Decorating for a Halloween Party
Throwing Fall Parties
Halloween Photography

TEN TIPS FOR A SPIRITED HALLOWEEN PARTY

&nbsop;BY LILLIAN VERNON
FOUNDER OF THE LILLIAN VERNON PRINT AND ONLINE CATALOGS
WWW.LILLIANVERNON.COM

Halloween is a fun holiday because it gives you a chance to dress in costumes, enjoy treats and play innocent tricks. Although once considered a children’s holiday, Halloween is no longer a celebration solely for kids but a day that everyone can enjoy. With the recent emphasis on Halloween safety, adults and children are choosing to have parties at home rather than participate in traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating. “A Halloween party that guests will remember includes unique decorations that
set the perfect mood,” according to Lillian Vernon, founder of the Lillian Vernon catalogs and website which market Halloween decorations and specialize in costumes for children.

Here are Lillian’s tips for the perfect Halloween party:

OUTSIDE THE HOUSE

1. Start by decorating the outside of your home since this is the first impression your guests will have and it will help put them in the party spirit. Arrange a “family” of pumpkins sitting on a bench or on lawn chairs set up in your front yard. Decorate the pumpkins with painted faces, wigs and hats. Use festive and colorful clothing for their bodies and stuff them with plastic bags filled with newspapers.

2. Hang a seasonal wreath or swag on the front door. The arrangement can be simple autumn leaves in fall colors, Indian corn tied together, or, for a more dramatic look, a wreath lit in the center with a battery-operated jack-o-lantern. For another welcoming touch, greet your guests with a seasonal doormat shaped like a pumpkin, ghost, or witch.

3. Illuminate trees in your front lawn so they sparkle with garlands of Halloween-themed lights from pumpkins to witches or ghosts. Position black cats on metal stakes around the trees and on the walkway leading up to your house.

4. Turn the front yard into a spooky cemetery by erecting several tombstones on the lawn made from plywood or foam board painted gray. Add funny epitaphs to the tombstones under headings such as Count Dracula, the Mummy, the Werewolf of London and Frankenstein. For an even scarier effect, place a tub of dry ice behind a tombstone in the middle of the cemetery so it gives off a cloud of white smoke.


INSIDE THE HOUSE

5. To create mood lighting, hang strings of orange and black bulbs around the house and glow-in-the-dark skeletons. Place decorative Halloween candles throughout the party scene.

6. Surprise your guests by suspending bats and spiders from the ceiling on fishing tackle line so they appear to be flying through the air. You can make the bats and spiders with felt or paper mache.

7. Decorate the windows of your home with stained glass pumpkins and other Halloween figures made from construction paper.

8. Play scary music that you can find in the holiday section of any music store. Look for music that has a combination of strange sound effects like doors creaking and songs like “I’m Your Boogie Man, “I Put A Spell On You,” “Love Potion Number Nine,” and “Ghostbusters.”

9. Everyone loves candy on Halloween so arrange sweets in themed bowls. For a unique centerpiece, fill some rubber gloves with water, tie the ends together and freeze overnight. You can add food coloring to the water for a ghoulish effect. The frozen hands should slip right out of the gloves by giving them a quick dunk in hot water. Put a cluster of frozen hands on a platter surrounded by chocolate bars and put some candy corn in the hands so your centerpiece will be a real attention-grabber.

10. Use orange and black tablecloths, plates, napkins and utensils. Hang orange and black balloons from the ceiling and tie them with coordinating colored string.

THROWING FALL PARTIES

 Many parents are opting for Halloween or Fall parties as an alternative to trick-or-treating. But how do you keep all those kids safely and happily occupied for a few hours? These are some simple, easy to manage games and activities that will make your party memorable and fun. The games cover a wide age range, choose the ones that best fit the ages and temperaments of your guests.

Thinking Games

Guess How Many: Fill a jar with candy corn or miniature marshmallows and
have guests guess how many are in the jar. This is a good game to play at
the beginning of the party, as guests filter in.

Memory Game: Put a few theme-appropriate items (an apple, a piece of candy,
a leaf, etc.) on a tray. Show the tray to the guests for a few seconds, then
have guests write down (or call out) as many items as they remember.

How Many words can you make from HALLOWEEN or SCARECROW.

Physical Fun

Popcorn Relay Race: Set out bowls full of popcorn at one end of the room,
empty bowls at another. Teams must transport the popcorn from full bowl to
empty, using a measuring cup. This is a messy game - plan it for the end of
the party! (Note: popcorn is a choking hazard for children under three).

