He was told it was from another reality. That he could only look at it but that he mustn’t touch it. They warned him it would change him in horrible ways if he touched it. He did not listen. Now he’ll never speak about it.
This is a more complex shot then usual with 2 tricks being used. There are 4 lights involved with 3 on in any shot. The two strobes were consistent for general lighting of the subject. One strobe up front with a honeycomb grid over a long soft box and one over head with a honeycomb grid to create a circle of light around the subject and the items.
The tricks occurred with the speedlites. For the first trick we put one speedlite in the box with the crystal ball but under one layer of the sheet. This made the ball appear to be glowing from the box. If you do this, be careful. Flashes get hot when they go off, and a sheet can catch fire if you go too fast with this. However, this will make something in a box or other item appear to be glowing.
The other trick was lining a light up with a purple gel perfectly with the crystal ball. This would make the light shine through it and make the ball appear to glow. The color could be any color gel we had. However, the light in the background had to be aligned with the ball perfectly or it wouldn’t work. Good exercise for verbal command practice. The light was also equipped with a snoot and a grid to help constrict where it went.
The mouth disappearing was done with prosthetics we made. I’ll post a “how to” later. This may not be an effect you want to recreate but the technique can be easily adjusted for other ideas and is worth knowing.