Halloween Photography Tips: How to Get Sharp Photos in the Dark

You hold the phone or camera up as a small superhero charges off the porch, press the shutter, and get a smear of orange cape and a very dark house. Halloween night is one of the hardest things to photograph, and almost every problem comes from the same place: there isn't much light, and your camera has to do something about it.

Here's the short answer. Keep your shutter speed fast enough to freeze a moving child, open your aperture as wide as it goes, raise your ISO higher than you'd normally dare, and stand your subject next to a porch light. Grain is annoying. Blur is permanent. Choose grain.

Decide what to give up first

In dim light you have three ways to gather more of it: a slower shutter, a wider aperture, or a higher ISO. Each one costs you something. A slow shutter costs sharpness. A wide aperture costs depth of field (less of the scene is in focus). A high ISO costs cleanliness, because it adds grain.

If you've read our guide to the exposure triangle, you know the trade. On Halloween night, spend them in this order:

1. Aperture first. Open the lens as wide as it will go. A kit lens might only reach f/3.5 or f/4, and that's fine. A cheap 50mm f/1.8 lens is a big step up if you ever want one.
2. Shutter speed second. Set it just fast enough to stop the motion you care about.
3. ISO last, but don't be afraid of it. Canon's Halloween guide suggests ISO 1600, 3200 or higher in dim scenes, and Nikon notes that newer mirrorless cameras handle high ISO better than older DSLRs.

Most beginners do this backwards. They leave ISO at 100 or 400 and let the shutter drop to 1/20 second, then wonder why every costume is a ghost. (A very good ghost, but not the one they planned.)

Pick a shutter speed for the kid, not the camera

The old handheld rule says to use a shutter speed of at least one over your focal length: about 1/60 second at 50mm, for example. That keeps your own shake out of the picture. It does nothing for a child who is walking, running or reaching into a candy bowl. Image stabilisation has the same limit. It steadies the camera, not the subject.

For people who are moving, aim higher. As a starting point for a night like this, try about 1/125 second for kids walking up a driveway and 1/250 second for anyone running or jumping.

These are rules of thumb, not hard limits. A child standing still to show off a costume can be photographed at 1/60 second or even slower. A pumpkin on a table can be photographed for seconds at a time if the camera is on something solid.

If you shoot in Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority, set Auto ISO with a ceiling of 3200 or 6400 and watch what shutter speed the camera picks. If it's slower than you want, raise the ceiling.

Use the light that's already there

A porch light, a street lamp or a lit window is worth more than any setting change. Light changes more between "two steps from the porch" and "in the driveway" than it does between most camera modes.

• Stop at the door. When the kids reach a house, have them step into the porch light. You'll get a faster shutter speed without touching the camera.
• Turn them toward the light. Faces lit from the side or front look far better than faces with the porch light behind them, where you'll get a dark, silhouetted child (unless that's the effect you want).
• Don't pull the exposure down to match the darkness. Your camera may brighten a night scene more than looks natural. If it does, dial exposure compensation to about minus one so the night still looks like night.

Flash: useful on faces, wrong for pumpkins

This is one of the few places where good sources disagree. Nikon suggests the built-in flash at dusk for brighter faces and sparkle in the eyes. Jessops and Canon warn that it's harsh, and Canon says direct flash will overwhelm a jack-o'-lantern.

Both are right, in different situations. A small flash on a face can rescue a photo that would otherwise be too dark, especially at dusk, if you turn the flash power down (look for flash exposure compensation and try minus one or minus two). Don't use it on a lit pumpkin at all. The candle glow is the whole point, and the flash wipes it out.

Photograph the jack-o'-lantern properly

A lit pumpkin is the easiest subject of the night, because it doesn't move. Use that.

1. Put the camera on a tripod, a table or a fence post. Canon notes that a makeshift support works.
2. Turn the flash off.
3. Aim your metering at the candle glow, not the dark space around it, or use exposure compensation to darken the shot until the flame has detail.
4. Take a few shots at different brightness levels (many cameras have an exposure bracketing option) and pick the one that looks best.
5. Use a 2-second self-timer so your finger doesn't shake the camera.

Try this before the night

Don't make your first attempt at night with a child who's been awake past bedtime and a bag of candy in each hand. Spend ten minutes after dinner this week.

Stand a family member (or a pumpkin) next to a porch light after dark. Take one shot at 1/60 second, one at 1/125 and one at 1/250, adjusting ISO or aperture to keep them bright. Then look at all three on your computer or phone, zoomed in. Find the one where the eyes are sharp and the grain is something you can live with. That's your starting setting for Saturday.

What to do next

If this felt like a lot to remember, that's normal. Exposure becomes easy once you've practised it in a few situations, not just read about it. The free 5 Day Photography Challenge is a guided way to practise, and you can join the waitlist on the 5 Day Photography Challenge page.

If your Halloween photos are blurry for a reason that isn't on this list, our post on why photos come out blurry walks through the other common causes.