How To Take the Best Halloween Pictures
Tracy Greene
Photography Tips
October means Halloween, and that means taking a lot of Halloween pictures. Here are some tips to taking the best Halloween pictures that will hopefully help you capture your goblins and ghosts in all their glory.
Take pictures of just about everything. This time of year there are so many things to photograph and with the fall colors as your background, it's easy to make fabulous photos of pumpkin carving, your decorations, your favorite trick or treaters at your house, and of course, don't forget yourself. Prop the camera up on something so you can run back and get in the family Halloween picture this year.
One of the great things about living in the digital photography age is the freedom to take as many pictures as you can, so you have a better chance of getting a good one. Just delete what you don't want later and only print the ones you really want for your album. Gone are the days of rationing film. Take a lot of pictures. Let the kids take some too. Their point of view is so different from yours and they often surprise you with unique and memorable photos.
If you are trying to get a group shot, make it fun for everyone. After they do the smiling posed photo, ask everyone to act like the character from their costume. Or ask them to make their silliest or scariest face. You might surprise yourself and end up with a natural looking photo that you may not have expected, but love the most.
Light is so important in photography. Actually it's almost everything in photography so position your subjects so they are illuminated by the best light source in front of them or even behind them. If you are using backlight, you may want to consider turning on the flash to make sure you can still see all of the faces.
Since many of your pictures will be shot at night once the sun has gone down, its important to remember to do some with the flash and some without the flash. When taking pictures of Halloween lights or lighted decorations, hold the camera as steady as you can or use a tripod, or something to act as a tripod, to avoid any movement.
For those pictures, go ahead and turn off the flash on your camera. It will only light things up a short distance from the camera, usually five to ten feet. You can use the night scene mode on your camera and try experimenting before Halloween to figure out the best setting for your camera.
Another trick is to take your night pictures not at night, but at dusk, just before it becomes totally dark. Manually set the ISO on your camera to 400 or above without using the flash. Jack-o-lanterns will look really cool with this technique because you will capture the candle light inside the pumpkin as well as some light on the outside of the pumpkin since the sky is not completely dark.
One final piece of advice... experiment. You still have 2 1/2 weeks until Halloween. Get out there one night before the 31st and experiment. Then, when the big day arrives, you will be ready and your pictures will be fantastic.