User Rating: / 2
PoorBest 

I'm often asked how I envision detailed concepts and build my more complex images. I thought the best way to explain would be to share and discuss a recent concept image - from original concept to sketch, the photographic components, and to completion. For this type of image, it's important to discuss planning and adaptability. Planning is so crucial to creating compelling images, but flexibility is just as important. Here's a concept i had sketched years ago and how it evolved into something else.

A few years ago, I started visualizing an image. It was a dark, moody and gothic image of a ghost in a cemetery. I sketched it a long time ago and had been on the search for the right cemetery to bring the concept together but haven't been able to find one. Well, that's not entirely true. The perfect cemetery I've been visualizing is actually a childhood memory from Berks County Pennsylvania. There is a wooded area with a tiny, unkept cemetery nestled between a corn field and a path along a stream. I havent been in pennsylvania in a long time and haven't been able to schedule a trip just for this shoot.

As the sketch illustrates, I wanted a cloudy night with  an oversized blue full moon and a ghost hovering over a grave. I wanted a classically dressed woman of the 1800's in a black dress and hat with a veil. I wanted very critical detail on the lighting, showing consistency of the moon as the main light source, but still holding details on the tombstones and in her face.

[here's where I admit to knowing what you will learn as you scroll down. I am a horrid drawist. This is the first time I'm revealing any sketch or drawing in public. Oh, the shame. The horror! go ahead and laugh. I won't hold it against you.]

 

Having spent enough time wanting to shoot this image, I was ready to compromise and make it work. After my visit to Washington State yielded no suitable cemeteries, I chose a ghost town in Arizona.

I chose to use this ghost town cemetery nestled in the western foothills of the Huachuaca Mountains. Juniper and scrub oak replace the Maple and Red Oak. More importantly, the grave markers aren't the marble crosses and stone slabs of the East, but are ornate wrought iron crosses. The iron and stone fencing of the East is replaced with western field fence to keep cattle away.

I  had been to this cemetery about 5 years ago and had a more romantic, appropriate memory of the location. The plan was to arrive on location early in the morning with a low eastern sun and shoot backlit so the sun can be replaced with a moon in photoshop. When I arrived after a four hour drive, I was quite disappointed in the location but wanted to push forward and see if I could still pull the image together. I knew I needed a strong silhouette for turning day into night, and put together a composition with the darkest, most powerful tree in the cemetery. The image reminded me of a 'hanging tree' from old movies and that struck a chord.

After shooting the cemetery, I knew I had to recompose the concept and quickly returned to the sketchpad:

As you will see, the image needed more impact becaause the loss of the graveyard details. I decided to hang her from the tree next to her grave and have her ghost escaping her lifeless body. This would provide the same overall impact but from very different visual triggers.

So, I shot the moon with my 300mm telephoto:

 

And grabbed some cloud images from my archives. I keep an archive of interesting skies because I never know when I need one.  I used this and about a half dozen similar images for both the night sky and the foggy mist on the ground in the final image. I wanted a complex mix of contrast gradations that I could only get from multiple days' clouds and fog:

 

Now, it was time to bring a model in for the shoot. I enlisted my friend, Lily Delamere because of her beauty, wardrobe access, and I knew this would be a shoot that required a bit of experience, confidence, and patience. Lily is an actress and was willing to be seen in less-than-flattering ghostly light as well as being excellent at following direction and was excited to get the images right.

So, I needed to shoot her hanging from the tree. She wouldn't let me tie a noose around her neck and hang her from the studio ceiling, so I came up with a safer strategy. (yes, I am kidding) This was done as a number of images stitched together in photoshop. First, I shot lily standing with her head hanging awkwardly as if she were hanging from a rope:

 

Knowing that the feet in this photo would never look like they were hanging, I crafted a plan to get hanging feet... I sat Lily on a table and had her block the light falling on her legs as if her dress was still in place. This created a natrual blend between the images and was a quick edit in photosop:

 

Next, I needed to create a noose. I had an old rope photo that wasn't thick enough for this purpose, but was able to fashion a reasonable likeness in photohop that had the heft of an old hanging rope:

 

Next was Lily's ghost face. I wanted a snarl that could be manipulated into something fearful and eerie in photoshop. Lily didn't disappoint.

Those were the primary elements that comprised this photo, and with a bit of blending, light and shadow, and toning, I created this image: