Cobwebs Everywhere

On October 7^th, I did a studio spooky session with Coralinx Cosplay.  The central theme of this shoot was a pretty goth girl who had a fondness for spiders and decorating with cobwebs, making it a perfect Halloween session.  

Note: Cobwebs are defined as abandoned or old spiderwebs that have collected dust.  Many cobwebs are the result of comb-footed spider (i.e., black widows) that make irregularly shaped webs.  Spiderwebs are active structures built to catch prey.  (Source: Western Exterminator Company)

For these sessions, I used:

Photography Equipment	Other Equipment
Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 2 Phottix Strobes 2 strip boxes 2 rectangular soft boxes 2 c-stands 3 light stands Backdrop stand Black seamless 2 Westcott silicon gels Tether cable Laptop Laptop holder Sandbags A-clamps Spyder Color checker	Fake cobwebs Table Posing box 3-tier plant stand Black fabric Flowers Metal planters Skull LED candles Candle holders Glass position bottles Fake Spiders

The setup

I started with a black seamless backdrop.  I chose seamless paper because I knew it would be easier to remove fake cobwebs from seamless paper than from a cloth backdrop.  Once the backdrop was in place, I spread cobwebs across it using the backdrop stands as anchor points.  Then I brought in the props to dress the set, covering it with more cobwebs.  Once the set was in place, I brought in the lighting, starting with the background lights.  I chose to go with two FJ400s with strip boxes placed in the corners next to the backdrop.  I tilted the strip boxes down about 30-45 degrees and feathered them so they would light both the backdrop and provide rim lighting to the model.  To bring little pops of color to a very dark set, I added a blue and purple gel to each of these lights, which helped separate the model from the background.  Next, I placed the two Phottix Strobes with rectangular soft boxes on the far corners away from the backdrop, close to me.  The strobe to my left was the main light, which was raised up and tilted down at about a 30-degree angle.  The second strobe was a fill, to light the set pieces and bring some highlights to the blacks.  This light was to my right and level to the set.

The last piece was styling the model.  I provided the dress, which is three separate pieces, a small hoop to add volume to the second piece, a tulle skirt, over which the corset goes.  Once all pieces are in place, I add a few extra cobwebs and spiders to the skirt, and we are ready to shoot.  I like this outfit, because it is easy to change it up by changing the color of the skirt.  Other great colors would be dark or dusty blues, deep purples, or dusty greys.  I had a black tulle skirt, so we went with black.  The model brought her own striped leggings, black boots, and a black and white headband.

Camera Settings

I love studio sessions because I can dial my settings in and go.  Although I did change them slightly for a few shots involving the LED candles in this case, we’ll discuss that later.  For the central part of the shoot, I used ISO 200, apertures F4 and F8, and a shutter speed of 1/200s.  My focal length ranged from 29mm to 105mm, with 47 mm being my most common setting.  When I focused on using the light from the LED candles, I increased my ISO to 6400 (which, in hindsight, may have been a little too high) and used shutter speeds of 1/60s and 1/50s.  

The Photos

Since this was a studio session, editing the images was simple because they all relied on the same base edits.  I made minor tweaks based on the mood I was going for and how I adjusted the lighting for that image.  For the base edits, I adjusted the white balance and then ran the Spyder Color Checker program on the image to ensure proper colors.  I applied these settings in the color mixer.  I then adjusted the exposure slightly, paying attention to the blacks and shadows.  From there, I reduced the vibrancy and saturation slightly and slightly increased the clarity.   I then applied these settings across all the images, then tweaked each image slightly if needed.  Finally, I ran each image through Photoshop to remove distracting elements, such as the corners of soft boxes, and to extend the background where necessary.  I also used the Retouch4Me dodge and burn program to even out skin tones and add some detail to the skirt.  This process allowed me to edit the entire set of images, including a culling round, in about 12 hours.  

Let’s start with one of my favorite images from the shoot, a perfect little gothic romance scene.  This image had all the same setting applied as stated above, but because the two background lights didn’t fire it has a darker feel.  I emphasized this feeling by applying an orange (shadow) and teal (highlight) color grade.  This color grade gives the image is final look making it less flat and more cinematic.

ISO 200, Aperture F8, Shutter 1/200s, Focal Length 45mm

In this next image, I relied on the light coming from the LED candle to light the model's face and the background light.  To get this image turned off, I turned off my main lights, increased my ISO to 6400, and reduced my shutter speed to 1/60s.   Reviewing this image and others shot at this ISO, I probably didn’t need to go to ISO 6400 and most likely could have done it with either ISO 1600 or ISO 2000.  While my camera has very good low-light capabilities, ISO 6400 introduced more noise and softened the image more than I personally like.  In post-processing, I applied a purple (shadow) and yellow (highlight) color grade, which boosted the background color and helped with the nice warm glow on the model’s face.

ISO 6400, Aperture F4, Shutter 1/60s, Focal Length 103mm

I like the following image because of the layers.  I saw several Pinterest images of models tangled up in or caught in cobwebs, but that was going to be very difficult to implement and clean up (stretching fake cobwebs is harder than you think).  So instead, I asked the model to take a piece of cobweb and stretch it out like pizza dough in front of her face, resulting in nice layers.  In this image, I had to use some of Adobe’s AI capability, as I got a large portion of the soft box in the image, and had to remove it.  If you really look closely, you can tell, but I still like the picture.  Next time I needed to move, but we were in a zone, and I wasn’t fully thinking about post, because a standard crop just didn’t cut it.

ISO 200, Aperture F4, Shutter 1/200s, Focal Length 37mm

And finally, what is a goth girly session without doing a few “broken doll” images?  I like working through a shoot by starting with the elaborate set, then eliminating pieces, so this image was taken near the end of the session after I moved the set pieces.   (This is actually the opposite of how a lot of photographers work, because they tend to build up the set as they go.)  In this image, I had to extend the background slightly and remove the light stand legs.  I only have so much width to work with in my in-home studio, and sometimes I just have to deal with light stand legs.

ISO 200, Aperture F4, Shutter 1/200s, Focal Length 47mm

Wrap Up

A major lesson learned is that dealing with fake cobwebs is a pain because they tend to stick to everything.  Additionally, you’ll notice if you have the start of a hangnail or if your nails aren’t smooth because they will catch on them.   Also, less is more when it comes to cobwebs and strobes.  The cobwebs were a bit more reflective than I thought, so I needed to stretch them out or make them thinner, so they didn’t appear as white clumps in the final images.  I’m also disappointed with how well the blue silicone gel showed up in the images; you can see it on the blue color of the cobwebs on the dress, but not on the background.  I think the purple silicone gel just overpowered it because it was more saturated than the blue.  I have encountered this issue before with the blue silicone gel, so I may need to use regular gel paper if I want a nice, saturated blue.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the Westcott silicon gels that slip over their strobes, because they are a lot easier to use with modifiers, but some colors are not very saturated. 

Besides dealing with the issues with the cobwebs sticking to everything.  (Next time, I will make sure my nails are smooth.)  I am very happy with how this shoot turned out.  It falls perfectly in that spooky, cute Halloween area.   You can see all the images from the shoot here: Spider Princess

Credits:

Model: Coralinx Cosplay (@coralinx_cosplay)

Dress: Heather of Munchkin Photos 

Set Design: Heather of Munchkin Photos