Halloween Themed Shoot

On October 22 I went to Lake Accotink Park for the Halloween themed DCCosplay meet up. Lake Accotink Park is a nice area, which has a lake, a wooded area and a few concrete areas. The location was good for a Halloween shoot, set for the middle of the day since the forest area provided shade and the concrete areas worked well for a more urban setting.

For this shoot, I used my Canon 70D, my trusty 18 -200mm lens, radio trigger, and two 430 EX –IIIRT speed light. My husband, who is my trusty assistant, held a painter’s pole which we mounted one of the speed light to the top of without an umbrella. I did not use an umbrella so I could have a possibility to combat the sun. I mounted the second flash on a standard light stand without an umbrella and used it for occasional fill or back lighting. I took 300 photos, edited 232 photos, and posted 139 fully edited shots. For all the shots, I was at an ISO of 200 using an aperture of between F7.1and F11 with 48 percent of the photos taken at focal length of 18mm. The shutter speeds varied widely from 1/25s to 1/1600s with the about 64 percent of the photos taken between 1/125s to 1/320s depending on the lighting conditions. I did my basic edits to the photos and the flash ensured I could separate the model from the background. Overall, the photos are ok. You can see all the edited photos from the shoot by following this link: Halloween Meet-up. Below, I will discuss two of my favorite photos from the shoot.

Focal Length: 24mm, Aperture: F11, Shutter: 1/125s

This first picture is actually my favorite from the shoot. It is of JMS Cosplay as Negan from the Walking Dead. To get this photo we actually got down into the lake run off stream, and I had him get into the tunnel. I placed the flash to my right angled down onto the model. To edit the photo I darkened the image, increased the clarity, and then added very heavy vignette. I think this captures the nature of the character and feel of the series.

Focal Length: 28mm, Aperture: F9, Shutter: 1/160s

This next image is of Lena Vokova as Santa Muerte. For this image I placed her up on a large stump, and placed the sun and a flash behind her. The sun was a bit high to provide the back lighting I wanted, so I added a flash behind her to add a bit of edge lighting. I placed the main flash down low, pointed up to my right. To edit the photo I balanced the lighting, darkened the sky, and then added a strong vignette. I added to vignette to ensure it looked like the model was encircled by light.

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