It doesn’t really matter if you believe in ghosts or not, because from now you can easily photograph them.
While this might a more appropriate topic to publish sometime closer to halloween (Or Purim if you celebrate Jewish holidays), photographing ghosts can be fun at just about any regular day, or more exact- night.
To celebrate independence eve, my and two friends went up a hill which overviews many of the cities in central Israel. Our initial intention was to get a panoramic view of of all the firework shows around. While that turned out to be quite nice, our real success was with taking these ghost images below. All photos shown here feature absolutely no computer or other forms of post processing. Take a look, and read on to learn the “how to”.
[nggallery id="16"]So, lets start with the components for a successful ghost photography session:
1. A nice clear night.
2. A dark location in the outdoors.
3. One camera with manual setting options- DSLR or a Semi-DSLR will usually have that.
4. Camera tripod.
5. An independent flash or a secondary camera with a built in flash.
6. Two people or more.
7. This Article, just in case you need a checklist.
Got everything? great. Arrive to your location, and setup the camera on the tripod. Try to have it facing a clear area, with the background as far away as possible. If you have any trees, building or other objects too close- the effect might be diminished.
Camera settings: To make it as easy as possible, start out with having the aperture set to the highest number available, this will give you the best possible depth of field, as well as a more dramatic ghost effect.
Set your shutter speed to anything between 8-20 seconds, this will give you enough time to maneuver around the frame.
Have you lens at minimum focal length (least zoom, widest position possible) in order to get the largest filed of view possible.
It’s advised to also set the camera on timer. Even with the camera steady on a tripod, it will have a slight movement when you click the shutter release button. The timer will completely eliminate this movement.
With the camera set up and ready, let the good times begin. Here’s how it works:
Release the shutter, at that point don’t have anyone standing in front of the camera (only the background). You now have a few good seconds, depending on what you defined- walk into a position in front of the camera, and have your friend aim the secondary flash at your direction and hit it once. Make sure the flash source itself isn’t expose to the camera- you can do that by having the flash out of the field of view, or simply obscured by yourself.
What just happened, is that you walked into the image without actually being recorded on the sensor (just like a real ghost…), then- the flash has exposed you to the camera for an instant, but with a bright enough light to stay on the picture.
Now simply walk away before the shutter is closed and see the results. Once you got this right- you can start making variations by completing the “flash process” a few different times on various spots and poses in just one exposure.
No processing, no photo-shop- a fun and easy way to create great ghost images.
If you’re interested in other photography techniques- you might enjoy reading the beginners guide to panning photography
Photographed a ghost? got another cool techinque to share? Send it over!
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