Photo Tip: How to shoot a ghost

Just in time for Halloween, here's tip sure to fire up the kids. Turn them into ghosts!


Here's how I did it, in general terms. I put the camera on a tripod and set it so it would properly expose the shot without the flash, but had the flash fire anyway. As soon as the flash fired, the kids walked out of the picture. The flash illuminated the kids, and the rest of the scene was illuminated with the natural lighting through a long exposure.

Now for the specifics. With the camera on a tripod, I set the film speed to the lowest setting (ISO 100 for my Canon 20D). Then I put the camera in manual mode and set it to 3.2 seconds for the shutter speed and f5.6 for the aperture. You may need to play around with the aperture and shutter speeds to see what works best for your situation -- f5.6, ISO 100, and 3.2 seconds worked for my lighting situation, but may not for you.


I was taking the photos in our church's parking lot after a Halloween Party. They posed under an oak tree, which helped shade the light from the parking lot lights. I positioned the kids where the illuminated signs were directly behind them.


You need to do something similar. Find a dark place without much light (but enough to see). Figure out how long the exposure needs to be. The idea works better with dark clothing instead of light (light-colored clothing will possibly streak as the subject walks away). Finally, have something bright or light-colored behind the subjects so it will easily shine through their bodies, creating the illusion that they are ghosts.

Be prepared to experiment some to find what works best. And most of all, have some fun!

Photo Tip: Protect your camera with a camera bag

The most practical tip I can give is something many people don't think about. Protect your camera! There is no better way to do this than putting your camera into a camera bag. It will help protect your camera from being bumped, dropped, or even scratched with keys and coins while inside your pocket or your purse.

I personally use the Tamrac 5375 Photo Backpack. It is rugged, padded, and has plenty of storage for two cameras, a flash, and four lenses. I can also pack it with two spare camera batteries, eight spare flash batteries, several memory cards, and a bunch of odds and ends.

But most of you have just a point-and-shoot camera and don't need all of that room and versatility. While my bag cost over $100, a small camera bag for a point-and-shoot should cost only $10 to $20 and there are a wide variety from which to choose.

One word of caution, however. Camera bags have a tendency to announce to potential thieves that you are carrying a camera, especially if the bag has something like Canon or Nikon printed on it (like many do). Be extra careful and don't leave your camera bag unattended.

But you can use something else to put your point-and-shoot cameras in. I suggest a baby bottle bag! Something like one of these will do wonderfully:
  
In a baby bottle bag you have plenty of room for a camera, spare batteries, and an extra memory card. You will also have enough room for something like a lens cloth and cleaning solution or a bean bag (which makes a great improvised camera stand). Best of all, because the bag says something other than Canon or Nikon, who would want to take it? No one wants to steal a baby's bottle!

Photo Tip: Block out the sun!

In my last tip, I showed a bunch of Scouters trying to determine where we were on a topographical map. I had laid down on the ground for a different perspective, positioning myself on the side of the group that offered the best viewing angle of their faces. The problem was I was shooting directly into the sun!



So what did I do? I moved slightly until the sun was being blocked by one of the subjects. Because of how late it was in the afternoon, there was plenty of light coming from the rest of the sky. What resulted was a pleasantly illuminated photo.



So don't be worried about shooting directly into the sun -- just use something that will block it's intense light. If the subjects you are shooting are in deep shadow because the sun is behind them, which often happens in the middle part of the day, then use your flash to lighten them up. Most point and shoot cameras have a button that will force your flash to fire no matter what. Just use that to make the flash fire in bright daylight.

However, there are times when sunlight into the lens (or at least striking the lens even if it isn't in the shot) can add spectacular effects. Don't be afraid to experiment and see what happens. Just be careful not to look into the sun directly through the lens, especially with a telephoto lens. It can cause eye damage!

Photo Tip: Change your perspective

I have been very busy at work, and I apologize for not having a tip of the day for the past several days. However, this weekend I participated in Outdoor Leadership Training for the Boy Scouts of America and I got a ton of photos.

One of the training classes we participated in was Orienteering. After receiving our instructions, we had a challenge to take a topography map and determine the exact location of the tent we were at.

With the map on the ground, we took our compasses and tried to determine exactly where we were. I took several photos of my patrol trying to figure it out. Some were from the typical standing position, looking over shoulders. Here is probably the best one:



This shows the map, but there are no faces and the text on the back of the gray shirt is very distracting. Overall, I didn't like it as much.

I also took several shots from a ground-level angle. I literally laid on the ground on my side and shot with the camera a few inches off of the ground, and I like these more. You can see their faces clearly, there is no distracting wording, and with a caption you will know they are interacting with a map with their compasses.



When taking a shot, try to think of different angles and perspectives to capture the moment. Experiment with several ideas, even if you think it won't be comfortable or easy to do. Laying on the ground wasn't comfortable and surely wasn't easy to change my position when I needed to, but I think most would agree it resulted in a better shot. When you're all done, you can sit down and throw away the ones that didn't work.