Cotton-ball Scoop: Fill large mixing bowls with cotton balls and give each
guest a spoon. Kids must scoop out as many cotton balls as possible in one
minute - without using fingers!

Pin The..Nose on the Jack-o-Lantern, Stem-on-the-Apple, Hat-on-the-Scarecrow,
or whatever variation best suits your Halloween party theme.

Arts And Crafts

Paints: Finger or sponge-paint with fall colors, or black and orange. Guests
can make a tablecloth or placemats for the party, or pictures to take home.

Collages: Guests can make collages of fall leaves, pictures from magazines
that relate to your Haloween party theme.

Picture Frames: Buy clear plastic frames, or make you own from craft sticks,
and have guests decorate the frames with paper, paints, cutouts, and other
craft items. Take a Polaroid of the guests when they arrive and the photo and
frame are a great gift.

Odds And Ends

Dance - Young children love to dance; pop in a Sesame Street tape and let
them go!

Parade - If your guests come in Halloween costume, have a Halloween costume parade throughout the
house.

Ghost Stories - If your guests are older (nine and up) have them create a
ghost story. Dim the lights and sit guests in a circle. The host(ess) holds
a flashlight and begins the story. At an exciting or pivotal moment in the
tale, pass the flashlight to the next person to carry on the story.

 Published by permission. by Barbara Thomas of http://www.go-pcc.com/services/writing as featured in The Family Corner.com

HOW TO TAKE GREAT HALLOWEEN PHOTOS

Reprinted with permission from a monthly edition of the New York Institute of Photography's web site www.nyip.com

Halloween Editor's Note
Since Halloween is a holiday that presents terrific photo possibilities, it's no surprise that "How to Take Great Halloween Photographs" is one of our most popular "How To" features. Because we've received so many requests to run it again, we're happy to oblige. If you've never read this article on Halloween photos, we promise you'll take better pictures of the goblins and ghouls that you meet on All Hallows Eve after reading our Halloween photo tips. If you have read it in the past, why not review it as a brush up?  If you see a ghost, don't forget to say "Boo!"

 

October is a great month to take pictures not just Halloween pictures. The humid hazy days of summer have given way to crisp cool days with clear air and bright blue skies. The perfect combination for sparkling photographs! The sun is lower in the sky, providing wonderful long shadows in early morning and late afternoon. So conditions are perfect for photographers — amateur or professional — to get out there and take great pictures.

October starts with the wonderful colors of fall and the harvest, and it ends with a bang with Halloween — one of the year's greatest photo opportunities.

 

Let's cut to the Main Event — Halloween — and discuss how you can make all types of dramatic and eerie Halloween photos. This is a great opportunity to use your camera. Enjoy!

Pope Gregory III started it all in 739 A.D. when he officially designated All Saints Day, but he wouldn't recognize Halloween as we celebrate it today. It's become a night of fantasy for children of all ages — a night of glowing jack-o-lanterns, spooky costumes, and kids trick-or-treating. It's a night of spooks and spirits.

Some years, it's not even confined to just one evening. If Halloween falls on a weekend, as it does this year, or even on a Monday, the festivities and parties will likely start on Friday night, carry through the weekend, and culminate with Trick or Treating on Monday. That translates into multiple opportunities to capture superb Halloween pictures! And, that's not all, in some parts of the world — for example, Mexico — November 1 is "Dia de los Muertes" (Day of the Dead), a major holiday with both comic and solemn overtones to commemorate the memory of departed ancestors. (In case you're wondering, the picture on the left is a "typical" Day-of-the-Dead party favor. Some party. Some favor!)

It's easy to turn Halloween fantasy into permanent photographic memories if you keep just two things in mind: First, NYI's three Guidelines for Better Photographs. Second, the "spirit" of Halloween.

Let's start with the NYI Guidelines. As with any picture you take any time, good Halloween photos depend upon your fulfilling NYI's Three Guidelines. Before you press the shutter, you must decide on the answer to the three questions we call our Three Guidelines: One — What is the subject of the photograph? Two: How can I focus attention on that subject? Three: How can I simplify the subject? If you're unfamiliar with these Guidelines, we suggest you first read our Photo of the Month Review analysis for a demonstration of how these Guidelines work.

For example, look at this picture of "Ms. Dracula." Here's a subject that can sink her teeth into you! All Three Guidelines are clearly met. There's no doubt as to what the photographer had in mind. Those fangs are clearly the subject here. They're right up front and stand out loud and clear. There's nothing to distract you from the intent of this picture. Ms. Dracula's eyes are staring right at you, and make it absolutely clear that you — the viewer — are about to be lunchmeat! Ouch.

