Michael Herb Photography
Day 122/365 - B-Movie Zombie
I decided to try a different approach to the zombie theme today. Since I'm planning on a larger themed zombie shoot this saturday I figured I'd try both Zombification both in reality and in photoshop. Day 121 was in photoshop while today was all special effects makeup. Either way it takes along time.
We started with a trip to Walmart to grab craft clue, vasoline, toilet paper and Elmer's white glue. Oh and a what trip to Walmart isn't complete without a stroll down the toy isle!
We started around 9pm and first began applying glue to Shawn's face, followed by ripped pieces of toilet paper. This was applied in layers over and over to build up the scared skin look. I opted to leave his hand normal to show the contrast between fake and real.
I airbrushed his eyes and lips with black non toxic paint then did a light wash of white from his chest up to get rid of that tan Florida look. This would eliminate the need to desaturate in post and save me time. From her we mixed brown and white with Vasoline to give a mushy flesh like paint and dabbed it on. We built up layers of brown, green and red until we were happy. I then peeled back some of the tissue and applied red paint. This would give the nasty falling apart look. Later I would pour ample amounts of fake blood in these wounds to freshen them up.
Shooting was tricky as I wanted to show the texture but not give it away that is was the same stuff we all use each day in the bathroom. I used two blood recipes today in hopes of avoiding the plasticy look of the blood in yesterdays shot. I mixed some red and black airbrush paint with water. This isn't ideal as it just looks like he is a sloppy zombie when drinking cranberry juice.
Lighting was trial and error as I originally setup one light and was going for a dark moody portrait. However, when previewing I wasn't happy as I was loosing a lot of texture. I setup an edge light and it seemed to solve the problem.
I'll try again Saturday. I scaled back the styling today and went for a more "b-movie" look. I'm not sure which style I like better but will mess around abit more before saturday.
Post wasn't difficult because 90% of the effect was done. I just went over areas to solidify the effect. I dropped in this background to finish it off.
After the shoot I spent 30 minutes scrubbing off blood from the house. I felt like a crime scene cleanup crew. I wont spatter blood on my models near the house again. It took bleach water and nearly all my remaining energy to get it off. Come light I don't want the neighbors thinking I'm any more strange than they already do. and blood spatter on my house would definitely bring me to the next stage of weird and creepy
The prosthetics came off very easy and shawn was back to human form in less then 10 minutes. Another victory in not staining, maiming or injuring my models. I'm on a role.
Lighting:
AB800 Beauty Dish Boomed overhead 1/4 power
AB800 Med Softbox 10:00 Full power
Cyber syncs on Beauty Dish, Optical on Softbox.
Want More?
Check out behind the scenes photos. | Find out where I'll be | Read the complete story
Day 122/365 - B-Movie Zombie
I decided to try a different approach to the zombie theme today. Since I'm planning on a larger themed zombie shoot this saturday I figured I'd try both Zombification both in reality and in photoshop. Day 121 was in photoshop while today was all special effects makeup. Either way it takes along time.
We started with a trip to Walmart to grab craft clue, vasoline, toilet paper and Elmer's white glue. Oh and a what trip to Walmart isn't complete without a stroll down the toy isle!
We started around 9pm and first began applying glue to Shawn's face, followed by ripped pieces of toilet paper. This was applied in layers over and over to build up the scared skin look. I opted to leave his hand normal to show the contrast between fake and real.
I airbrushed his eyes and lips with black non toxic paint then did a light wash of white from his chest up to get rid of that tan Florida look. This would eliminate the need to desaturate in post and save me time. From her we mixed brown and white with Vasoline to give a mushy flesh like paint and dabbed it on. We built up layers of brown, green and red until we were happy. I then peeled back some of the tissue and applied red paint. This would give the nasty falling apart look. Later I would pour ample amounts of fake blood in these wounds to freshen them up.
Shooting was tricky as I wanted to show the texture but not give it away that is was the same stuff we all use each day in the bathroom. I used two blood recipes today in hopes of avoiding the plasticy look of the blood in yesterdays shot. I mixed some red and black airbrush paint with water. This isn't ideal as it just looks like he is a sloppy zombie when drinking cranberry juice.
Lighting was trial and error as I originally setup one light and was going for a dark moody portrait. However, when previewing I wasn't happy as I was loosing a lot of texture. I setup an edge light and it seemed to solve the problem.
I'll try again Saturday. I scaled back the styling today and went for a more "b-movie" look. I'm not sure which style I like better but will mess around abit more before saturday.
Post wasn't difficult because 90% of the effect was done. I just went over areas to solidify the effect. I dropped in this background to finish it off.
After the shoot I spent 30 minutes scrubbing off blood from the house. I felt like a crime scene cleanup crew. I wont spatter blood on my models near the house again. It took bleach water and nearly all my remaining energy to get it off. Come light I don't want the neighbors thinking I'm any more strange than they already do. and blood spatter on my house would definitely bring me to the next stage of weird and creepy
The prosthetics came off very easy and shawn was back to human form in less then 10 minutes. Another victory in not staining, maiming or injuring my models. I'm on a role.
Lighting:
AB800 Beauty Dish Boomed overhead 1/4 power
AB800 Med Softbox 10:00 Full power
Cyber syncs on Beauty Dish, Optical on Softbox.
Want More?
Check out behind the scenes photos. | Find out where I'll be | Read the complete story