It’s that time of year to get all our little kiddos dressed up in their scary costumes so they can go collect the spoils of Halloween.
These are the moments we want to remember forever, right?
The anticipation is boiling over, they’re all dressed up, and they can’t wait to go knocking on doors to see what treasures they can score.
Not so cute, however, and if you have teenagers you know what I’m talking about, is when they go trick-or-treating past their prime, grabbing handfuls of candy and barely leaving any for the little ones.
For this portrait composite, I wanted to look in the eyes of that little trick-or-treater and feel the frustration.
Setting our Halloween Scene
Just like a good movie or your favorite book, the first step to telling a good story is to set the scene.
The scene can make or break a good story.
That’s why, for this Halloween photo composite, not just any old house would work.
It had to be the right house.
While in Liberty, MO visiting my mom, we passed this house, which had the perfect porch for the story I was telling.
So, we stopped, asked the nice owner if we could do some photography of their front porch with the door open, and fortunately, they said, “Yes”.
While I didn’t have perfect conditions and should have waited until it got darker, I used my handy photoshop skills to make it work.
Behind-the Spooky Scenes
Truth be told, nothing in composite photography is as it seems and many photos, 15 in this case, are used to create one image.
From the pumpkins on the front porch to candy falling out of the bowl, each element is strategically photographed taking lighting and camera angles into account.
If the light’s wrong or an angle is off, a composite won’t work.
Here are some of the before and after photos of my trick-or-treating characters so you can see what I’m talking about.
As you can see, there’s a HUGE difference between the photos that come out of my camera on the left and the final composite on the right.
That’s because the photos on the left are just the starting point for the composite and it takes several hours of Photoshop work to bring life into the photo composite.
Now, quick question, I’m having a hard time with a title, so if you could leave a comment below and give me some of your creative ideas, I sure would appreciate it.
