I’ve taken five spooky Halloween shots – here’s how you can…

There seem to be fewer images of “real” ghosts than ever before. And that’s probably because the advent of digital editing software, and more recently smartphone filters, has taught us to treat any photo that doesn’t quite fit with an increasing degree of skepticism. Indeed, faking convincing paranormal illusions has never been easier.

So, this Halloween I’m going to show you how to create five creepy ghostly portraits that will scare the crap out of you. Instagram followers, friends and family. I’ll start by teaching you how to recreate a scene inspired by a modern supernatural horror classic Ring (1998). By combining the two exposures in Adobe Photoshop CCyou can effectively create the illusion of a terrifying ghost crawling out of the TV screen.

Then I’ll show you how to easily create a convincing phenomenon on location, before delving into a classic portrait with lifeless shades, a la Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). My penultimate petrified project shows you how to record a ghost in your own home, and my amazing last trick helps you create an unsettling close-up CCTV portrait that won’t look out of place in Paranormal phenomenon movement.

This composite was inspired Ring antagonist Sadako Yamamura, who infamously crawls out of TV screens in the psychological horror of the 90s. By locking the camera on one of the best tripods for photography and by capturing two images – one with the model and one without – you can combine a compelling film in post-production. The trick is to use the blue light of the TV to illuminate your model. The steps below detail this project…

Place the TV on the floor and set it to continuous blue light. This won’t be enough to fully illuminate your model, so point the extra light at the TV at a 3/4 angle (I used Lume Cube panel). Place the plug near the TV so it looks like it turned on by itself, eerie.
Our theme was inspired Ring antagonist Sadako Yamamura. The white dress of the eerie ghost is especially useful, as it is easier to photograph in low light than a darker item of clothing. The model also wet her hair to create a tousled look.
Keep the same framing between shots with a tripod. We used Manfrotto
The PIXI EVO has spread legs, so our camera was positioned closer to ground level.
If your camera has a rotating screen like mine Nikon D850this will make framing your shot much more convenient.

Insert the TV into the frame. Make a mental note of its position and move it back to make room for your model. Have them crawl into the center of the frame and focus on them with autofocus. If you are not using back button focus, switch to manual focus to prevent refocusing. Make a hit.
Ask the model to leave the frame and carefully move the TV to the same position it was in before. Do not change the exposure settings or the focus point. The reason I switched to manual focus in the previous step was to maintain identical focus on both images. Shoot the shutter.
Import the image into the same Photoshop document. Choose Edit > Auto Align Layers. With the model image on the top layer, select the Add Layer Mask icon. Press Cmd+I to invert the layer and use a soft white brush to paint the model inside the frame. The TV should provide a nice hard edge to work with, making the transition between images smooth.
I used aperture priority and shot at f/3.5, 1/50s and ISO800. The eerie lo-fi nature of this image means you can get away with using a higher ISO and introducing a bit of noise.

Imagine if yours Ring the doorbell 3 made this image? Ask your model to hold the light source above their head to create sharp subdued lighting and capture a close-up shot. Make the image black and white in Camera Raw before importing into Photoshop. Use the Motion Blur filter to blur it to taste and the Highlight tool to brighten the highlights. Then duplicate the layer (Ctrl/Cmd+J) and invert it (Ctrl/Cmd+I).

Choose Filter > Filter Gallery and choose Diffuse Glow. Set the glow level (6) and clear level (10) before using the Opacity slider to control the intensity of the effect. Create a fill layer with a solid color and set it to green (#3d8538) before changing the blending mode to Color Light and reducing the opacity accordingly. Choose a soft green brush and mark each eye. Finish by choosing a slightly lighter green and reducing the size of the brush before applying a dot in the very center of each eye to create a pair of eerie illuminated pupils.