Shadow Grave

This picture is my second “Night of the Living Dead" shoot-off image In this image, I don’t actually show any zombies, but instead, I imply that one is there, attacking someone, by showing just the shadows of the figures. The graveyard context and the shadows falling on a gravestone give the clue that it is indeed a zombie attack instead of one person against another. I thought it would be more mysterious and maybe even a bit more sinister if viewers couldn’t see the actual scene to know exactly what is happening. The shadows are the only way to get clues about what is going on. I like the idea of showing a scene or conveying emotion through shadows or silhouettes instead of directly through an image, so I gave this a try here.The body language of the crouching figure is supposed to look very defensive and afraid, while the zombie is meant to look imposing and terrifying.

I desaturated the ground around the grave a little bit to make it look more sickly and dead instead of healthy and green grass. I thought this was more spooky and created a little bit of a link between the black and white past (of the movie) and the modern day and real world colors too, so that you can tell the image is related but not directly from the movie.

I also changed the name on the gravestone to say “Romero” to pay a homage to him for creating such an awesome movie, which is an obvious link that any horror movie fans would catch. However, I’m not really sure if I made this look realistic and engraved enough. At the time it looked good to me, but after printing the image it didn’t look as integrated and real as I was hoping it would.