October Magazine

from light to dark red, black and even
green). I’m happy with where I am in
applying effects makeups, but I’m always
trying new techniques and new
products!
So we’ve got the concept, the
gear, the make up, tell us about
posing.
Poses can really make or break
a horror-shoot. For static-poses,
something as simple as tilting the
head downwards and looking up
with their eyes, tilting their head to
one side or looking off into the distance
can create a much scarier
look than facing straight-on at the
camera. Lightly clenching a fist can
give a much stronger look than than
a hand relaxing by the models side.
Ground-level/crawling shots often
work perfect as they’re something
you don’t see much of in other areas
of photography. Some of my favorite
looks are the action poses; Having
a model jump into an action pose,
spin their body around or “claw” towards
the camera quickly will create
a moment that looks better than any
posed “action” shot will - you get an
intense reaction and a real sense of
motion in the shot.
Shooting the concept - how long
does it take and what’s the process?
I always try to have a shoot ready-togo
at the time the model arrives. This
means putting together any “sets” (if
the shoot calls for one), preparing
lighting (colored lighting? modifiers?)
and any other effects (fog machines,
blacklights, neon lights). Whenever
shooting in a studio environment, I
set up multiple monitors to view the
photos live as they’re taken -- this is
something I started doing a couple
years ago and found that it makes a
very big difference during shoots. A
model being able to see the shot live
on a bigger screen right after it’s taken
helps keep the motivation up during
a shoot (being covered in fake
blood can be less fun than it sounds
:) as well as allowing the model to
make any adjustments to their posing.
I tend to take multiple shots of
the same look -- often 4-5 shots --
allowing me to pick between them
in post-production, finding the shot
from the set that worked best. Often
times these shots will look very
similar, but the slightest difference in
express, focus or timing can make a
very noticeable difference!
And how does the shoot wrap up?
Towards the end of the shoot, I always
make sure to double-check
with the model to see if they had any
other ideas before we finish. I want to
make sure that we both end up with
some shots that we really enjoy, and
sometimes these “Maybe we can try
something like this..” poses end up
being some of our favorites! It gives
an extra opportunity to try out some
extra looks (different lighting, posing,
effects) at the end of the shoot
once we’ve already gotten the look
we were going for. After wrapping,
I make sure to have a large supply
of different makeup removers (with
so many types of makeups, having
a healthy and functional remover for
each will make a big difference in ensuring
that it all comes off easily).
Tell us a bit on post production of
your images.
After a shoot I’ll import everything
from the day into Lightroom to do
a quick run-through of all the shots
and rate my favorites (and allow the
model to pick any favorites as well,
if they’d like). I actually don’t delete
photos during the shoot - sometimes
a shot where one light didn’t fire will
actually work out perfectly when edited
properly. I tend to do some basic
editing in Lightroom before moving
into Photoshop. Lots of color-grading
to set the mood, compositing in elements
if needed and creating some
effects for the final shot.
I know we’ve interviewed you before,
but just to finish can you tell
our readers a bit about you and
where they can see more of your
amazing work and of your model
Raychul?