Book Cover Photoshoot: Thrillers

I still don't have a studio space set up in my home. It has been slow getting things unpacked and finding storage for all my stuff. So I haven't been able to do any video tutorials or streaming, and I am trying to get some work in even though things are still chaos. I decided the best thing for me to do is keep doing still life photos for book covers. If I grab just a couple items, and spend an hour shooting them I am able to get some content added to my gallery on a regular basis.

Today I focused on shooting for thriller book covers. I mixed up some fake blood with water, cornstarch and food coloring (red and brown). I took the items I gathered and my fake blood out into the back yard to shoot.

I bought just a cheap mirror from the dollar store and used clear tape on both sides to seal it before dropping it flat on pavement to break it. It works like a charm and even though you can see lines in the images from today it only takes a minute or two to edit them out in photoshop.

I have used this broken mirror a couple times now, and it has already been on a book cover. You can see here how it looks once the lines are edited out on this finished cover.

I also grabbed a mask to shoot with

and a magnifying glass

I also used a pizza box that caught my eye from my recycling bin to pretend it is a wall or something.

It's simple enough to remove the "please recycle" and I might even add wallpaper to make it even more realistic looking.

I'm not sure why all my images are loading in a horizontal format today, typically they are vertical like book covers...but whatever its mercury retrograde or something right? Weird technology issues are like a thing or so I am told, so I guess I will let it go and hope its resolved next time I post.

Off to edit these pics and upload them for submission!!