Halloween pictures don’t have to only include trick-or-treaters and pumpkins. If you are looking to add some mystery to your All Hallows’ Eve photos, then look to the sky.
The moon phase for Halloween 2011 is Waxing Crescent which means you won’t have a full sphere to document. Still, the light from a Crescent moon will easily help to cast an eerie glow on your holiday subjects.
However, before you shoot at the sky, consider that there is a distance of approximately 240,000 miles between you and the moon. Unless you have special equipment you probably won’t be able to capture the moon’s finer details. Don’t let this discourage you. Halloween is an excellent time to experiment with moon photos.
For starters, wait until the sun sets before you take aim at the moon. Next, select an ISO setting of nothing less than 400. In addition, if you are looking to create a spooky scene in your moon shot, then avoid using high-powered flash that can overpower the darkness of the night sky. To enhance the image, place your camera on a tripod and add some colored cellophane to your camera’s flash. The cellophane will act as a diffuser and produce a haunting glow on your photos. To avoid black shots, choose a longer shutter speed, which will allow you to you increase the amount of light that streams into your camera. You can also add more light into the camera by increasing the aperture. By widening the hole in your lens, more light will be able to stream in.
Personally, I wouldn’t use a standard point-and-shoot to take pictures of the moon. A digital SLR camera with a long focal lens and customizable settings will yield frame worthy shots. I’ve seen some decent moon photos taken with a digital point-and-shoot camera with a 24x optical zoom, but the photographer was shooting a full moon off of a tripod with a remote shutter release. So, basically, he didn’t have to touch the camera to shoot the photos, which eliminated camera shake and blurry images.
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