Print Ad for Double Wide

The Double Wide bar here in Dallas asked me to shoot a photo for their ad in a local weekly that would run during the week of Halloween. Instead of highlighting a part of the bar that's there already as I have done in previous ads, I decided to set up a spooky scene right on the bar.
I used one of the bartenders, Khurk, and Nicole from local band True Widow. Bar owner Kim Finch was amazingly helpful, not only with allowing me to do this in the first place, but she also was responsible for all of the props and blood. She was an invaluable help during the shoot and we were all very happy with how it turned out.

Here's a behind the scenes video from the shoot that I shot on the day.

The video doesn't show the lighting setup very well, but I was really happy to get this looking the way I wanted with only 4 lights - 2 studio strobes and 2 flashes.
The main light is a Norman head through a gridded beauty dish to camera left. This light has quickly become my go-to light for portaits. Set to 400ws, that light output quickly gets cut down going through the grid. The light quality is still great, but I can also get away with using less powerful flashes with the big light, which is nice. In this shot, it's lighting Nicole's head and shoulders, and the knife in Khurk's hand. The grid gives it a very controllable circle of light that gives an even falloff that you can see in the bottom left corner of the photo.
The next light I set up was a Vivitar 285 that I gelled red and placed on the bar. It's barely visible in the left side of the frame. Even at a low power setting, it was enough to fill in a nice deep red, adding to the overall feel of the shot by lighting up the bar behind the models.
The third light is a Calumet Genesis strobe set to a low power off to the right of the frame. This filled in all the light on the right side of the shot.
Khurk's face was still in deep shadow with this 3-light setup, so I added another Viv 285 just under his face. The flash was sitting on the bar pointing up, right up against Nicole. I had to fashion a makeshift ND gel out of trash bag material as the flash was too bright even at the lowest setting. It really made the shot that much more creepy as it filled in Khurk's face from below.

It was a fun half-day of shooting and I can't wait to do another shoot like this again!

Here are some other shots from that day: