October 22, 2020
Haunted Mansion: The Hitchhiking Ghosts Group Costumes
This group costume of Disney’s Haunted Mansion Hitchhiking Ghosts — Phineas, Ezra, and Gus — is extra special because we were able to make it happen in the middle of a pandemic in two different states. That’s the magic of Adobe Photoshop! Even with Kristyne and Chelsea states away, I was able to shoot mine from the comfort of my home and make a composite. I’ll show you the basic process:
The Hitchhiking Ghosts Group Costumes
It started with this photo of Kristyne and Chelsea, taken in a studio in Orlando by @mackeemousemedia. One thing I loved about our “costumes” is that they are normal clothes we will wear again — I’m a sucker for a matching set! — vs. something we will only wear once a year (or once, period). The accessories (and ghoulish makeup) transformed them into recognizable costumes. They sent me the raw file and I took a similar portrait in my home studio and added myself in, like so:
I determined my lighting (key light front left, fill on the right) by the shadows cast in their portrait, and some input from Chelsea about their photographer’s set up. Close enough, because I still had some ghostly editing to do!
I started with a black and grey stock photo of the Haunted Mansion from Adobe Stock. I converted it to CMYK and tweaked the color balance to make it a cyan hue, then added a gaussian blur to give it some depth of field. Here, I have fog layers already inserted…but that actually came later.
Watch my screen recording to see the process:
Once I dropped our photos in, I tweaked the color balance, added an inner and outer glow, reduced the opacity to make us look see through — we’re ghosts, after all! — and added some fog layers. Here are all the layers:
I also made this full body version, but I wasn’t as pleased with it. We’re too small in comparison to the bricks, and it was kind of a rushed job…the shadows are wrong and it looks like we are floating. Although, I guess that’s not too bad since we are ghosts! But oh well, it’s all about trial and error for me.
Kristyne and Chelsea got their outfits on ASOS. I already had my outfit in my closet (including the bag, which I borrowed from Bobby), but my coat is currently available. I think you could make any green pants and coordinating coat or jacket work for my look, to be honest! Our exact pieces are below:
Last but not least, I made a video of us appearing and disappearing in front of the Haunted Mansion, trying to hitch a ride. Would you let us follow you home? We’re friendly ghosts!
I hope you enjoyed seeing behind the scenes of this process. Make sure to check #keikoshauntedmansion on my instagram for more photos from this series!
More from the Haunted Mansion series:
More from the Haunted Mansion series:
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