Book in a bubble

Hey folks, it's been a minute! I knew this would be a fun one once I received the brief from Penguin HQ - it's a weird horror story, they said and we want something based around water.

Will Fahy Photo for Penguin Random House / QNTM

I got thinking, I bought some atmosphere haze, got the splash pool out in the studio and got shooting. The book itself has a really interesting cover and I had already decided to make it really moody.

I was pleased with the water shots I had and I was ready to start packing things away - at this point the book was completely soaked through. I'd gotten some of the water out of my water tray and into a black bucket to carry to the sink, the water was oily and glistening after the atmosphere spray had settled on the surface in the pool. Now, I don't know if anyone has ever purposely drenched a book before but they collect a lot of water. As I picked the book up water was spilling everywhere, so I just popped the book in bucket to save water going everywhere on the floor...and that's when I noticed the shot.

Completely unplanned, but it was a perfect fit for the cover - the roundness of the bucket matching the dome effect around the deer. I created some ripples on the surface of the water to distort the lettering just enough, so that it was still legible.

Once I got the image into photoshop I took away everything outside the bucket (the studio floor) and it started looking like a bubble, so I went with it and added a few effects to enhance to oily-ness of the water surface. Happy with this one, and here are a few supporting images that went with it - supplied as always in various dimensions for easy work posting on socials + web.

Will Fahy Photo for Penguin Random House / QNTM

Back soon, Will