halloween themed bouquets for Halloween coming up. So, naturally I thought of spider webs, skulls, and darkness. She painted some roses black and put some fake spider webs in the bouquets. She isn’t really into spooky stuff nor am I, but I do enjoy the look of skulls. So, we were both kind of out of our element.
The vision I had was to take a photo inspired by the classic Skull and Dagger graphic on the OG Powell Peralta skateboard deck. But, that was a lot more difficult to achieve, so we scrapped that.
The other vision I had for this was to do a “Party Reaper” vibe. So, we used one of my many Aloha shirts with my skeleton T-shirt. It was difficult to catch all the elements. Sadly, we had to scrap that as well.
After having to scrap both of my original ideas, I was just frustrated and annoyed and wanted to give up on the entire project. But, we both had a strike of genius and came up with some dope stuff. The end product kinda gives off Simon “Ghost” Riley from the Call Of Duty video game franchise, but it still worked and we both liked the result.
So, we have our main character developed. We just needed to now create the dark and spooky vibes. At this point, we are shooting in complete darkness with nothing but these little LED lights and an external flash being our only sources of light. I am not a professional with lighting nor do I know how to properly use it at my advantage. Shooting in low light situations is so difficult. You have to figure out how wide you can have your aperture open before the photo gets too noisy with grain while figuring out a shutter speed that is slow enough to capture light but all while not being too sensitive to any movement.
At this point now, we have been shooting for nearly three hours. I’m running out of patience, battery power, creative juices, and my talent (my girlfriend) was just completely over it. As I was calling it a wrap with total disappointment and utter disgust at myself for not being able to create something I was excited or proud about, I remembered that my external flash had some gels to create some effect. I tried the green gel for the flash to give off the effect of night vision goggles. Lo and behold, it worked! It brought out the details of the roses in the dark and it also gave off a spooky vibe like some cemetery conjuring.
I wanted to have these photos shared and posted last week, but I wanted to let my girlfriend post it first because these are moreso for her business and all. I am pretty damn proud of these shots and am excited to share them. So, I hope you all enjoy these. Until the next one!
