32 Spooky Halloween Photoshoot Ideas for This Fall

It’s not a secret that location is crucial for any kind of photoshoot, let alone a Halloween photo session. Carefully selected location can sometimes make up for the lack of idea or not the most elaborate costume. That’s why, you should spend some extra time and find out about abandoned buildings, forests, churches, trains, cemeteries, or haunted houses in the area. Eerie scenery is what it takes to get that perfect creepy shot!

An important principle to remember here is the rule of thirds. You should locate an object in the left or right third of an image, keeping the rest of the composition uncluttered. You can turn on the grid in the camera settings to build a frame as accurately as possible.

Having a specific Halloween costume is always a great idea. You have an endless number of options here. You can recreate any looks that you want! You don’t even have to buy the costume, as there are a lot of DIY tutorials on the net.

Something to keep in mind here is that your costumes should match the scenery and complement it. If you have any superhero photography idea in mind, you need to take care of not only a costume but also decorations, makeup, and poses. Don’t be afraid to incorporate a costume into the pictures and put emphasis on it, making it the focal point of your photographs.

Props are obligatory for bringing to life Halloween photography ideas. For instance, you can experiment with hanging skeletons, gothic fencing, huge inflatable props, life-size creatures, and other frightening objects. Undoubtedly, gruesome creatures, spiders, and ghosts, dangling from tree branches and the roof, will add a special mood to any image.

Especially around Halloween, shops are filled with all kinds of Halloween photo booth props that can help you create your scary scene. If you are on a budget — improvise, incorporate things you have at home: brooms, candles, etc. Take advantage of them to their fullest and fill the frame with such elements! You can also use these prop images in your Halloween party template to invite your friends to the Halloween party.

You can get a plain cloth face mask and spruce it up with glitter, sequins, makers, and whatnot. Moreover, you can trace eerie shapes or fun patterns. Alternatively, you can purchase a ready-made Halloween print mask that matches your outfit.

You can also keep distance during the pandemic by arranging a bike parade. In fact, you can use a bike, wagon, or even a wheelchair as a part of your costume. You have probably seen some cool ideas of how to decorate a wagon on the web. For example, you can turn it into a pirate ship or something like that.

If you really want to go the extra mile, here’s an idea for you: dress up your pets! You’ll get fun Halloween pictures and also show your affection to your pets. In addition, the response to these pictures may be incredible, because the love for pets is undeniable.

Dress your fur baby up in something cute or creepy and experiment with different dog photo ideas. You can your little friend into a ghost, put it into a pumpkin, dress it up as an imp, a spider, or a vampire.

Photographing silhouettes is an excellent way of conveying drama and mystery. Moreover, this angle is very fresh and eye-catching, as it removes all the distractions and isolates the subject of your photoshoot.

Incorporating silhouettes into Halloween pictures is a sure-fire way of getting striking photos as a result. You need a limpid piece of material to capture your object through it. Remember to locate the light source behind you to get that phantom-like Halloween shot. It is also a great idea to make shadows on the wall.

Having a Halloween photoshoot for your baby is an excellent way of capturing those fleeting moments of their childhood and introducing your kid to this beloved holiday. Pumpkins are an essential part of Halloween and, besides, make good props! Baby pumpkin pictures are everywhere around Halloween.

To bring this Halloween photoshoot idea to life, you need to find a really large pumpkin. If you don’t feel like making all the needed preparations, you can just encourage your kids to play with pumpkins in a thematic location. The scene is likely to have many orange elements that will give a special appeal to your shots. Whether you take images in the house or in the open air, you are sure to end up with many terrific pictures.

There are so many ridiculously cute Halloween baby outfits that you can choose from! You can make a costume to turn your child into Harry Potter, Winnie the Pooh, Master Yoda, and other characters.

An amazing bonus idea here is that you can find costumes for a group of kids or for your entire family. This will be a fun experience to look back at.

Autumn offers so many locations for a photoshoot. Some of the best backgrounds for your babies’ photoshoot include pumpkin patches, piles of leaves in the backyard, and farm fields. A great thing about this idea is that it doesn’t require any preparation at all! Before heading out, make sure that your baby is warm and comfortable.

Who doesn’t like candy corn? It is most popular around Halloween, so why not use it as a prop and put a baby into a bowl with candy corn? It’s very easy to do and the pictures look really cute.

Dress up kids as witches, werewolves, or ghosts and encourage them to play a themed game. While they are brewing the potion in a black cauldron and howling at the moon, you can a series of jaw-dropping photos.

This is one of those Halloween photo ideas, that don’t require very meticulous preparations.

You can apply creepy makeup or experiment with cobwebs and scary yellow nails. Both color and black-and-white photos look impressive.

Many designers create scary shoes to satisfy those people celebrating Halloween. For example, Alexander McQueen has created Armadillo shoes that resemble alien footwear. Iris van Herpen cooperated with United Nude, a famous footwear brand, to make “Fang” shoes. The creation looked very creepy as the heels were actually monster mouths on the soles of the shoes.

If you have a photo session in the studio, you can take your footwear off and demonstrate socks with pumpkins and skeletons, as well as black & orange striped stockings. Using Halloween-inspired shoes and socks, you can totally liven up the frame.

