There’s only a couple of days left now until Halloween, but there’s still time to do a spooky horror photo shoot. And, why does it have to be during Halloween anyway? Any time is good for a bit of horror! In this video, Gavin Hoey shows us some great tips and techniques to light and shoot horror in a small home studio.
Gavin’s name isn’t one you’d typically associate with creepy or spooky photo shoots. He’s such a nice guy, you wouldn’t think he had it in him! But he does it here with great effect. He uses simple props, a smoke machine, a few controlled light sources and some great makeup to help him achieve his end result. To shoot the images, Gavin uses an Olympus E-M1 Mark II and Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.2 PRO lens along with Godox AD200 strobes and Godox XPro trigger.
But what really sells these images beyond Gavin’s lighting abilities are the outfit, makeup and props. Gavin explains how they used several different types of fake blood, as well as clean bandaged stained in coffee to make them look old and dirty. Gavin’s goal was to make it look like the subject, model Kerry, was trapped in a basement and covers several techniques to really help sell the effect. He also goes over how he post-processes the photos to get that contrasty and gritty look to the final image. If it’s too late for you to organise a spooky shoot before Halloween to try these techniques for yourself, then don’t worry. Any time’s good for shooting horror!
