We thought it might be fun to give you a peek in to what goes in to the making of the annual Halloween card.  So we saved a few of the set up photos and I will show you some of our secrets.

We set up this one in the basement.  This is our set up shot to make sure the scene is in the frame and we have everything where we want it.  This took us about an hour to figure out.  Then Andy spent a little time placing lights and setting flashes and marking where the tripod should be.  We borrowed some flashes and a “soft box” from a friend (thanks Jesse!)  We actually shot it in two pieces, one for each side of the image.  That way one of us could be behind the camera and we didn’t have to constantly run back and forth to do the self timer or try to hide a remote control.  We took about 100 photos in about 2 hours.

Then we go in to Photoshop.  We have learned that there is a balance between what needs to be “real” and what can be Photoshopped pretty easily.  I hate lipstick and I wasn’t about to go buy any for one photo, so photoshopping was the perfect choice.  Most of the Magic Mirror’s desk is deliberately lost in the shadows, so it didn’t need to be anything special.

My costume was made for the photo.  The pattern is a discontinued wedding dress pattern, which I modified.  It had the great neckline, I exaggerated the collar and a few other tweaks.  The collar, for those who are curious, has a double layer of interfacing inside and the seam up the back of the collar pieces is held together with magnetic necklace clasps.  Once you clip magnets on the seam closed, it stands up beautifully.  The Magic Mirror shirt is ink-jet iron on transfer paper.  The props all come from various places in the house.  We raided Andy’s computer junk drawer.  The skull candle holder came from my Uncle Lester and a turkey feather from my mom’s back yard.  The mask of the Magic Mirror was created this summer with friends over the course of several weekends.   Our friend Cy taught us all to make Italian style masks from carta lana (wool paper).  Andy’s mask got to be the magic mirror and you will see mine if you are on our Christmas card list.  ;)  We will write another blog post all about that mask making adventure soon!