Photographing Phantoms: How to Capture Ghosts and Spirits in Night Images
I recently spent an incredibly fun night at the historic Sleep Hollow Cemetery in New York with the B&H Video team and the wonderful model @seashellspells. Our mission was to make an educational video on how you can create “ghosts” and “spirits” with long exposures.
You can view the video below, and then read all about how I approach making “ghost” images at night.
Humankind has been fascinated with spirits for a very long time. And that includes photographers. Some of the first photographs ever made focused on “spirit photography,” which was incredibly popular from the 1860s until the early 20th century.
Figure 1. Haunted Lane, by Melander & Bro, 1889. A well-choreographed image taken during the height of spirit photography.
Figure 2. Brown Lady of Raynham Hall. One of the most famous ghost photographs of all time, taken by Captain Hubert C. Provand and Indre Shira on assignment for Country Life. This “ghostly image” is on the negative and was probably created by long exposure and movement.
Early in my career, I was influenced by the modern photographer Duane Michals, who created beautiful and whimsical storyboard tales that often incorporated spirits.
Figure 3. The Spirit Leaves the Body, 1968. Duane Michals was the master of double exposures to create apparitions in his story telling.
Of course, we’ve all seen a ghosting effect in some of our images—when our exposures get longer and a person moves through. But rather than the effect being an accident, how can we control it and bring these “spiritual beings” into existence?
Ghostly Gear
No specialized camera gear is needed. Any body and lens that has manual controls and manual focus options will do.
A tripod is key—you need something solid to put your camera on so you can capture the spirits moving through the frame. A Vello Shutterboss II or remote release will help you achieve exposures longer than 30 seconds, which can be very helpful in darker scenarios.
Another item is something we don’t always use as much in our regular night work: a flash. While you can use flashlights and LEDs to create more abstract ghosts, a flash is a must for “capturing” a spirit with more detail. Take your flash off your camera and trigger it by hand or with a wireless remote—this will also create more depth to your scene.
Finally, a neutral density filter will help you attain longer exposures, especially if you want to “catch a ghost” during the day.
The Boo Basics
First, figure out your base exposure. You will need dim conditions (or that neutral density filter) to achieve a long exposure. Whether you turn off all the lights in the room or go outside during the day or night, you will need an exposure between 10 and 20 seconds to form a proper ghost (Figure 4).
Think about mass and time. If you have a 10-second shot and your model moves out of the scene after 5 seconds, the camera will continue to expose and you’ll be able to see through their body. If the model stays for more time, they will be more solid; if less time, you’ll see through them even more.
Figure 4. I always start with putting the model in the image for half the exposure and then adjust accordingly. Here we see the model in the 10-second shot for (from left to right) 5 seconds, 3 seconds and 2 seconds. I liked the 3-second shot the best, but the 2-second could be interesting to use if I wanted something more ethereal. Nikon Z 6 with a Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 lens at 30mm. 10 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 6400.
Background Considerations
Be aware of your background and choose contrasting clothes according to your goals. A couple of examples:
I created one of my first ghost photos back in the film days (Figure 5). I had the model dress in a white slip and we photographed in a recently abandoned house during the day. I was able to obtain a long exposure of 10 to 20 seconds by stopping down my aperture. I directed her to move from sitting on the bed to touching the black dress hanging on the wall. Because she moved around, her mass wasn’t in one place too long. But just as important was that most of the room was light-colored, just like her clothes, so she appeared in the image only when she was standing in front of the darker background of a dress hanging on a wall (Figure 1).
Figure 5. Pentax K1000. Approximately 10-second exposure on Kodak TriX 400 film.
My next stab at making a ghost was a self-portrait at the Circus Maximus in Rome (Figure 6). This fared much better. The steps were white marble and my clothing was darker. The exposure was 3 minutes and I sat on the steps for half the time.
Note that my ghost is fairly sharp. No one can stay still for 1 second, let alone 1.5 minutes. I was able to achieve this two ways:
Sitting on the steps with my arms on my lap provided a very stable position for me to hold still and count to 90.
I’m small in the image. If your model is larger in the composition—either because you’re honed in with a longer lens or because you place them closer to the camera—then any movement will be magnified.
Figure 6. Self-Portrait Ghost. Pentax K1000. 3 minutes on Trix 400 film.
Let’s return to Sleepy Hollow (Figure 7) for a few more examples about backgrounds.
I asked our model, Christine, to wear her dark green dress against light grey walls. She stood still for 5 seconds and then walked out of the frame. The total exposure was 10 seconds. Look at the lower portion of the image—her dress blends into the dark background because the contrast is similar. But the ghost of her pops out in the areas of higher contrast (i.e., her skin and where the dress is against the lighter brick background).
I liked that shot, but Christine isn’t very sharp in it. So for the second attempt, I had her lean her body against the brick wall. This stabilized her form and made her a clearer spirit during half the exposure.
Christine then changed into a lighter outfit that provided further contrast against the background and made her pop even more.