But, as we've noted, the Three Guidelines are only part of the story on how to get great Halloween photos. The second key is to capture the "spirit" of Halloween. What's the "spirit" of Halloween? Fantasy. Fear. The supernatural. The eerie. The unworldly. And how can we capture this "spirit" in our Halloween photographs? One of the best Halloween photo tips is to use the right dramatic lighting. Since nighttime ghouls are so central to the holiday, this often means shooting at night or in dim light.

"Hey, shooting at night? No problem, right? Just use a flash, right? Wrong! Halloween should look dark. Using flash will give you bright lighting of scary creatures. Is that what you want? No. They look a lot more frightening when you view them in the dim light of the crypt or the glow of the moon. Lighting? Yes. Perhaps, "ghoul lighting." (We'll explain this in a moment.) Perhaps, candlelight. But flash? Usually, no!"

We divide subjects for Halloween pictures into three basic groups, and each calls for its own type of lighting: 1) Glowing Jack-O-Lanterns; 2) Kids and adults in costumes; and 3) Kids out trick-or-treating. Let's look at each category separately.

Jack-O-Lanterns

Here's one area where it's almost always better to avoid the harsh, show-all light of the flash. Let's say you've just finished carving a scary, snaggle-toothed jack-o-lantern. Let's take some pictures of it right away.

 

You can end up with a bunch of Halloween photos like the one on the left of the carved pumpkin where you carved it – say, on the doorstep. Problem: The setting is apparent. And the setting can distract from the subject. Here are some Halloween photo tips to get the best jack-o-lantern pictures. First, it is better to place it somewhere that is less distracting — for example, in the garden where the leaves can form a background for the jack-o-lantern — as in the picture on the right.

Better, but not perfect. Why? Because the real magic of the jack-o-lantern doesn't emerge until it's dark and you've lit a candle inside to capture that ghoulish glow.

So you wait until dark to shoot. Now, we have some new problems. If you don't override the "automatic flash" on your camera, your flash will fire and you'll end up with a picture like the one on the left, above. In this strobelight, you don't see much of the inner glow of the candles, but you see every "complexion" defect on the pumpkin's skin and a shiny highlight that screams "Flash!"

On the other hand, if you override the flash and make sure it doesn't fire, you end up with a picture like the one on the right, above — lots of candle glow, but no sense of pumpkin! This isn't exactly right either!

What to do? How can you get a combination picture that shows the glow of the candles, and also shows the pumpkin? Here are some more Halloween photo tips to help you get great images.

Call in the pyromaniacs. For cool Halloween photos we place the jack-o-lantern in the fireplace and make a small fire from a few sheets of newspaper behind it.

How do you get different effects? By varying the lighting. (By the way, one thing is constant. To get enough candlelight inside the pumpkin, we use three candles. Our experience is that one or two are not enough!) The picture on the top left is taken with just the three candles inside the pumpkin and the fire behind. The picture in the top right is lit the same, but we've also added strobe. Personally, we think the flash is a little too bright. So we shot the picture on the right using strobe again, only this time we put one finger in front of the flash to cut down the amount of light that hits the subject. Which of these pictures do you like best? It's a matter of choice.

Here's another photography technique for low-light Halloween photographs. Take a tip from the pros. When they want to show a scene at night, they often shoot before it's totally dark. They shoot during twilight when the sky has that rich blue/purple color shortly after sunset. Like them, you'll find that finished prints or slides make the scene look darker than it really is so that the viewer will assume it was shot at night.

When you apply this photography technique, if you're using a film camera, use fast film. Whether you use a single lens reflex (SLR) or point-and-shoot, load your camera with a film that is ISO 400 or faster. You'll be thrilled with the results. Try it!

In addition to the other Halloween photo tips, if you're using a digital camera, try boosting your camera's effective speed or ISO. While this may add a little noise to the photo, that won't be inconsistent with the subject matter.

Gremlins and Goblins and Ghouls

Everybody enjoys putting on a scary Halloween costume and having fun. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that in recent years, sales of costumes for adults have outpaced costumes for kids! Whether you pose portraits of your favorite poltergeist while he or she is getting ready to haunt the neighborhood, or you "grab" candids of spooky partygoers or paraders, the steps are the same.

Let's say you want to take Halloween pictures of your little boy (or kid brother) in a "scary" costume before he goes out trick-or-treating. First, figure out what's the best part of the costume. Is it just the mask on the face? Or is it the mask and the torso too? Then get in close and fill the frame with the parts you've decided are best. A pro tip: It's usually better if you don't shoot from head to toe since shoes are often the weakest part of a costume. (One year we wanted to go to the local Halloween parade disguised as a rabid raccoon, but we just couldn't locate the right footwear.

