Last night was the first class of my four week photography course for Community Education.  I always like to start off the first class with tips on Halloween shooting since the date usually aligns nicely with the holiday.  In the interest of bringing this blog back to life (see what I did there -Halloween + raising from the dead), I'm passing on those tips here as well:

• Take your posed costume photos early in the daylight or inside in a well-lit area, if possible.
• Best mode: Full manual, but Aperture Priority (AV/A) works as well.
• Set your ISO high – 1600, 3200.
• Be careful of “noise” - grainy photos can happen when you set your ISO too high
• Set a W I D E aperture.  Go as wide as your lens will let you, which means if you're using a zoom lens, keep that lens as wide as you can and use your physical location for the zooming you need.
• Use a prime lens if you have one as it will allow for a much wider aperture.
• Set slow shutter speed, but be careful of blur (too much movement)
• Use a tripod or rest your camera on something sturdy to avoid movement blur.
• Use ANY available light, be creative: move your subject close to light or YOU move close to light.
• If you need to use a flash, use an external one.  The pop-up flash in your DSLR will light your subject too unevenly compared with the background and you will likely get a washed out photo.