Dear World,... (WARNING: INVOLVES FAKE SUICIDE. SOME MAY CONSIDER SHOT TASTELESS)

Trenton Romulox · Jan 25, 2008

Dear World,...:

I did a really slapdash job on the blood on my head, I added that in post-processing. And the letter was unreadable, so I did that in post-processing too. I need to fix the blood I think. Or is it acceptable as is?

Any comments and criticisms are welcome.

If the mods feel this should be in the Dark Side Gallery and is not appropriate for the General Gallery, feel free to move it, I wasn't sure if it's acceptable.

Arch · Jan 25, 2008

yea moved to the DS where we have other suicide threads!

I like the lighting and comp, maybe the wound needs extra work tho needs more depth i think.

lifeafter2am · Jan 25, 2008

Archangel said:
I like the lighting and comp, maybe the wound needs extra work tho needs more depth i think.

Agreed. Could be a great shot with a little more work.

Trenton Romulox · Jan 25, 2008

Yeah, I made the mistake of doing the blood before I did high-pass, exposure, and shadow/highlight adjustments, so the blood lost any depth that it had. What would you guys suggest the best way to go about adding depth it? Is it by having the center darker, and get lighter as I move the outside of the wound? If anyone wants to edit it, feel free. I'm gonna work it on some more later. So, other than the wound, what else should I work on? By the way, the original was not nearly this green, but I thought the greenish tint worked well, but if anyone disagrees, I'm more than happy to hear it. :]

Trenton Romulox · Jan 25, 2008

Is this wound any better?

nossie · Jan 25, 2008

Archangel said:
I like the lighting and comp, maybe the wound needs extra work tho needs more depth i think.

Is this wound any better?

Nope.

Blood, splatter, hollywood.

P.S. Please don't apologise for making such a big effort to gimps that are touchy. You're obvioulsy a nice bloke but don't put yourself out for the moaners. That shot from conception to publication here took you hours - Thanks!.

Now make it bloodier. Put some splatter on the ground in front of the shot.
:thumbup:

P.P.S. I hate such shots but I really appreciate the photographic effort
you and Chiller are a pair of sickos

domromer · Jan 25, 2008

Sick but interesting. Nice lighting.

Josh66 · Jan 25, 2008

nossie said:
Blood, splatter, hollywood.

Yeah, but the gun is a .22 (looks like a Ruger MkI) so there's not going to be tons of blood & brains all over the place.

I like the green tint. Neither wound really looks perfect to me... Not sure how to fix that though.
What's up with the shaved area on his head?

Trenton Romulox · Jan 25, 2008

That's me HAHA, and there's no shaved area, I just blew out the hair with my off-camera flash on accident. And the blood actually took me three minutes, that's why I said 'slapdash' job. I'm a PhotoShop amateur and really don't know what I'm doing. It is a Ruger MkI. Nossie, I'm not really sure what you meant in your post, could you just elaborate a bit more? Thanks for the replies everyone.

nossie · Jan 26, 2008

Trenton Romulox said:
That's me HAHA, and there's no shaved area, I just blew out the hair with my off-camera flash on accident. And the blood actually took me three minutes, that's why I said 'slapdash' job. I'm a PhotoShop amateur and really don't know what I'm doing. It is a Ruger MkI. Nossie, I'm not really sure what you meant in your post, could you just elaborate a bit more? Thanks for the replies everyone.

I meant I love the work but I'd like to see more blood in the shot. I don't know anything about guns and the technical sizes of wounds etc.

Trenton Romulox · Jan 26, 2008

nossie said:
I meant I love the work but I'd like to see more blood in the shot. I don't know anything about guns and the technical sizes of wounds etc.

Yeah, me either HAHA. I don't really know how to go about making a good wound, at all. I guess my main concern is that the wound doesn't end up being so terrible that people can only see the wound in the shot. I'm going to continue to work on the shot, I didn't get another go at it last night, but hopefully today.

Arch · Jan 26, 2008

well if it were me and i wanted to get it perfect i would do one of two things.

The easiest thing to do, and what i would do if it was for say a graphic design project with the customer saying we need this image for a flyer/poster (or whatever) and we need it ASAP... is to put 'gun shot wound' into google image search.... try it... there is some very graphic but interesting images... then i would simply alter the area of the image to match the colour and lighting of the main shot and then blend the gun shot area into the head.
This is always the most convincing way of doing any special effect... it helps if you can take the image of the effect yourself seperatley.... but in this case you can't really shoot someone just to get the image!

The alternative to this if you wanted it to be all your own images and you have plenty of time is to recreate it as near as you can i.e. shoot a mellon (or steak?) put fake blood around it, photograph it then bring it into PS and change all the clours and textures before blending it in.

These are the best 2 ways... the only other way is by just using PS... if your gonna try this its best to open a new page at a decent size... start putting together different shades of reds etc to create a hole then add more detail maybe using a photo as something to go on.... then once your happy shrink it right down, lay it on the image and then start to blend it in.

Tantallonrox · Jan 26, 2008

Trenton.

I like what you've go going on here, but there are some issues. First let me say that I'm a Firefighter/Paramedic by trade so I see a lot of GS wounds. That said, Your wound appeares to be an entrance wound which given the location is not very realistic. Never seen anyone shoot themselves in the back of the head. If the original shot came from the front, then the exit wound would be more opened up and jagged around the edges. And there would be a ton of blood surrounding the head.

Most suicides I've been on involving a gun, they either put the gun in their mouth or under their chin. You can get away with a lot on this shot, it just depends how much "gore" factor you want in it.

I would move the wound slightly more towards the top of the head and open it up a bit. Also, I would put some blood on the note. Being that close to the person, I garantee that it will not be that clean.

Like I said, I like what you have going on. Just thought I'd give you some technical advice to make it more realistic. If that's what your going for.
Nice job!

invisibledemon · Jan 26, 2008

or, just an idea, since tantall does have a point about the back of your head, you could just take off the wound and introduce a little pool of blood under your head, that would give the idea of "he just shot himself"

unless you were going for it actually being a murder thats being covered to look like a suicide.

just an idea, but a damn good pic, the green tint adds to the pic. so a good accident.

noob873 · Jan 26, 2008

I like these shots (even though they're kind of...i dont know disturbing? :lol:

) because I know you had to put some thought into taking it.

Didnt focus on making the wound look more realistic, but whatever, I tried.

Im not any expert or anything at photoshop yet, so be easy on me. haha

Edit: Didnt turn out as good as I thought it would when I was looking at it in photoshop, oh well.
Put some blood on the note, and on the head which turned out looking really bad. :lol: