Halloween — Why It Looks Cluttered, and Shooting Decorations and Costumes

Orange and black decorations, a glowing pumpkin, a kid in costume. Halloween gives you a lot to photograph at once, which is exactly why the photos get messy. Two things carry it: pick one subject, and meter for the light.

Choose one decoration and move in

Photograph a whole table of decorations and there are too many colors and shapes for the eye to settle anywhere. One pumpkin, one ghost, one cookie. Decide on a subject and get right in and the frame turns atmospheric on its own (→ Filling the frame).

Let the rest blur behind — orange and purple bokeh reads as Halloween all by itself (→ How to photograph sweets). Leaving plenty of space around the subject gives a quieter, more grown-up version of the same shot (→ Negative space).

Composition guideFill the frameSee the full guide for this composition →

Tap the glow on a jack-o’-lantern

With a flame or a bulb inside, the darker the surroundings, the more the light blows out. Tap the glowing surface, then swipe up or down to go slightly darker (→ Adjusting brightness) and the orange returns along with the carved eyes and mouth.

If you’re using a real candle, set it somewhere out of children’s reach before you shoot. Dark rooms invite camera shake, so plant your elbows on the table or rest the phone on something solid. Placing the lantern dead center suits a round subject like this (→ Center composition).

Choose a dark background

Halloween decorations run orange, purple and black, and the darker the background, the more those colors lift. A white wall or a bright window will simply overpower them.

At an evening event, blurring the lights of the street behind works nicely (→ How to photograph night views). In a decorated café, look for a darker stretch of wall within reach of your seat (→ How to photograph cafés).

For costumes: get low, and burst

Shot from adult height, a costume collapses. Crouch to the child’s eye level and both the full outfit and the expression fit in the frame.

When they won’t stay still, don’t wait for the pose — burst while they move and pick the best one afterward (→ Using burst shooting / Photographing kids and pets in motion).

Slipping in one close shot of just the props — the hat, the wand, the candy bucket — makes the set far richer to look back on.

Where other people are around

Events and street celebrations put strangers in your frames. Before posting, check that nobody else’s face ended up large in the shot. Inside a shop, either find an angle without other customers or have a quick word with the staff.

Just this to start

Pick one subject and move in. Tap the lantern’s glow and go slightly darker. Those two turn Halloween photos from “busy but unreadable” into “that evening, still there.” For costumes: crouch, and burst.