Lars V. Andersen
Behind The Image – Black Mirror
Hallo! This is my second “Behind The Image” post – if you have questions or think there is information you need, then feel free to write me by mail or via my Facebook or Instagram.
The title of the image is Black Mirror and I made the image in 2017.
Read below the image.
1. Theme:
Anxiety and depression. The feeling of the dark within trying to pull you into it´s blackness. Maybe you know what to do to get better, but some kind of force is making it hard to fight the thing that keeps you down. That is basically what this image is trying to show. But people may – as always – make their own interpretation.
2. Setting/location:
I did this in my old house. I did it in a corner of my bedroom, where the wall and window (with curtains) made the corner.
3. Wardrobe:
Just a pair of army pants and a black undershirt. I usually try to make the clothes timeless and avoid logo´s and stuff like that,but for this image I wanted clothes that would back up the story of a man in the 2010´s.
4. Color:
Color, low saturated. I almost always make my dark portraits in color and my other photography (documentary, family photos, paid jobs), in black and white.
5. Props:
I tried to find something cool for the shoot but did not really got a cool idea, to be honest. So I just went with this mirror table and chair which I had at that time.
6. Framing:
I spilt the frame up in two; one part with the white wall and the other part dark by the curtains. I was important to me that I as model, would almost fade in to the dark behind me.
7. Light (flash/natural light):
I used a single flash in a 60*60 cm softbox, placed on the floor besides the table (to the left), pointing towards my face. The light from the flash is the only light in the scene.
8: Post-processing:
The photo was edited in Lightroom and Photoshop Elements (PSE). I started in Lightroom with basic editing on the main frame (the picture of me sitting on the chair). I then took some photos where I held my elbow up against the mirror. Afterwards I composed the shots of my arms by Photoshop Elements, so they looked like the was coming out from the mirror. A lot of painting black on the mirror, use of the Clone Stamp Tool and dodge & burn was used, to make it more contrasty. I lay some texture on the background wall to give it a more raw look. The final color correction was made by presets I have made in the program Exposure X.
9: Gear:
I shot this with my Nikon d800 and 16-28 Tokina wide angle lens. Settings were 1/125 sec, f/8 at 20mm. The high f-stop makes all in the image sharp.
Let me know if you got questions! Or if you need more information. And make sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram if you want to see more like this.
Here are some un-edited frames used for making the image.
