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the hold on the chainsaw is to gentle, this thing has been used to cut flesh. some "blood should be on it, or it should be obvious that it has been cleaned.
It's fun to see your new experiments and I'm glad to see you are using more of an, er, human element in your images. I really like the idea and the paneled framing but I have to agree with the others about the lack of blood. It all just looks a little too clean, the hands the saw, just not edgy/dirty enough. I also feel like the chain saw appears to be awkwardly held, and over posed. As a suggestion for a variation on this scene I would try having a shadow covered figure sitting/crouching on the left edge, with the chain saw well lit and then of course the feet of your victim on the right. Or perhaps just a big chain saw shadow across the hedge and then your victim's feet? Then you wouldn't have to get red dye all over your equipment.
I just need a little more than a hand and a saw to give me that creepy feeling. Oh your poor neighbors though, what will they think?
Well done Seb, The lighting is great, composition top notch and framing well done too. Now I know where you were heading with the other shots, you were teasing us.
I am like Barney Fife, I have a gun but Andy makes me keep the bullet in my pocket..
paintballs for blood work well apparently. I have a friend that worked on a project with me in HS who suggested paintballs for blood because the paint washes off and when they are busted they are a bit chunky...
I have been debating weither I'd use blood or not for quite some time before I actually shot this. In the end, I decided to go for that cleaner look and thought that the absence of blood could further push the "weird factor" (where's the blood???). However, considering your unanimity on that topic, I guess that I'll try some blood the next time.
I invite you to give a look at the picture one more time on my site. I slightly burned the chainsaw and enhanced the sharpness.
i have come back to this image many times so far today, partly because I am procrastinating on my final paper and studying for my exam tomorrow, but also because there is just something about it that doesn't set right for me. And i figured it out. It's too clean. The lighting is very even and albeit not very soft, it is...smooth..., and a bit bright and too exposing. if you get what I mean. a lot of horror is based around uneven and dramatic lighting. It needs some grunge to it, some scratches or just dirtiness in the lighting or processing. And definitely some sort of makeup on the arm to give it a more gruesome "axe-murderer" look. as someone else said, it doesnt look like the grip or the arm of someone who would just chainsaw someone up. Though it may seem cliche, sometimes we are reduced to cliches in order to really get a point across. So while you may not need visible blood to make it work, you need some sort of grunge because at this point it's just too clean of a scene. Dirty that chainsaw up, have the person holding it rub their hand in some dirt, do some makeup, or whatever. The chainsaw also looks a bit posed. Maybe someone walking away while holding it in their hand. kind of like TCM? http://www.horror-movies.ca/gallery/..._beginning.jpg
All of what I have said is looking at it from a dramatic horror point of view. if you're looking to go for the ironic, funny POV, then by all means disregard everything I have said. If nothing else, this is a PERFECT example of how lighting and treatment of an image completely changes the nature of it.
But I have to say, I think this has the most potential of any shot I have seen on the forums. You could really develop this into an incredible image and maybe even a series.
Oh also, really like the horse triptych on your site.
For a chainsaw massacre this is pretty "harmless" but I don't feel it needs blood to be sinister. I would simply leave the chainsaw lying on the ground in the middle frame and leave the feet where they are. Perhaps a shadow of the "perpetrator" in the left frame?
Then we can all imagine the worse. The legs also look a bit too comfortable.
Then Chainsaw Massacre with a question mark and a smiley.
Last edited by Overbeyond; 05-13-2007 at 03:04 PM.
I have a total lack of respect for anything connected with society, except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper, and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer. Brendan Behan
How bout a little fake blodd on the saw? Also, maybe the saw and hand could be a little darker to imply that he's sneakin up on the person.
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livinforlax09: Thanks for your time but I don't wanna be held responsible if your paper is late! lol Your message makes me realize to which extent I suck when it comes to naming pictures. I have ideas for my photographs but I run out of imagination once I give them a title. Simply put, this is not intented to be a "classical" horror scene (although trying to produce one would be an interesting and challenging task). I understand your points about horror images. My scene certainly wouldn'f fit in such a movie. Moreover, I meant to produce something that would be weird and a bit funny.
Overbeyond: thank you for the ideas. I'll try them later on.
GB1: thanks
jkriminger: lol... we dig heavy duty tools outthere....
Seb, I have looked at this a few times already. I like what you have come up with here, and feel it works well. I agree with Brents points about the lighting though. It seems to me to be harsh and uneven. . .like a single flash at night. As for the comments about having blood there, I totally disagree. This is much more about humour than about horror. I find that this works well, regardless of the technicals I have about the lighting.
One possibility could be to use either some slight desaturation as in just muting everything a few percent or even trying some gradient work where the color fades one way or the other across the sight line.
The three part split injects all kinds of interesting connotations thematically and psychologically to the photographs context. whether the obvious of the saw cutting or the tryptych philosophy of components of the story, this is a subtle piece of dark humour combined with the titling.
Another 'trick' would be to distort or simply rotate one of the three elements in it 'frame' to accentuate the 'cut'.
Very, very creative thought process behind this presentation. As usual, looking forward to more. But no Blood!!
My initial thoughts on this was humour not terror (Still chuckle every time I look at it). I know many have commented on the lighting but it works for me because the centre light is in the middle frame and the lighting moves out to left and right frame for there.
2 things I would do to improve it - 1. burn in the blade of the chainsaw so its not quite so bright 2. add a little space under the legs, their too tight to the frame.
Love this
Roger
"I hope we will never see the day when photo shops sell little schema grills to clamp onto our viewfinders; and the Golden Rule will never be found etched on our ground glass."from The mind's eye by Henri Cartier-Bresson
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Gary: This is a single flash (well actually 3 single flashs). That's one single frame where the camera never moved but I used the third of three photographs and I moved my flash in a different position for each one. The uneven lighting was on purpose as I wanted a "theater kind of lighting" just like if people where looking at a stage lit by a couple of spots. (I hope that I am making sense here lol....). I appreciate your view as usual. Thanks!
drg: Thanks! I appreciate your words.
Roger: Thanks. I will burn the blade some more. Actually I did it on my full res image before printing it and it improved the image.
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Nice touch of humour there.
