Spooky!

set your flash to under expose by about 1/2 to 2 stops.  With the slow shutter and underexposed flash you’ll now get two images.  One captured by the slow shutter and ambiant light, and the other created by the stop motion of the flash.  The slow shutter image is your ghost.

Come back tomorrow to see real examples of ghosts in photos – and a very spooky shot of my family showing the ghost of one of my ancestors (really!).

see ya tomorrow (scary stuff!)

With Halloween right around the corner, there are some superb photo ops in store.  If you’re on the trick or treat trail in the great outdoors, keep an eye out for ghostly apparitions and globs of ectoplasm.  These can be hard to catch on film but if your lucky enough to do so, you may just be able to cash out and retire when People Magazine buys your pics!

But if the spirits don’t float your way, there are always other delightful things to "shoot" on Halloween. Here’s a hot tip for making weird Halloween photos since you’ll be roaming around in the dark!  You may even be able to create your own ghosts!

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PRO TIP: "Dragging the Shutter" to create Ghosts.

Normally you don’t want ghosts to appear in your pics.  Ghosts usually show up when your shutter is open too long and can no longer "freeze" motion.  But you can purposely make ghosts appear while not ruining your photos, by using a technique called dragging the shutter.

Set your camera to manual.  If you’re shooting outside try ISO 400. What you want is the camera shutter speed to be slow enough to capture movement (so less than 1/60 sec – around 1/25 or 1/10 depending on how fast your subject is moving), and to let in some of the ambient light so the atmosphere of the evening is captured too.  But you also want your flash to be fast enough to capture your main subject without "blowing out" the exposure or allowing your camera to capture massive amounts of movement. (lots of movement might scare the ghosts away!).

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