Be Home Free Dark - new instagram tag

Over on Instagram I've decided to extend my #behomefree tag to highlight the dark photos that I've been moving toward of late, and also to add another tag for that community so that we can find each other. There are several good tags already running, particularly #ihavethisthingfordarkness by good instagram friend Tracy Goldfinch Elson, who features in my round-up below. 

@bobandmarge @julejulson @thrumylenseye @chez_chic

Here's a few of the dark photo community tags I've found this week; 

#behomefree_dark #ihavethisthingfordarkness #darktablemood #darksideshow #gothictonic #dark_captures #_edp_ #fiftyshades_of_darkness #darkgrammer #gallery_of_dark_arts #artofmystery  #emotional_dark_pictures #darksouls #dark_still_life #slowdownwithstills #darkphotos #darkmood #flowerslovethedark

@trish.sweetnellie @tamsynmorgans @masks_of_the_moon @karen_barlow

@goldfinchelson @nicki.at.the.cottage @ann0esjka @filomenacocchia

It's hard to define why we are drawn to certain aesthetics, I find the dark photos restful, the colours become more jewel like, and there is mystery in the depth of the unknown black.  

It is also quite a hard look to accomplish and often needs a fair bit of editing afterwards. I find that I am drawn to photos that have a reasonable level of photographic skill and good styling, but that's because I need to be inspired to improve. 

You don't have to be a genius at photoshop though as there are now good phone apps which can do a remarkable job. I was introduced to 'Snapseed' by Sara Tasker on her Gloom And Glow course and below you can see the results of one of its functions, for double exposure.

My inspiration for this photo of my friends daughter was 'the death of Chatterton' a pre-raphaelite painting by Henry Wallis. I have long wanted to do a version of this and will certainly try again when I have more time. Also my next house has the right sort of windows to replicate it, so that will be future feature. However, the subject matter seemed a little too dark and morbid for a young girl, so I changed it up with double exposures as you can see. 

The sunrise and the snap out of an airplane window are perfect for this, so sometimes it's just good to have a few of these snaps in your phone.  It was a happy coincidence that the airplane photo of clouds and sun was placed is just the right way to illuminate the head of Tippy. Because the original photo of her has a lot of darkness it makes the double exposure more effective as you have lots of negative space for the new image to lay on top of.

I'm hoping that more new people will come along and join the tag, it's great to network on instagram, so I welcome along the dark photo lovers from all over the world. To use my tag just add 'underscore' dark like this ; #behomefree_dark

See you all soon x