Welcome to my blog. On this page you will find articles I personally write about the photography industry and my work. You will also see blogs showing the photos from many of my photo sessions.
Here it is Halloween, and there will be lots of photo opportunities for your kids and others all dressed up cute in their costumes. Parents are always taking pictures of their costumed kids. Here are some tips for getting those perfect Halloween shots.
I think it would be safe to say that the best Halloween shots will be outside at dark, which means some additional lighting will be needed. But there’s more to it than putting a flash on a camera and lighting the subject. What will result is a bright smiling face with nothing but darkness around him or her. The best shots will be when there is some ambient light coming into the photo surround the subject. You might want to see the what’s behind the subject, like a street light. In order to capture ambient light, you will need a camera that allows you to change the shutter speed.
Your average point and shoot camera will not do this, but if you have an interchangeable lens camera that allows you to set the aperture and shutter speed, you can get some great photos with natural ambient light. Here’s what you do.
You will still need that flash on your camera to light the subject. But set the camera’s shutter speed to a slower speed. You might wonder why you would do this. The trick is that a slower shutter speed will let in more natural ambient light.
The general rule is you don’t use a very low shutter speed while holding the camera in your hand or shooting a moving subject because you’ll have blur. The secret is in the flash. That flash on the subject will freeze any movement the camera detects, even when the shutter speed is open longer. The longer shutter speed will allow more ambient light to show up on that photos. The result will be a well-exposed subject from the flash with some light around the subject to create interest.
You may need to practice or experiment with your settings to make sure you got it right, but if you try this I think you’ll be much happier with your Halloween shots. You will avoid those “deer in the headlight” shots with the subject very bright and surrounded by darkness.