The Story Behind the Photo

October 2022: Graveyards/Headstones

by Ron Steinke

When I saw the October assignment I wanted to do something at night with Halloween type props. I checked out the Black Diamond graveyard, they have lots of cool old grave sites, some fenced in like the one I photographed.

Sheet ghost: I found an old plastic Halloween trick or treat pale, painted it white to use for the head. I put the pale over a camera tripod. Used glow in the dark paint on the eyes, used a UV flashlight on the ghost to brighten it up and get the eyes glowing green but I turned the pic to B&W.

3 5’ spiders: I made the picture too dark, they are difficult to see.

Light painted ghosts: These took a little practice. I used a fiber optic tube about 2’ in length. I found out you need a really bright flashlight, 1000 lumen at least. You curve the fiber tube around you and start raising it from the ground, change speeds to get the density in the light, the faster you move it the more translucent it becomes. After I made the ghost, I shined a light behind and you can see through some of the ghost (kinda cool). You have to wear black clothes to not reflect the light off yourself when doing this, I also pulled my sweat shirt hoody way over my face because skin is bright enough to show through the light (unless that’s what you want). I was going to make this fiber whip, but decided to buy one (see below) so I could use it right away. If I would have made it, I’d get it half way done, see a squirrel, then 2 weeks later remember to finish it.

Camera settings:

Canon EOS R in visible light, 24mm, F/8, ISO:-500, 125 second picture.

I used F/8 to get more of the picture in focus for a single shot, took a couple minutes to make the ghosts, shine a UV flashlight at the sheet ghost and also the regular flashlight everywhere else. There were streaking stars in the sky but I took them out.