# Photo Tip



## Johnson724 (Jun 24, 2009)

Here is a closer shot of the house using the same technique


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## Merlyn67 (Nov 17, 2008)

Johnson,

Thank you for posting your tip, have never heard of it before. I am sure you have a lot of photo tricks you have learned over the years. Now we can all take CSI style pictures of our crime...errr.. haunt scenes and get it closer to what we actually are portraying. I am going to use this on Halloween to get the pics.


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

Nice - I like the "painting with light" technique!


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## Finn (Aug 2, 2008)

That is awesome. This is a problem I have with taking night shots. Thanks for the tip. Can't wait to try it.


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## HalloweenDan (Sep 6, 2007)

Why can't you just point the flashlight rather than waving it ?


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## Johnson724 (Jun 24, 2009)

HalloweenDan said:


> Why can't you just point the flashlight rather than waving it ?


the waving allows you to cover a larger area. If you just spot it you will only have one area lit up. Also the beam is usually stonger in the center and difused on the sides. Waving it will cancel that. Now if you have the beam in a large spread that might be ok.

I have a photo, unfortunately I cant use it, where the flashlight spots on certain items. I might try to recreate it tonight at home and post it to show you how it looks.

The main thing is try it out before hand and see which technique works best.


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## bootoyou (May 24, 2010)

Thats a very cool idea, i like the colored light idea.


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## The Halloween Lady (Jul 17, 2010)

*Thanks for posting this!!!! * My night shots really suck!  I guess I might need to invest in a better camera and tripod.


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## Screaming Demons (Sep 15, 2008)

Do you know what the shutter speed was on any of these?


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## Samhain.Voodoo (May 17, 2009)

This is a wonderful tip. Thank you so much for posting


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## MissMandy (Apr 18, 2011)

Rather than using a tripod or any surface, will this technique still work with one person taking the pic and another doing the flash light?


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## Johnson724 (Jun 24, 2009)

Screaming Demons said:


> Do you know what the shutter speed was on any of these?


Unfortunately no. We generally just shoot on automatic mode due to the amount and general speed that we are taking the photos. I only start manually operating when I have a more difficult shot I am making. Roughly the shutter was open about 6 seconds but I am guessing. As you can see in the no flash photo there was no light except for the windows of the house.


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## Johnson724 (Jun 24, 2009)

MissMandy said:


> Rather than using a tripod or any surface, will this technique still work with one person taking the pic and another doing the flash light?


Do to the shutter being open for an extended period of time, your natural body movement (heartbeat, breathing, any abnormal twitches) can cause a blur. If you dont have a tripod any steady surface will do. You can try it but I would not expect really great results.


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## Johnson724 (Jun 24, 2009)

I did these photos a while back when someone was asking about taking night photos. Now I did do manual settings on this but for the life of me I cant remember off hand what they are.

Again...you need a tripod or steady surface.

The first photo is my faux fireplace at my house. The "fire" and "embers" are lit up but the flash overwhelms them. Typical if you are trying to take a picture of your props and you have a little lighting for them. There are no lights on in this room.










With a slight bit of light coming in from the other room I adjusted the aperature (f-stop) and shutter speed. The changing of the f-stop opens or closes the aperature to let in less or more light. Shutter speed causes the shutter to open or close faster or slower. I had the shutter speed at a slow speed...again I dont off hand what settings the camera was on.

This photo was taken with no flash and the light in my bathroom, which is in another room on to give me a little light.










The next picture was me just goofing around...but if you are doing flyers or something like that for your haunt it might be something you can play with.

The camera is on the same setting. Alot of times I use the timer setting so if there is any possible shaking in the tripod when I hit the button it gives it time to stop. This time I hit the button, waited for the shutter to open, ran out in front of the camera, shined a flashlight on my face real quick, turned it off and moved out of view.

This is the effect.










If you look close enough you can see my legs in the picture...but like I said..was just goofing around with it.

I am by far an expert with a camera...but I hope some of this helps you guys and gals.


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Oooh, thank you so much for this tip. Very helpful.


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## ReaperRick (Sep 2, 2009)

LOL....That is a great tip!!! I just bought my wife a cannon rebel and now I think I'll go try it out.


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## SavageEye (Aug 30, 2010)

I have heard of this technique, but didn't understand it. You really "shed some light" on how it is done!


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## Johnson724 (Jun 24, 2009)

ReaperRick said:


> LOL....That is a great tip!!! I just bought my wife a cannon rebel and now I think I'll go try it out.


Uh huh...I know how that works. Years ago my dad bought my mom a new camera along with a zoom lense and all the fixins. She never used it


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## Xane (Oct 13, 2010)

I've never heard of this technique before but it's definitely something I need to try. I had such a hard time photographing my graveyard last year (even borrowed the better digicam from work) I finally gave up.

Someone told me recently his siblings tried that on their mom, they bought her a Kindle thinking she'd never use it. A year and several dozen e-books later...

This year they bought her an iPad. I suspect they'll be disappointed.


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## Candee (Oct 24, 2010)

So have to try this. Thanks for the tip.


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## chop shop (Oct 31, 2010)

Good to know....thanks!


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## stick (Apr 2, 2009)

Thanks for the tips Johnson.


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## klwdesigns (Sep 20, 2011)

*ghost pic*

I took about 20 pictures. This is probably the best I got. It's late though and I'm getting tired so will have to try again another night.







Thanks Halloweenie1 for the cool tip. ;-)


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## Johnson724 (Jun 24, 2009)

klwdesigns said:


> I took about 20 pictures. This is probably the best I got. It's late though and I'm getting tired so will have to try again another night.
> View attachment 88079
> 
> Thanks Halloweenie1 for the cool tip. ;-)


Looks pretty good!!!


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## halloween_sucks_in_the_uk (Sep 28, 2008)

Thanks for the tip, I'll try this. If you feel like sharing any other CSI related tips feel free. Stuff like how to hide a body, how not to leave any evidence at a crime scene would be great


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## ZOMBIE7666 (Feb 1, 2011)

you can actually do some really sick photography using the same technique but instead of "brushing" with your flashlight you move from place to place flashing your flashlight on and off really quickly. it creates a really cool effect; I'll see if I can find some pics I did with this techniques back in the day to post.... also, if you can get your hands on an old SLR camera, you can set the shutter to just stay open which gives you tons more time  .... this might work with digital SLR's but I can't say for sure


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