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Tips for Ghost Photography

Recently ghost pictures became a fad. Getting your images to turn out correctly and no too dark and underexposed can be difficult. Do you want some tips on taking these ghostly images and creating a spooky halloween vibe?

Tools needed:

Tripod

Camera with ability to choose shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. (Mirrorless camera preferable so you can see what the image will look like as you change settings, so there’s no guesswork)

Light source (nothing fancy, flashlight, candle, match, battery powered flood light, etc)

Model with white clothes. (It’s important that they are white as this will reflect more light against a dark background)

Photo editing software like photoshop or GIMP (free)

Shooting

Decide if you will be taking these photos during daylight, or if you will be taking in the dark. Each method has it’s own challenges, below I have separated tips by whichever method you choose. Below you can see an image actually taken during night (left) compared to an image taken during the day to look like night (right).

Daylight

If you’re taking the photos while there’s still some light outside you will need to take one or more of the following options to lower your exposure to get a darker image that looks like night:

Lower ISO - Lowering your ISO reduces the sensor sensitivity, taking in less light. This is the most preferable of the three options, but it might need to be used in conjunction with other methods, since if it’s really bright outside your picture can still end up looking like daylight. Also a high ISO can give your image some cool noise/grain, so if you’re looking for that you might want to take images at night instead.

Increase Aperture - Increasing your aperture makes the opening inside the lens smaller, letting in less light. This will bring subject and background into focus at the same time, so no Bokeh and reduced depth-of-field.

Shorten Shutter Speed - Shortening the shutter speed makes your camera take the photo faster, shortening the amount of time the sensor has to take in light. This results in crisp images without blur, which is a good option if you want to layer the images you take, like the first image. However lowering your shutter speed (while using tripod) can give this blurred/movement effect without post-processing. Like the image above on right.

Moonlight

If you’re taking images at night, you will need to increase exposure so your subject is visible. In addition you will need an external light source. The image above on the left uses a Milwaukee battery powered flood light. You just want to make sure your light isn’t too bright, and that there aren’t external light sources in the background, like a streetlamp that might cause bright spots in the background. It is possible to fix in post (see image below, there was streetlamp in back right), but it’s easier to avoid in the first place. If you’re using a DSLR, during night shots you might not be able to see what you’re taking an image of until after you take it. This can cause issues with autofocus, or manual focus since it’s much harder to adjust when you can’t see and have to take a picture every time you want to check focus, which is why I recommended a mirrorless camera since you can see your adjustments in real-time without taking a picture.

Increase ISO - Increasing your ISO increases the sensor sensitivity, making it possible to take an image with less light. A high ISO will add noise/grain. This can be a cool effect, making it look more like film, instead of digital, but it can also make your images appear less sharp. There are some ways to remove noise when post processing, but it’s something to keep an eye out for as you take photos.

Decrease Aperture - Decreasing your aperture makes the opening inside the lens larger, letting in more light. This will create a large depth of field, with the subject in focus and the background blurry, or vice versa. Decreasing your depth of field makes manually focusing a little different, since the area in focus is such a small amount. This is even worse in a dark image on a DSLR when it can be hard to tell on your camera’s small screen. If you’re able to get your focus right though a lower aperture can result in some really nice Bokeh and blurred backgrounds.

Increase Shutter Speed - Increasing the shutter speed makes your camera take the photo slower, increasing the amount of time the sensor has to take in light. You will DEFINITELY need a tripod if you use this method. If you try to take a photo without a tripod everything will be blurry. Using a tripod will ensure the background stays sharp, while the subject has a blurred/movement “ghostly” effect without post-processing. However if you would like your image to be sharp you will need a lower shutter speed and adjust the other two options to lower exposure.

Editing

I use Lightroom and Photoshop for editing my images, so my explanations will be from that perspective, but this can be done using your preferred software. GIMP is a good free software that is very similar to Photoshop.

Light/Shadow

Dependingon when you took the image, you might need to either increase or decrease brightness/exposure. For images taken in low light it can help to decrease contrast, then in Photoshop go in with dodge/burn to selectively add highlights and shadows to give certain areas more emphasis, but to keep areas in the background shadows more visible. This youtube video by Irene Rudnyk goes over how to create the dodge and burn actions I use.

Layering

Layered images work best when taken with the same settings, in the same location, with the same background. Open all the images you’re interested in merging in Photoshop. Use one the selection tools (selection, lasso, magic wand) to create a general outline of the subject. Then copy/paste them into different layers of the image you decided to use as a background. Once they’re all on different layers, use the options listed under EDIT>Transform to slightly skew/distort the image, then move to desired location on image. Some other cool options are the smudge tool, blur tool, or some of the pixelate/stylize filters to distort the layer even more. I like to overlay the oil paint filter at about 50% transparency to give some cool, blurred surreal streaks. Motion blur is also a good option. Clean up the edges around the layer, so only the subject is visible, and reduce transparency so other layers are visible beneath.

Noise/Grain

In lightroom you can use the Noise Reduction slider in conjunction with the Dehaze (decrease) and Sharpen (decrease) sliders to reduce any noise. This can give a cool other-worldy painted effect as it will really smooth the images.

On the other hand if you want more grain you can add grain using the grain tool, or increase existing noise by sharpening and increasing dehaze.

Glow

Sometimes the light from a candle or match isn’t picked up very well by a camera if your exposure is really low. To make it look like it is giving off more glow you can use the color picker tool to select the flame color, then use the circular gradient tool to create orbs of that color around the flames in a new layer. Then change that layer to “Soft Light” and play with transparency. If you want a more starburst light you can use the smudge tool to turn the gradient into more of a starburst.

Examples

Below are some examples and the settings I used when taking the images. All were taken at night.