The jury is still out on this photograph, but it’s an image I’d planned and as such I’m quite happy with it.

Ever since I took the picture of the toy box I’ve been toying* with taking more photos of things like kids dolls with slightly more morbid images embedded somehow. I could get all twee and talk about how childhood is but a step towards blah blah blah. But let’s be honest, I just thought they’d be fun to do…

The setup here was reasonably simple, doll and mirror on a black cloth with a black background and strobe diffused from camera right parallel to the mirror (pointing to the doll, not the mirror). Then, swap the doll for the death figure and a little merging later…

Like I said at the start, the image was one I’d planned. It may actually be the first image I ever drew a lighting diagram for. If I was to do it again, I might try to put a reflector on camera left to lift the left side of the doll, but I’m not sure to be honest.

*Puntastic!