DIY Haunted Portrait for Halloween| Easy Set-up + Photo Editing Tips using Pixlr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V4z7VptoT8&t=33s

Hello, you. Welcome to a special Halloween episode.

I have always been drawn to the strange and mysterious, be it being fascinated by Vikram-Betaal as a kid, or being spellbound by the stories of Bhoot Chaturdashi and All Hallows’ Eve that could bring you nightmares for days.

So this year for these occasions, I decided to take a little break from crafting and instead stage, shoot and DIY a fascinatingly spooky portrait.

Before I get started with staging, I’ll first need to ready some props. I’m just hand painting a few things to avoid a trip to the store.

And by the looks of this balloon you might be able to guess where I’m going with this.

I’ve lately been binge-watching this CBS show called Ghosts. And I really wanted to recreate this 3D effect where you can see the ghosts almost jumping out of their photo frames.

But since I don’t have any professional-level equipment or software, I’m going a little DIY on this photoshoot, starting with staging process.

One important hack I learned from YouTuber Christine McConnell was marking the tripod’s position on the floor with tape. This way, if by any chance you move your tripod, you’ll always be able to put it back in place without messing up with your frame.

By the way, don’t forget to check out my DIY Diwali episode.

Now, that it’s dark outside, we’ll move on to the lighting phase.

If you’re planning to take a composite photograph, meaning you’ll be creating one photo by combining multiple images, it’s crucial to ensure that the lighting for all the different images stay the same.

This is easier to do when you’re shooting at night. But in case you have to shoot during the day, it’s best to cover all surfaces that can let in the changing daylight.

A good spooky portrait needs good backlighting, for which you can Frankenstein some strong string lights, or the bulbs on your vanity, like I did.

Once the vanity lights were secured against the back of the sofa, I turned them to white mode and covered them with blue cellophane paper.

You can create a near-perfect halo effect with white light and some coloured translucent plastic.

Time to start the photoshoot.

Now that the photos are all ready, it’s time for my favourite part of this process – editing.

The best free photo editing tool, in my opinion, is Pixlr. For this composite image, I’ll go to Pixlr E and select a master image first, which will be the base on which I will compile all the layers.

Once my base is selected, I’ll download some PNGs of ornate photo frames from Pixabay and add them to the master image in separate layers. Just to make them look as natural as possible, I’ll shift the colour and brightness levels accordingly.

I’ll repeat the same process to add different backgrounds for each of the frames, while also adding a bit of a shadow. I’ll show you how I do that in a bit.

Then, I’ll add each of the characters and use a mix of the Wand tool and the Cutout tool to get rid of the background.

To add the 3D effect, I’ll create shadows for each of the characters. There’s a very easy way to do that — just duplicate the object in question, manipulate the brightness and contract levels, reduce the opacity, and place it right behind the object at an angle opposite to the source of light.

For Samara’s ghost, I want the shadow to appear in such a way that it seems like she is climbing out of the TV. So, I’ll distort the shadow here using the Free Distort tool under Edit.

Once you have incorporated all the necessary layers, it comes down to fine tuning each element of the picture to make it look as real and seamless as you want it to be.

And in case you want to remove something from your picture, the Clone Stamp tool can be your real friend.

I find it best to hold off all colour corrections till the very end, because that helps me ensure that the final image has uniform lighting. Once I’m happy with all the layers, I’ll just go ahead and colour correct till cows come home.

Once I'm happy, I download the picture and print it out on a glossy A3 size paper.

Thank you for reading. Happy Halloween.