The Truckee Historical Haunted Tour happens every year in Downtown Truckee, California. Actors are set up at many different locations and businesses in downtown Truckee, and groups of people are led around town where they get to enjoy different scary and somewhat historically accurate stories and performances.
I have been hired to shoot it many times, and once again, I had the honor and pleasure of photographing the talented local actors and ghosts. It's always a quick but fun shoot, and I always try to get some spooky ghost photos for the event organizers. They like to use them to promote the event in following years.
The ghost photos are stressful but worth it. I have very little time to set up a scene that will work, explain to the actors what I need them to do, adjust my settings, test shots, readjust my settings..., then take a few that may work. All while I have a big audience of actors and organizers watching me and waiting for me to hurry up and finish so we can move on the the next location.
The ghost photos are usually about 2-4 second long exposures. The camera is on a tripod, and a flash is used. The overhead lights are left on in the room. The flash fires at the beginning of the exposure, then I have the ghosts slowly move durning the 2-4 second exposure. The "live" actor stays perfectly still during the long exposure. This all creates a transparent look to the ghosts, as well as a bit of ghostly movement.
"Regular" photos are also shot, here are some of them below. All shot with a Canon 5DS R and a 24-105mm lens. A flash with a diffuser was used in most of the photos.
If you happen to want to see more, here are all the keeper photos from the event: Haunted Historical Tour Photos
Thanks for looking, and I hope you all have a scary and fun evening. Happy Halloween!
Scott Thompson
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com