Abandoned Prison

The sky was a grey as cold wind blew and heavy snow was falling from the sky as the group gathered at the abandoned Cresson Prison.  They were told stay in groups, use the underground steam tunnels to get to get to building the build, and use flashlights to guide their way.  No this is not the opening of a horror movie, it was the March 26^th D.C. Cosplay Photoshoot meet up at Cresson, PA.   The group got permission from the property owner to do a photo shoot at abandoned Lawrence Frick State Hospital and Cresson Prison.  The hospital was financed by Andrew Carnegie and opened in 1916 as a tuberculosis sanatorium and then expanded to a mental health hospital. The facility was further expanded in the 1987 to a medium-security male correctional facility then was closed in 2013 due to antiquated conditions.   

For these sessions I used:

• Canon 80D
• 2 Speed lights
• Trigger
• 2 Light stands
• 18-200mm lens
• Gels
• Smoke Genie
• Flashlight

The weather that day was cold and snowy, so I didn’t shoot outside. Also, we did have to use the steam tunnels to travel building to building.  The buildings had no electricity, meaning no lights, thus I had to rely on light coming in through windows or light from my flashlight for auto focus to work.  By the end of the shoot, I was getting fairly good at holding the camera with one hand while aiming the flight with the other. I used 100 ISO for about 65-percent of my images and ISO 200 for the remaining images. One would think I would bump the ISO to say ISO 400 or maybe ISO 800 due to low light, but since I work with flash it was really a nonstarter for me. My   aperture ranged from F4.5 to F9 with most shots being taken at F8, since I really wanted the decay of the background to be in focus. My shutter speed ranged from 1/6s to 1/250s. My shutter speed seemed to be concentrated at 1/125s. My focal length ranged from 18mm to 70mm, with most shots being concentrated in the 18mm.

This was a fun shoot, that allowed me to use a bunch of techniques to get the shot while experimenting with my newest piece equipment the Smoke Genie.  The Smoke Genie is a small handheld smoke machine, that started out on Kick Starter. I’m so glad that I backed them because it was exactly what I was looking for, in terms of a smoke machine.  So, a lot of the photos I’m going to be discussing today use the smoke machine and gels.

Let’s start of these images of Lokelicious as Papa Emeritus IV of band Ghost; for which I use the Smoke Genie.  My inspiration for these images, were based on the concert images I have seen of the performer, which appeared to have a combination of smoke/haze, backlighting, and spotlight.  To set up for these images I placed a light stand with a speed light behind the model raised to about mid-back height which provided a back/rim light to help separate model from the background.  I then placed a second speed light directly in front of the model, raised high up, pointed down and zoomed to act as a spot.  I originally started with the smoke machine behind the model but didn’t like how those images were looking, so I move the smoke machine to the front. I then sent up puffs of smoke. (The smoke machine has a remote control.)   Now I had to be careful with the smoke showing up in front of the model with a concentrated flash because it will blow the smoke out from a lighting perspective.  I found the medium to low density smoke concentrations worked the best, but still needed to do some work in post.  To edit these images, I did the basic edits and adjustments. I then when in to selectively brightened the model’s face a little, and then selectively darkened some of the smoke area so there were no bright spots in the image. I also added a vignette to the images.  Overall, I really like how these images came out.

ISO 200, Aperture F8,  Shutter 1/160, Focal Length 70mm

ISO 200, Aperture F8,  Shutter 1/160, Focal Length 32mm

This next set of images are of the Scarlet Impaler as Master Chief from Halo 3.  I have to say an abandoned prison is a great location to shoot Halo characters.  I knew from the beginning I wanted to add both a smoke and gel elements to the image.  I went with a blue gel because the model had blue LEDs on their suit. I then shot the character in two ways.  In the first image, I placed a light stand with a blue gelled speed light and the smoke machine behind the model.  Directly in front of the model I placed a second light stand with a zoomed bare speed light, high up and pointed down at the model. In this case I was working with mixed light colors, I wanted the blue to be coming from the back, to light the smoke and act as rim light, which the light in front acted as the main light, resulting in two shadows in the image. When editing this image, I did the basic edits, then brightened a few areas around the helmet. I also made each of the LED lights on the suite bluer, since flash tends to wash out LED color. To finish the image, I used a strong vignette.  For this second image I used a very similar set up except placed the model, to look as though they are coming out of the cell. I then rotated both speed lights to be at about 45-degrees angles from the model.  I did not add any additional smoke, as there was still a slight haze, which you can see from the beams of light coming from the left-hand side of the image due to flash head. I like the beam coming off the flash in the background, because it adds a layer of interest to the image. When editing this image in post, I did the basic edits then darkened the bright spot on the door. I also brightened the helmet slightly.

ISO 100, Aperture F6.3,  Shutter 1/125, Focal Length 32mm

ISO 100, Aperture F8,  Shutter 1/125, Focal Length 32mm

 

I’m going to end with my favorite image from the whole shoot, which is Impressionistic Cosplay as a 1900s nurse.  This image was taken inside an exam room of the old hospital on the property. When I walked into the room the natural window light was just lighting up the old exam table, and I instantly new what direction I wanted to take the final image. It was also fortuitus that the model needed a tissue to deal with watery eyes, which ended up being a prop in the photo and helping with the overall story the image is trying to tell.  Now, I did not shoot this with natural light, I just used the natural light as inspiration and then shot the image using one speed light.  The speed light was set to be about 45-degrees off center from the exam table, at a relatively low height.  I was positioned kneeling on the ground, almost directly in front of the exam table. From there I told the model to look sad, like she just lost another patient and they can’t deal with the strains of being a tuberculosis nurse anymore.  To edit the image, I did basic edits while trying to keep the image in the low-key range. I did brighten the models face slight, since the hooded cap placed her face slightly in shadow.  I added a vignetted, then color graded the image using a yellow (highlights)/purple (shadows) color grade. This color grade helped give the image a bit of an antique feel while mellowing out the greens and blues. I’m very happy with how this picture turned out, because I feel like it tells part of story and you can feel emotion in the image.

ISO 100, Aperture F8,  Shutter 1/125, Focal Length 18mm

I’m very glad I went up to Pennsylvania for this meet up, it was a great location.  The only think I wish, was that I had about 30 to 60 minutes to explore the property before the cosplayers arrived to have a better understanding of the tunnel layout and what each building looked like inside.  While the group did provide videos beforehand, it was difficult navigating the tunnels, because the map provided didn’t have the tunnels on it, and it was hard to remember what was in each building.   With a location this big it is hard to plan on site, without the personal on the ground experience.  But I made it work, had a good time, and walked away with some great pictures.  Hopefully the group will book this location again.  You can see all the images from the shoot here: Abandoned Cresson Prison.