For most of us, the hardest part about committing to a portrait project is coming up with new and creative photos day in and day out, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for pro photographer, Amanda Chapman. Since 2012, Chapman has been partaking in a 31 Days Of Halloween project where she dresses up in different makeup and costume every day for the month of October. Once learning her husband had been diagnosed with cancer in August of 2012, Chapman desperately needed an outlet and a project to ease the mind’s of her and her family. As October of the same year rolled around, she started doing different makeup every day and posting the photos to her facebook page.
Though she had no formal training in makeup, in fact, she had only done it a couple times in the past for Halloween costumes, her Tim Burton inspired looks grabbed the attention of her fans while simultaneously giving her family something fun to look forward to each day.
“The 31 Days Of Halloween was like therapy for us. My husband had something to look forward to everyday. Two years later my husband still has cancer (non Hodgkin’s lymphoma) but has never had to have a single treatment. Today this project has become a celebration of both my true love for Halloween and my wonderful husband Greg.”
Chapman’s awesome photography project took off and her portfolio has been evolving ever since.
Behind The Scenes
Here is the typical setup Amanda uses for the 31 Days Of Halloween portraits. Starting with a Canon 5D Mark III with a 24-105mm lens, she brings in three lights: the main light is an Alien Bees B800 with an AlienBees softbox, there are two more lights to each side of her face that are outfitted with colored gels.
“The white foam board I’m holding is used for fill light and I have a huge silver reflector to my right…I change my camera settings slightly according to how I’m lighting it…usually ISO is set to 50, shutter around 1/125, and aperture 4.0.”
And here’s the photo she was taking in the image above…
Oct. 8, 2014 – LunarTix The Clown
Drumroll, please…
Oct. 16, 2014 – Jared Leto
Oct. 24. 2014 – Pale Man / Pan’s Labyrinth
Oct. 17, 2014 – Pepper / American Horror Story
Oct. 14, 2014 – Marge Simpson
Oct. 27, 2014 – Alien
Oct. 12, 2014 – Walker
Oct. 5, 2014 – Tina Belcher / Bob’s Burgers
I’m not sure how Amanda finds the time to do this everyday, but we’re sure glad she does! Anyone find a little last minute halloween costume inspiration? You can see all of Chapman’s looks from 2012, 2013, and 2014 on her website (they’re all really good!) and be sure to check out her Facebook page and Instagram for more behind the scenes shots.
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