As you look at these pictures you can almost hear the sounds of children giggles echoing through the forest. Their sad faces are reminiscent of a long lost era.
These photographs, in their monotones, are completely chilling and the perfect Halloween decoration!
Supplies for this Photoshoot: Camera
Tripod
Victorian-Era Children
Victorian-Era Props
Computer/Laptop for editing
The first thing we did was take 376 pictures. Well, lets back up. I explained to my kids what I wanted to do...the 10 year old, 8 year old, and 4 year old were all on board...surprisingly. I have the best kiddos.
Step one: Dress up the children in "old timey" clothes.
The boys wore some bow ties that I hot glued together for this shoot, pinned on their shirts with a safety pin. The boys had vests, which is their standard church clothes. And can you believe I had this dress for my daughter in her closet? Just a plain school dress and dark gray tights.
Next, we found some accessories. Old keys, a vintage pocket watch and a lacy parasol.
Then we trekked around our neighborhood...with me in a hoodie and yoga pants. I scoped out great picturesque places...and the little cemetery a mile across the road from us. (yes, we walked...we are a 1 car household)
Once a location is selected, set up the camera on the tripod and don't bump it. Arrange the children in the photo and snap a picture or two.
Then leaving the camera on the tripod in the exact place, have the kids come stand behind the camera to get out of the picture. Take a picture of just the background.
The best part about this photoshoot is that I didn't need all my kids to smile at the same time! I just told them to look kind of sad...and we got some great shots!
Now, generally, I am a photoshop girl. I've used it since high school... I think that's when the cavemen first invented photoshop for pc's. Anyways. I decided to try out pixlr...and I love it! It's free...so super bonus there! And it navigates basically the same as photoshop, so it didn't take me long to figure things out. So, if you've always wanted a great photo editing program--try this!
~ The upload process is simple and you can see both pictures side by side.
Then copy the picture with the people and paste it right over the top of the plain background picture.
You have 2 layers now. Then on the top layer (the one with the people) select that tiny carrot: Toggle Layer Settings
It will bring up the OPACITY bar. This is the fun part. Just use the slider to make the people appear ghost-like! Every picture is different. Some I took the opacity to 60% some only 73%...
Then you want to look at the layers and make sure they line up as good as they can. Not always super perfect, but it gives it a vintage double exposed kind of feel!
Then Desaturate the images... You can also do sepia tones or old photo effects.
So the picture goes from looking like this regular photograph:
And this plain background photo:
To this ghostly appearing picture:
And then change the tones to sepia finish:
Repeat as many times as you have photos! We altered tons of pictures! We had them printed in 1 hour at Walmart, made cards for family and friends and wall decor for the entry way!
It helps if you have some ornate vintage frames...kind of spooky! I
Now, I realize this would be very disturbing if any of my children ever die... but for now, it's a great Halloween addition!
It would be a fun family history lesson if you found family gravestones and took pictures there. It would be creepy cool to have your own last name on a headstone.
Awesome, right!? These kids were hardcore, walking miles around the neighborhood, dressed strangely and letting me take so many pictures of them just for this fun photoshoot. I really do have the best kids. And actually, I totally want to redo this photoshoot and take them out again. Maybe I can find a spooky alley or an abandoned house! What do you think?
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Check out this amazing video edit too! This is my son when he was about 5.
#Photography #Halloween
