Capture the glow in your jack-o'-lantern
As days grow shorter and nights get colder, we turn to autumn activities: Apple picking. Planting bulbs. Raking leaves. And carving that perfect pumpkin. Don't let the delight in your project turn to disappointment in your pictures. Photographing a lit, carved pumpkin isn't hard, but there are a few tricks if you want to capture the glowing quality of your jack-o'-lantern.
Bigger is better If you know that you'll be photographing your finished product, carve your pumpkin with pictures in mind. Bigger openings for eyes or mouth will cast more light, especially if you plan to light up bystanders with its glow. Of course a bigger pumpkin will allow you to cut bigger holes, but that doesn't mean that you have to go for that gargantuan marvel that you can't possibly lift.
Turn off your flash You've turned off the room lights and illuminated the jack-o'-lantern. Your work of art glows from within, and you want to capture the quality of the light. But if you just point and shoot, you'll blast the scene with your flash and ruin the mood.
Normally your camera's flash fires when light is low to illuminate the scene and get the right exposure. But to capture the feeling of the light inside the pumpkin, you have to set your camera's flash to off. Check your user's guide if you don't know how. Then ignore any warning lights or beeps as you point your camera at the glowing face of your jack-o'-lantern.
Add light to your subject To safely brighten the light in your pumpkin, use a flashlight or two. Don't use candles because the open flame is dangerous. Make sure you adjust your angle so you don't see any of the lights directly through the pumpkin's eyes or mouth.
The extra radiance from within has its limitations, so play around with room lights. If the area where you've set up has a light on a dimmer switch, take several pictures of your jack-o'-lantern with different levels of room light. If you can't dim the room lights, try turning on lamps in adjacent rooms. Or ask a helper or two to shine flashlights on your pumpkin to give it highlights or reflections. Remember to try lots of combinations because you can always keep the best and delete the rest.
Fill the frame Get closer! One of the most common mistakes people make is to shoot from too far back. Avoid distractions in the background by getting in close. Fill the frame with your orange urchin. For added interest, include a child's face near the glowing light or add a pet if you can get either to stay still long enough.
Steady does it While taking pictures in these low-light conditions, hold the camera steady to prevent blur. Use a tripod. If you don't have one, steady your hands against the back of a chair or on a tabletop. Press the shutter slowly and gently to prevent shaking.
Take it out Not all your jack-o'-lantern pictures need to be indoors or in darkness. If you time it right and get outside around dusk, you can get some very interesting pictures with the combination of the two kinds of ligh artificial and natural. Add a few kids to the mix, and you can make some really bewitching photos. To create the silhouettes, make sure that the flash is off.
Lighten it up You've tried everything, but the pictures you got were still a bit too dark. Not a problem. Launch your picture-editing program, then look for the feature called "brightness" or "exposure." Use the program's controls to lighten the picture and bring out the radiance in this season's jack-o'-lantern. And then boo!