Halloween Photography Experiments, Part 1

This year we really got into Halloween photography.  It all started because I really wanted to do some creepy make-up and I wanted to see if I could apply costume prosthetic wounds.  Since my mom is a HUGE Halloween lover, she gladly volunteered to be a creepy ghost so that Sara and I could practice some ghostly photography tricks.

For this series of pictures we were in a dark room, blocking as much light as we could.  We experimented with different shutter speeds and various types of lighting.  Instead of using a flash, we used an LED spotlight that we covered with either a sheet of printer paper, white tissue paper, or a iridescent/translucent wrapping paper.

It may be a little obvious, but this photo has been Photoshopped a lot.  Sara took a great portrait, but I used the burn and dodge tools to exaggerate the shadows and highlight the fake blood.

This was an interesting shot.  Instead of using a flash, we turned off all the lights and used a spotlight that was covered by an iridescent/translucent wrapping paper.  The colors were created by the wrapping paper and the dark shadows were a result of using the spotlight instead of a flash.

 

For this shot Sara used a very slow shutter speed.  We had our model stand still for a few seconds with the spotlight on (but pointed to the ground).  Then we turned off the light and had the model begin walking across the room while the shutter on the camera was still open.  Every couple of seconds we turned the spotlight back on for literally a second, which is what created the ghost images as the model walked across the room.

Try some ghost pictures for yourself and let us know how they turn out!

If you would like to book a shoot with Sara or see more of her photography, please visit the Bellawillow website.