Getting the Shot: My Blood on Hand Photo Session
Okay, so I needed some images, you know, the kind with blood on a hand. For a project I was working on. I looked around online first, typical stock photo sites.
Found some, yeah, but nothing really hit the spot. Either the lighting was weird, or the hand poses felt fake, or the ‘blood’ just looked like red paint. Wasn’t quite what I had in mind. So, I figured, why not just make my own? Seemed easier than endless searching.
First thing, needed some fake blood. Didn’t want to use the real stuff, obviously. Found some decent stage blood online, ordered a bottle. While waiting, I thought about the setup.
Here’s what I gathered:
- My own hand (the star of the show!)
- The fake blood (arrived pretty quick)
- My phone camera – it’s pretty good these days
- A spot near the window for natural light
- Some old newspaper to cover the table
- Paper towels for the inevitable cleanup
Making the Mess
Alright, got everything ready. Spread out the newspaper. Found a good angle with the light coming from the side. Poured a bit of that fake blood into a small dish first, made it easier to handle than pouring straight from the bottle.
Then, the messy part. I started dripping it onto the back of my hand. Took a few pictures. Then tried the palm. Smeared it around a bit to see how that looked. Tried making it look like a cut, tried just splatters. Took loads of photos. Like, way more than I probably needed, but better safe than sorry, right?
Tried different hand poses too. Open hand, closed fist, fingers slightly curled. Just experimented, really. Moved my hand around in the light. Some shots looked dramatic, others just looked kinda… messy. Which was fine, needed variety.
Cleanup wasn’t too bad, actually. The fake blood washed off easily with soap and water. Threw away the newspaper. Done.
Later, I transferred the photos to my computer. Went through them, deleted the blurry ones, the ones where the lighting was off. Picked out maybe ten good ones that really captured what I was after. Did some basic cropping and adjusted the brightness a little on a couple of them.
So yeah, that’s how I ended up with my own set of ‘blood on hand’ stock images. Took a bit of effort, got my hands dirty (literally), but got exactly what I needed in the end. Sometimes doing it yourself is just the way to go.
