Some of the best halloween portrait photography ideas aren’t planned at all. They just happen when the right person walks in wearing the right coat on the right day. Jess was six years old, full of attitude, and wearing a bright red coat the day before Halloween. That, honestly, is all you need. Using two Elinchrom THREE lights, a Lee Filters Primary Red gel, and three PMI-Gear smoke machines running full-tilt in a cold studio garden, we created something moody and dramatic. It sits somewhere between candid child portrait photography and full-on cinematic storytelling. And it started as a completely spontaneous idea.
The Client
I first photographed Loretta at her wedding back in 2016. I’ve worked with her and her family regularly ever since. I love clients like this. “Energetic” doesn’t quite cover it. When Loretta, her mum Jan, and her daughter Jess arrive at the studio, we put out a huge tray of coffee, tea, and a bowl of cookies. The laughter doesn’t stop until we’re saying our goodbyes a couple of hours later. Love it.
The Session
This particular shoot was, as always, a celebration of life and joy. These are my favourite kinds of sessions. When I first picked up a camera as a kid, it was always about faces. Mostly friends and family. I loved the affection I could capture in a portrait, and that hasn’t changed one bit. In a very real sense, I’m still an amateur enthusiast. I just happen to earn my living at it now.
On this particular day, the weather wasn’t kind. A typical end-of-October afternoon, the day before Halloween. We danced between daylight and studio photography, switching between the two depending on how cold we were getting. Earlier in the week, we’d been recording a video on off-camera flash for the Mastering Portrait Photography website. It occurred to me that Halloween was the next day, and we had a very willing young model in a bright red coat with an attitude to match. Imagine Red Riding Hood as the hero of the piece.
At the end of the session, as the dark (and the cold!) crept in, we decided to have a go at creating something a little special using lights, smoke, and a lot of character.
The Shot
Our studio garden has a wealth of locations for photographs. Off-camera flash means you can get great light almost anywhere you choose.
For this shot, though, light and location weren’t the only things to consider. We needed an area with as little wind as possible. Smoke drifts quickly, and we needed it to hang in the air long enough to do its job. There’s a doorway into one of the garden buildings that felt perfect for something moody. We could place a light inside, with light flooding out through the door.
A second light could handle the portrait itself. First, I checked whether the smoke would stick around long enough. We have two PMI-Gear Smoke Ninjas and a Smoke Genie, so we powered all three up for the shot. As an aside, kids absolutely love smoke machines. Grandmas too, as it turns out. Running around, waving the units, filling the air with thick fog. It’s genuinely entertaining.
The settings matter, though. For a gentle haze, like you’d find at a music concert, using the fans on the units gives a lovely effect. For a thick cloud, you want as little air movement as possible. Either way, you need to run some tests first to get what you’re after. Once we’d sorted the smoke, I placed an Elinchrom THREE in the doorway behind Jess. I fitted a simple reflector dish on the front. The light just needs to pour forward. No need for softness or flattery here. Then I added a second Elinchrom THREE, this time with a 30cm x 100cm gridded softbox. These are fantastic little units for this kind of image. This became the key light for Jess.
To set the exposure, I turned off the remote for the THREEs and exposed for the ambient light at roughly one stop darker than normal. That gave the scene its moody feel. Then I turned the remote back on and dialled in the key light. A couple of test shots and the histogram on my Z9 told me everything I needed to know. You could use a light meter, but for a simple scene like this, the camera works perfectly well as a guide. The backlight power isn’t quite as critical at this stage. Without smoke, it creates a nice rim light and not much else.
Then we filled the air.
Three smoke machines, all running full-tilt. Two hand-held, one behind Jess on the floor with a remote control. Always entertaining.
We took a couple of test shots once the air was full of smoke. They were reasonable.
But reasonable doesn’t cut it.
We wanted something genuinely dramatic. Looking at the back of the camera, I felt the shot needed more. More drama. More punch. We talked about coloured gels. I thought blue or green might work, but Katie, our video creator, suggested red. It would match Jess’s coat perfectly. One of the things I love about working as a team is being able to throw ideas around like that. Katie was right, of course. Red it was.
If you’re curious, it’s a Lee Filters Colour Filter 106 Primary Red. Rich, punchy, and absolutely perfect for the mood we were after. Once we added the gel and adjusted the power of the rear light to cut through the smoke, we were off. We didn’t take too many shots. It was cold. But we got a few that were exactly what I was looking for.
Plenty of attitude from Jess, and a lot of drama in the smoke and light.
Finishing The Shot
The post-production was fairly straightforward. Here’s what I did:
- I lifted the colours and brightness in Lightroom. The image had come up dark, but it brightened easily.
- I opened the…