Back From The Dead

Thanks again for your comments. I'm glad that the image resonated with someone other than myself.

;-)

Nice work!
Maybe the open window is a little disturbing, but the final effect is stunning!

Ciao, Raffaella

That is a truly wonderful image: bulging with atavistic resonance that immediately fires up the imagination.

As to climbing a stairway like that upon departing this life... certainly better than descending one like that.

Wouldn't it be interesting if, when we depart this life, rather than going into a pristine white light, we had to climb a stairway like this?

Probably it is just like that, Murray. Who knows ??!!

Just listened to this song again, while I was looking at your image.
Both of them are very beautiful!

I've now changed the title (was "Asylum Spirit") and made a few tweaks, like adding the light bulb. The image link in my first post is now broken, so here's the image as it looks today.

An interesting fact is that I captured this image shortly after leaving the hospital's morgue. She must have walked right past me! Wouldn't it be interesting if, when we depart this life, rather than going into a pristine white light, we have to climb a stairway like this?





Here's something to listen to. It's a really nice tribute:

.

Love the title Stairway to Heaven, this is a cool shot. Thanks for sharing how you did it!

I think it's a great idea to retitle the image to 'Stairway to Heaven".

Really atmospherically creepy. I bet it feels as if you're being watch, being there for the shoot.

Thatz where I went when I had my outer body experience......WOW! you captured it! LOL! ;)

On the theory that "I'm not going to be ignored, Dan."

Hi Marianna!

Hi Murray!

Thanks to all for your comments. Hi Anne!

Ginny, I like your comments, however, since the rest of the photo set deals with an old abandoned mental hospital where mistreatment and abuse occurred every day, I wanted the 'ghost' to suggest its former patients, who probably didn't wear white gowns. A couple of the shots were taken in the morgue, so I keep coming back to the idea of retitling this one 'Stairway to Heaven" after the Led Zeppelin song.

Dan, I found the two areas I think you were referring to. Just forgot to paint in a couple of mullions.

When I first looked at it, I thought the image was outside the window, as her lower half kind of disappeared - I only saw the entire picture after reading how it was accomplished. Well done!
As Marianna says, I would be happy to work a shot like that - if I did, though, I would have put her in a long dress while I was at it, as if her top was extended into a loose shift kinda thing ... the jeans don't really do it for me as far as the shot is concerned.

Hi Murray!

Murray, that top shot really gave me the shivers!!

No wonder why.
Anyone who can create an image like this, can be satisfied with the result.
I am very happy to see you are taking time to look at your older images, and see them in a different "light".

Okay, here's the deal. I thought I'd take a picture of my shooting buddy, Kathleen, as she carried her tripod, camera and camera bag up the stairs. It was totally unplanned, and I asked her to stop for a moment. I thought it might be a good portrait. It wasn't.

I shot five pictures for a possible HDR, but botched the exposure (too dark). I looked at it at the time and figured it wasn't anything to write home about, so I moved on.

I've been doing a lot of post-processing from older images lately, and looked at this one again. Then the ghost idea occurred to me. However, for that to work, I'd also need an image of the scene without Kathleen, so I could mask one and combine them. But I didn't have one. So, yesterday, I bit the bullet and decided to do it all manually.

I did the HDR processing on the five images I had with Photomatix, then made a duplicate image layer and set about removing her from it. I cloned some things in and painted a lot more in until she was gone. Then I reduced the opacity so she'd look more like a ghost, performed some more magic (like another round of HDR toning in Photoshop), and wound up with this image, which I'll probably continue to tweak for a while longer.

All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with the result so far.

Here's the original shot:

long exposure with a Model?

I have had a similar effect when i played around with my flash for years ago... longer exposure, flash fired - person in front of the camera moved away - and then, i've got the "ghost-effect"

I'm playing a bit, but what I said was true.

I'm not seeing the masking thing,,, but I am impressed with this photo. Nice work Murray.

double post...

So you're just punking us?

The railing is wrought iron, but I didn't do any masking.

I knew you were going to ask that, and I knew it would be hard to describe. It's in the metal work (is that wrought iron?) There are spots where on the same plane some is masked, but some is not.

I didn't see any...but I wasn't looking for them either.

Off to bed.

Cool shot Murray...=)

Tell me where.

Yeah, I may do that for this shot. Ghosts don't lend themselves to pixel inspection, aparently.

Yes. As an intended helpful hint, in the future you should consider turning off hi-res preview. It makes it much easier to catch mistakes in composites.

Ya think?

There's a couple spots you overlooked - didn't mask out.

Really?

Freaky....

Yeah, sort of a double entendre.

No, I didn't.

I thought you were talking about yourself...since you haven't been around in so long...lol.

You didn't add her?

;)