This challenge nearly ended in catastrophe. Finally, after three nights of shooting (and my poor father having to crawl under my bed) I got the shots I wanted. When I plugged my camera in I selected the photos I wanted to copy, but in a moment of unforgivable carelessness pressed the delete key. And they didn't go into my recycle bin either. We had worked so hard and I felt like crying. I did a desperate search for card recovery software on the internet... let's just say it's the best money I have ever spent. With that small crisis out of the way all I needed to do was a subtle curves adjustment and the odd trip through USM.
The setup was a complex one as I have no studio lighting. The light across the face was the most important part - here I used a standard table lamp blocked off at the top and reflected onto my face using a magnifying mirror (which made the light stronger) whilst blocking off unwanted light with sheets of card. The red light was created with another standard lamp with red tissue paper on the end, unwanted light blocked by an old T-shirt. It got VERY hot by the end of the shoot. My dad, to whom I am completely indebted, squeezed under the bed for the third night running, this time with some fake blood on his hand, and directed a torch (the beam focused with paper and diffused with a tissue) at his hand to bring some light onto it. Meanwhile, I set the camera on timer and leapt into bed, conjuring a suitably terrified expression in time for the shutter!
Statistics
Place: 34 out of 171 Avg (all users): 5.8163 Avg (commenters): 6.4000 Avg (participants): 5.6406 Avg (non-participants): 5.9015 Views since voting: 976 Views during voting: 286 Votes: 196 Comments: 8 Favorites: 0
great shot and great recovery ..
this is certainly many ppl's fears .. i used to think that there was a boogey man under my bed when i was a child who would grab my ankles or legs if i put them over the side ..
your dad is brilliant helping you in that way .. i hope he was as pleased with the outcome as you were .. its excellent .. :)
The concept is good. I would use a bit harder lighting on the subject's face, and maybe a subtle soft light on the hand so it's more visible. Although harder lighting on the face would probably illuminate the hand more. It would also add more contrast, since a lot of the image seems to be a bit flat.
the red glow from underneath the bed is excellent, but the hand almost seems 'too much' to me - the face and the lighting were enough to make it really creapy for me...
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