When selecting attire for a Halloween photoshoot, you need to think over images for each family member. These can be characters from one movie or fairy tale, or just a frightening family image.

Pick the right accessories for every person and take a couple of shots in your backyard or during the celebration.

This is a timeless Halloween photography idea. The best part about such a costume is that is very easy to create. In fact, you just need a long black witchy outfit and a pointed witch hat.

To get absolutely realistic pictures, you should pose in the forest, park, or against ancient castles. You can also complement the composition with candles, brooms, and pumpkins.

This idea is super easy to realize, and you don’t even need to invest in high-priced thematic props and decorations. There are several shooting techniques you need to master to get lifelike shots. First off, find a blank wall that will serve as a backdrop. Next, set a slower shutter speed and capture a person moving along the wall.

If you want to photograph yourself, you can’t do without a tripod. Besides, when your camera is stabilized, you can be sure all your images will turn out sharp and detailed, while a moving person will look like a phantom. With the help of the motion blur trick, you will receive very terrifying images.

To repeat this idea, you only need a white sheet. Throw it over your head and pretend to hover over the floor. Move slowly and remember that your mission is to frighten average people.

This is undoubtedly the simplest costume you can create. Modifying it a bit, you can either make a good ghost or an evil one. You can also use some props to tell a specific story.

This trick is as old as time, but it absolutely deserves to be on the list of the best Halloween photoshoot ideas. To take such images, you need to find a cardboard box and make a hole for a neck on one side.

Repeat the manipulations with a paper plate. Place a piece of material, e.g., a table cloth around the hole. Set it with several LED candles and matching props. Then ask somebody to stick their head in the neck hole, while the lower part of the body is hidden under the box.

There may be some horror films that you like watching, so why not draw inspiration for your next photo session from them?

You may find interesting ideas for decorations, costumes, makeup, etc. You can even go further and try to replicate scenes you like most of all.

If you are ready for creative experiments and want to get really atmospheric images, don’t hesitate to add smoke, especially colored ones.

The surest way to achieve the desired outcome is to use a colored smoke bomb. So, you will fill the frame with the smoke that will surround a person without distracting attention from him/her.

To apply scary makeup, you will need to practice or ask a makeup artist for help.

The variants of Halloween makeup are endless. However, make sure your makeup and the outfit are in line, not to cause confusion.

Such a location is ideal for a Halloween photoshoot, but only if you take images early in the morning with dense mist covering the ground and slowly rising up.

Experiment with dark silhouettes taking pictures at sunset.

Place the main subject in front of the setting sun so that it is in the dark. Choose themed items that are easy to recognize by their outlines: brooms, hats, bowlers, and others.

With free Lightroom presets for dark photos at hand, you can easily give your photos a gloomy and mysterious look. These instruments automatically adjust lighting, colors, and saturation. So, if something went wrong at the shooting, you can still save your photos and give them a professional finishing.

Photoshop has lots of instruments and features for the most complicated manipulations with photos.

Starting with basic tweaks (adding dust, grain, or scratches) to more elaborate changes (creating a faux double exposure), you can totally alter the atmosphere of your photos and give them a ghostly feel. Besides, you can experiment with layers and textures depending on the outcome you aspire to get.

Another interesting photo editing idea you can bring to life is to add a mirror to your photos, thus, making them mysterious.

You just need a wide traditional golden arch mirror to capture trees, a black cat, or breathtaking scenery with its help.

If you need Halloween photoshoot ideas for adults that don’t involve additional expenses, this one will work just fine. Take a series of pictures and proceed with editing. Open them in Photoshop, invert all shots, and change them to black&white. Then add blur, noise, and apply a Photo Filter.

Many Halloween photos undergo the desaturation process in Lightroom or similar software. If you like such an effect, lower the saturation with appropriate tools in photo editing programs. Some of them even have the selective color tool for more sophisticated adjustments. Thus, you can make some colors more vibrant than others.

While editing shots, you can convert them into vintage pictures by simply adding vignette to them. This works especially great for dark and moody scenes that can benefit from a kind of Victorian look.

You or another person can pose in a retro car or sit on the horse, with Halloween attire on. The main thing here is to take capture motion. If you manage to photograph a flowing dress or a black veil, you will get very impressive images. To bring this Halloween photo idea to life, you need to use fast shutter speeds (1/500 or even 1/1,000). It is also necessary to keep your lens wide open – f/4 or f/2.8. If that is impossible with your lens, you can start with f/5.6 or f/8.

This sounds like a very daring idea, but if you are OK with such a celebration, go for it. Keep in mind that it isn’t obligatory to wear orange and black costumes or use just Halloween decorations. You can choose from black wedding dresses or even organize a cemetery ceremony if both you and your partner like the concept.

To can set the proper mood by using painted pumpkins, moody floral centerpieces, bouquets, skull-shaped candles, and more. Remember to prepare Halloween cocktails and food to make a very organic composition. If you don’t mind spending even more money, purchase moody chandeliers and cover tables with rich black velvet linens.

You can decorate a photo booth with pumpkins, put children or animals in them, or imitate the image of Jack Pumpkinhead. You don’t need any special costumes for this idea – just wear whatever suits the weather.