Halloween Shooting

Zooming in while the shutter is open.

This is a super fast tutorial on shooting Halloween pics. i.e., pics of the kids that show up at your door looking for candy. Of course any of this information can be used and expanded upon. I will write this middle of the road, meaning, with the beginner in mind, but you can use any digital camera you want.

First, composition.

You can pre-stage an area for your tricker treaters that has a background that is uncluttered and doesn’t have random elements ruining your photo. For example, you don’t want a lot of disrelated objects cluttering up the background drawing your attention from the subject, which are the kids.

You also don’t want broom handles or posts/pillars rising up out of the back of their head. Compositionally this is a no-no. If you are a photographer and have a background, then you can use it, a sheet could work, a brick wall, tall fence, a thicket of trees, something that looks spooky, whatever. Just keep it clean and not MORE interesting or distracting than your subjects.

Last, don’t shoot DOWN on the kids, unless of course it looks good. Try kneeling and getting down to their height. Makes for better impact. Or get lower. The point is, short people, ie. Kids are short. You get down to their level and you will thank yourself later because the neighbor got the boring cliché looking down on the kids shots and you were different.

Second, white balance. If you are shooting RAW then you don’t need to worry about this, much. If you are shooting jpegs then you need to get it right, in camera, now. What kind of light is on your porch? Is it a tungsten bulb or perhaps a daylight balanced light? If you don’t know, you can wait until tonight and test out some shots. Put it on tungsten and see if the photos look too blue, daylight, etc.

By the way, your flash will is pre-set to daylight so if you solely intend on overwhelming ALL LIGHT with your flash just leave it on Daylight. If however you are going to mix lighting then you can play around and see what looks best. Shoot RAW if you can’t figure this out.

Third, Iso. If you are using a flash you can use 100-400. If you are relying on your porch light, better hope it’s a bright one and shoot at ISO’s upwards of 800-1600 … expect noise in the shadows. Expect noise anyway unless you are using a 5k camera. And then expect softness.

Fourth, Use a second person to entice the children into action, acting or posing. If you are not great at interaction with kids, then get someone to hand out candy and watch as the kids reach in unison. Take the shot! Or simply say, “okay kids look scary” and most kids will make an effort.

Fifth, of course get permission from the adults present. I am supposing that you AREN’T a professional and therefore WON’T be selling your images and there you don’t NEED a model release. By the way, if the parents look like dull boring parents, ask them to stand out of the picture for the sake of continuity.

Sixth, Rear curtain. This is a function you might need to dig into your manual to find out how to set your camera up for. It’s where the shutter is opened for a set amount of time, thus recording with what available light there is, anything you are pointing you camera at and then at the end of the exposure the flash goes off freezing whatever you are shooting. It’s fun and can make for some real motion filled wild photos. You can zoom in while the shutter is open too …

This is rear curtain in action.

Seventh, people blink. So shoot a few frames. It’s annoying to get what looks like a great shot on the back of your camera only to find that on your computer half of the subjects are blinking.

Eighth, if you have an off camera flash you can set it up at an angle. This is getting more into the complications of lighting. But let’s put it this way. Shooting them dead on with your on-camera flash is the most boring. If your flash is at an angle it could make some very nice shadows and enhance the creepy effect. Likewise, put the flash lower than Count Dracula and shoot it upwards and you will have the new Bela Lugosi shot.

Ninth, Zoom in and out. Some kids will have costumes that are all face. So zoom in appropriately. You aren’t documenting for Wild Planet . If the torso, legs portion of their costume is boring but their face is cool then shoot that. If however the face is boring then hopefully something else makes up for the full length shot you will shoot.

Tenth, have fun. Happy Shooting.