This is the fifth and final instalment in my 2021 Halloween Themed editorial. The story continues:

But just before the blade can hit Red comes out of the trance. The Witch had forgotten that the spell only lasted so long. She fights with the witch and stops the knife.

Red stands and picks up a sword lying nearby.

Before the witch can react she swings it removing the witches head from her shoulders. Triumphantly Red picks up the witches head. As with most fairytales good has triumphed over evil. But in our modern fairytale the damsel in distress does not need a prince to save her.

The lighting for this part of the shoot was a two light set up. The main light was positioned camera right at a 90° angle to the subject and provided the main illumination. At the rear of the room I had a 7 foot umbrella with diffusion set at a low power to simply fill in the shadows

These image were shot at f8 1/125s ISO200 to ensure that I had sufficient depth of field. The main difference from the previous setup was that the camera was now placed on a tripod to make the composite easier.

We shot two images were Lexy held the same pose but where Sian changed positions. For the body part I covered Sian head to make it easier in post.

In Photoshop it was a matter of putting both images in a document and masking the Sian’s body from the top image, and then creating the blood and open wound.

Then the image received the same treatment as the rest in the series. Overall it was darken and the rock texture was added to the rear. The image was then run into Nik Color Efex Pro to create the high texture image. Finally the moonlit LUT was added.

I was really pleased how the overall series went and everyone seemed to enjoy the series when I released them each day leading up to Halloween.