I shot a couple Halloween events this year. First up was the Fright Farm presented by Rochester Horror. These same folks dressed up their house in previous years each time adding more and more. But they’ve really outgrown the house. This year, they were out at the Olmsted County Historical Center where they had lots of room.
Shooting a haunted event poses some challenges as you might imagine beginning with lighting. Or lack thereof. My solution is to use a flash appropriately gel’d. I like a blue gel which evokes night and dark. For the Fright Farm, I had the flash on a cord, so it could be aimed anywhere. Lynne helped out. With a zoom lens, it is often a three-hand operation.
Where there are already colored lights – which is often – I try to keep my Speedlite from spoiling that mood, using it more to fill in the shadows a bit. It’s a balancing act and definitely a place to use eTTL with the flash exposure compensation dialed down. And ISO dialed up.
The other big issue is focus. This was especially true with the flash out on a cord. It will fire a red/IR beam the camera can use to help focus, but with it out on a cord, it’s tough to get it aimed at the proper subject. Manual focus isn’t a lot better since, well, there’s no light!
My son never liked clowns. I think they all looked like this to him.
We were walking along with one of the tours of paying customers, so I tried to stay out of their way and not overly flash the scenes. That usually means hanging back. That also allowed us to have the actors recreate something I missed because of the crowd.
The next night, Halloween night, I shot some photos at Rochester Civic Theatre’s Haunted Theatre. This was a single night event providing a tour of the theatre backstage, green room, and dressing area where various creatures, zombies, and other frights were found. For this tour, Lynne was busy handing out treats (one of our best years at the house), so I slapped the flash onto the camera and swung it around, up, or down to bounce the light. Blue gel again.
I was able to make a couple walk-throughs with the guides before the action began for real. It was a good help. I actually did some DSLR video on one walk-through. There are some usable bits, but it was really, really dark for much of the tour.
The theatre has some nice props which were used well. I think I’ve seen this casket before. In Dracula perhaps?
Out in the lobby, I grabbed a shot of a couple of our hosts. It’s fun to watch folks truly immerse themselves in a role if just for one night. I enjoy working with theatre people – in case that hasn’t been apparent!
If you’re going to take Halloween photos, you have to have a good zombie photo. This was mine, taken at the Fright Farm. I collected a few zombies and asked them to pose in the graveyard. I took a few shots before my battery died. I was prepared with a backup, but no need. I had the shot. This one warranted a little work in post to give it the effect I wanted. I think it works.
