"I’m a big fan of horror movies and such so I really wanted to do something special in my photography for this year’s Halloween! The model (Elaine) in the picture is, just like me, also a huge fan of horror movies, which was to me very important for the shot to really become alive (or dead… it depends how you view it).
We started by talking back and forth about all scary things that came to our minds. Out of that grew the idea about marionette dolls in human size. I was quite aware that it was not really a unique concept but that didn’t really bother me. We were both really excited! To me it was important that there was some kind of realism about it so I wanted to stage it as if someone were just out in the woods walking and found this horrifying sight of a human-sized and dead-looking woman hanging from threads attached to her body piercing her skin.
I’m a Swedish guy and I love the Swedish deep forests so to me it was pretty clear from the start about what kind of environment I wanted to shoot in. I ended up driving around for a few hours until I found a spot I liked. I took a few pictures of the area and showed them to Elaine and she liked them, as well.
The picture was shot on Oct 27th. We ended up shooting for about two or three hours and I got home with two stuffed memory cards. I was trying out the Brenizer method so they got filled up “pretty quickly”. I made Elaine float mid-air by having her stand on a small ladder, and later removing it in post where I also added the threads which I made from scratch in photoshop.
I am really happy about the result and I want to thank Elaine for her awesome performance! Last thing I want to say is; happy Halloween everybody! "- Valdemar Hemlin
EXIF:
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon 85mm F1.8
Focal length: 85mm
Aperture: F1.8
Shutter: 1/100 sec
ISO: 250
wow this is fantastic! great job! i love it:)
Thank you very much, Daniel :)
man i really love this kind of photography, if you're ever in Los Angeles we should get together.