📷 'Portrait Photography Contest' Week 17: Entry 1: Freddy 02

Thank you to @jasonrussell for hosting another week of #portraitcontest.

This week's theme is Halloween.

Let me introduce you to my 'Villains' series.

This is an ongoing project (meaning, I haven't gotten around to finishing it yet...) that I started shooting a number of years ago. I have aspirations to someday finish my series, with a total of seven villains: Freddy, Sweeney, Chucky, Jason, Candyman, Jack Torrance, and Norman Bates.

I'm developing what I call ‘character studies’ of many of the classic male horror movie villains. I have spent months piecing together detailed costumes and researching the best possible locations before each shoot. I won’t be using a single drop of blood or gore in the images, but rather, expressing the essence of the character through the atmosphere, colors, props and lighting. What’s the catch? I have put a feminine pinup spin on their costumes, and they will be portrayed by woman models hand-picked for each persona. The pretty ladies are always the first to go in horror movies.. this time they’re the bad guys >:)

Each villain will have two images. One full body shot to showcase their full outfit, while depicting them in their natural surroundings. And one head-and-shoulders beauty shot to showcase their makeup and details.

"Freddy"

As horror movie buff, the model was very excited to portray Freddy, and it's that excitement that made the images turn out as great as they did. She knew, of all the villains, Freddy would be the only one who could get away with a sinister grin!

Lighting info: Lit entirely with two small speedlights. Each of the two lights do two things in the shot. The main light is diffused and shot through a white umbrella, to light the bright side of the face, while allowing the far side of the face to fade into the shadows. It's also creating the white glimmer on the claws. The secondary light is gelled orange and shot bare (un-diffused). It's placed camera-right, almost behind the model, only slightly higher than eye level, and aimed at the white wall behind her. It's creating the edge light on her hat, as well as creating the circular orange glow on the white wall. Fired with Pocketwizards.

The location is an old haunted building's condemned second and third floor, in the little town of Dallas, Oregon. Historically, the building was a bustling hotel, that partially survived a devastating downtown fire in the late 1800's or early 1900's, and rebuilt. Today, the street level is a dive bar, and the upper two levels are condemned. To give you an idea of the state of the building: one of the rooms is about 50% beehive. Yes, you read that correctly. We probably shouldn't have been up there!

Thanks for reading,
Dani

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