Here are some Halloween photo tips for composition. If you're shooting a child or a group of children, bend down low to kid's-eye level. Don't shoot from adult level down on these little ghouls — you'll trivialize them. Or if you're limber enough, bend down to below kid's-eye level or even lie down for the shot. Nothing makes a monster more imposing than looking up at the scary countenance.

If you're shooting two monsters, get them as close together as possible and, again, get close enough to fill the frame with the best parts of their costumes. People tend to drift apart when there's a camera pointed at them. You want just the opposite — no space between those monsters — like this:

 

Important Halloween Photography Tip: Be sure to take some Halloween pictures of your favorite creature with and without the mask. That way in future years everyone will be able to identify the little devil behind the mask, and this year you may be able to use the picture for your holiday card. After all, if all you take is a picture of your nephew dressed and masked as Spiderman or one of the Fantastic Four, viewers won't know who's under that mask.

The same Halloween photo tips go for portraits of adults in costume, only you don't have to get down so low to be at eye-level. But don't forget the possibility of bending low or even lying down to make the monster look taller and scarier.

And don't forget Fido or Cleo. Put a mask or silly hat on the family pet, and shoot — but fast. The suffering beast will probably be too embarrassed to suffer this indignity for more than a few seconds.

When you turn to groups of monsters, aim for the two elements that help any group photograph. First, show relationship by having them close together, touching one another wherever possible — you know, arm over the shoulder, etc. Second, make it casual. Try to get them to laugh and relax.

With groups of monsters — young or old — it's the same. First, pack them together, have them touch, and fill the frame with them. Second, keep it casual. Don't line them up like soldiers at attention. If you're photographing three, group them in a triangle — this arrangement usually looks best. In a larger group, have some kneel or crouch down in front of the others so you get an up-and-down arrangement. Regardless of the grouping, before you shoot the Halloween pictures get them to give their scariest growls and grunts and moans. In this case, it beats laughing!

Now, how should we light these posed creatures? When possible, try "ghoul lighting." We mentioned "ghoul lighting" before. What is it? Remember how, as kids, we would shine a flashlight up at our face from below the chin. This is "ghoul lighting." It's different from our everyday lighting which is almost always from overhead, whether it comes from the sun or from room lights. Ghoul lighting creates shadows on the face that are eerie, other-worldly, exotic — in a word, "ghoulish." If you're taking a closeup of a face, here's what we suggest: Don't use your flash. Rather, have the vampire hold a flashlight about six inches under his chin and point the light up onto his face. Then just bare a few fangs, and Eek!  

Candid pictures at parties and parades use pretty much the same photography techniques. While you may have to react faster, the secret is to decide on the best part of the costume before you shoot, then get in close enough to fill the frame with this part. Chances are, you'll have to use strobe to get enough light, but often you'll get a better-lit picture if you just use available light. Of course, if you plan to use available light, once again we suggest you use a fast film — ISO 400 or faster. With a digital camera, you'll probably want to use your flash.

Trick-or-Treat

We really have two different types of situations for Halloween photo tips here. First, Halloween photographs you take from inside your house of goblins who come trick-or-treating to your door. Second, Halloween photographs you take from outside a neighbor's door when you follow around after your own baby goblin. We made the portrait of this scary trick-or-treater using the ghoul lighting technique that we described above.

When you're taking pictures of monsters coming to trick-or-treat at your door, you have to be ready. Kids come and go mighty fast. Here's one time when flash on camera can come in handy.

It's best if you have two people in the house. One to answer the door. The other to take the picture from behind so that the photo includes both the person answering the door and that porchful of ghastly visitors. Tell the ghouls they'll have to grimace and groan before treats are dispersed — then snap the shutter while they're howling.

If you are following your own kids with your camera on their trick-or-treat rounds, try to capture their expressions of glee when candy is poured into their outstretched hands. As always, get in close. And — very important — position yourself so that the door won't swing open and block your view.

In sum, the key to great Halloween photos boils down to following the three NYI Guidelines and capturing the spirit of the occasion — ghoulish celebration and silliness. So, for all types of great Halloween photographs, know what you want the subject of each of your pictures to be, and make it important in the frame usually by making it big and up front in the frame. Then add the "mood" that captures the spirit of Halloween by the ghoulish way you light your pictures and/or the silly way you pose your subjects.

If you apply these simple Halloween photo tips, you're going to make this a Halloween you'll never forget!