Ghosts

Though the idea of ghosts was a direction we were very interested in looking further into when first given the brief, it was only after we developed the pinhole photographs that it really became a major point of interest. All of our images seem to have a ghostly feel about them, which we started encouraging and experimenting with, using things like ghostly poses from the model, and playing with the developer liquid to create spots on or photograph.
This sparked the idea of using pinhole photography and mysterious creatures together, fitting in perfectly to our brief title of 'abandoned buildings'.

Many unsuspecting people have photographed ghostly figures in areas which have some history with death, resulting in not only a believable image, but also a story to go with it. During our research of these images, we did not concentrate on the images itself, but rather explanations and reasons behind this image.

This image was taken by a CCTV camera at Hampton Court Palace in London. Apparently Jane Seymour, Henry the 8th's third wife dies there giving birth to their son, and her ghost is said to walk the courtyards carrying a candle.

This image is most likely to be an outcome of a particular light at that time, which is creates shadows giving the outline to this figure. A bad quality image like this is easy to photo shop well enough to look real. We have been playing around with creating fake ghosts on photo shop, here are some examples. . . 

I am very please with the out come of our 'ghostly' images. Creating the effect of being able to see through someone was surprisingly easy, find a background image, find an image of a person you wish to turn into a ghost and then use the blending mode for the layers to create the see through effect. The top image i am particularly please with as it has more of an in depth story behind it (or could do depending on how the viewer perceives it) in the top image there are two children and an older person, one child is holding the hand of the adult and the other child is running towards them. The people seem to be moving in a rush, as though they are running away, it is that simple pose which means the picture has a more sinister feel about it, what are they running from? They are ghosts so perhaps they re-live their terrible deaths each day, perhaps something terrible happened at the house? 

The image of the Victorian children in the park could have been taken back in their day, but the difference in colour and quality of the photographs make it obvious that they do not belong together, and the antiqued look of the children give the impression that they are actually ghosts.

By using the same image of the Victorian children, I have made another ghostly image. By using a distinctively modern background, and placing the children in the shadows of the tree, it makes the image seem more believable as it is not as obvious as the one above.