Figure 7. All images shot with a Nikon Z 6 and Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 lens at 30mm. 10 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 3200. Model was in the scene for half the time, or 5 seconds.
Along the same lines, always be aware of the sky, especially in overcast conditions and in bright urban areas. When the sky is the background, it can be challenging to create a ghost in front of it. Figure 8 provides a more extreme example and is definitely something we need to be aware of to either avoid or embrace. Note how much detail we can see in the white dress against the darker background, but that same detail disappears into a silhouette against the bright sky.
Figure 8. Nikon Z 6 with a Nikon Z 14-30mm lens at 30mm. 13 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 3200. Model was in the scene for 5 seconds.
Experiment with Spectral Movement
Ghost photography can be even more fun when the spirits move within the scene. We gave this a try in Sleepy Hollow by having our spirit rise from the grave (Figure 9). Christine lay down for half of the 10-second exposure and then sat up and stayed still for half. The first shot didn’t work out because of the background interference—her ghost was blending too much into the statue behind her. I readjusted my composition and we experimented with the timing of her various movements.
Figure 9. Nikon Z 6 with a Nikon Z 14-30mm lens at 14mm. 10 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 3200. Model was in the scene for 5 seconds.
Another way you can create an eerie sense of movement is by adding “multiple personality ghosts.” You can do this a few different ways.
Have your spirit stand in two places during the exposure. Experiment with time, but a good starting point for a 10-second exposure is to have the model stand in one spot for 4 seconds, move in 2 seconds, and hold the second position for the remaining 4 seconds.
Another way to do this is with multiple exposures, which you can shoot in a single frame if your camera has a multiple exposure mode.
I had a lot of fun with my grandparents one day with my Mamiya C220 film camera (Figure 10). Once I metered the scene and figured out the exposure, I divided the shutter speed in half and took two shots that would equal the whole exposure. We used this multiple exposure technique to create a ghost of my grandmother surrounding my grandfather.
I then took the multiple-exposure strategy to the next level by creating an image in which you can see through my grandmother’s hands to her face. I did this by opening the shutter when her hands were over her face, then, while holding her head very still, she lowered her hands. This proved to be a very effective layered image.
Figure 10. Using multiple exposures can be an effective and easy way to create ghosts. Mamiya C220 film camera.
Most modern cameras have a multiple exposure mode that does all the metering for you. You select how many images you want to take, it figures out the overall exposure. The cool thing is that once you take the first shot, you can often see that image on the LCD before taking the second shot—that way you can be very precise with your layered composition.
Freezing Phantoms with Flash
You can also create multiple versions of the same ghost, as well as a more defined ghost, by using a flash to freeze your model. Instead of having them hold still for seconds, you can just pop the flash, have them move to the next position and pop the flash again, or have them walk out of the scene.
The flash creates highlights that will be reflected back and forever etched into the image. You still need to be aware of how a bright background can eat through your ghost, but I find that the flash opens up many creative opportunities for storytelling in a single long exposure.
To start, I generally set my flash to its lowest power and then adjust accordingly. In Sleepy Hollow, for the first exposure (Figure 11) I discussed with Christine the idea of creating multiple ghosts in the same frame, advising that each pose should be different, and that they should be interacting. We did a walk-through of the positioning so she could familiarize herself with the space that she had to work with. I moved around the scene as well to make sure the flash would be evenly fired at the same distance and angle.
Figure 11. Nikon Z 6 with a Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 lens at 18mm, with a Profoto A1 flash. 20 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 1600.
We decided to challenge ourselves with a triple flash ghost shot that added depth to the scene (Figure 12). For this 30-second photograph, we started with the closest position so that I could ensure it was focused and sharp. I popped my Profoto A1 flash at level 5, at a 45-degree angle and 10 feet away. Christine then moved to the predetermined spots in the background, carefully spaced so there was minimal overlap of the ghosts. We adjusted the flash to power 4 and kept it at the same distance and angle for each pose.
Figure 12. It was important to have a more powerful burst of flash on the closer ghost and slightly less in the more distant ghost. This helps us layer the scene better. Nikon Z 6 with a Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 lens at 16mm, with a Profoto A1 flash. 30 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 1000.
Putting it all together
When working with models and creating ghosts, you need to be a director. Talk through your vision of what you want to convey. You and your model should bounce ideas off each other—it is definitely a collaborative process! You’ll need to direct the movement, call out the seconds and, as discussed, be aware of the background. Do you want to create contrast to give more detail to the spirit or less contrast/movement to form something more ethereal?
Let’s put it all together and reconstruct how we created what ended up being our favorite shot of the night. We used time, movement and flash to create a very unique and elegantly eerie spirit!
During the 20-second exposure we started by popping a flash on Christine in the distant position. She then used the remaining time to walk slowly toward the camera and then stopped right in front about 1 or 2 feet away. She held that position for 3 to 4 seconds. It took a few attempts, but I’m thrilled with what we created (Figure 13—the unlucky ghost number!).
Figure 13. Nikon Z 6 with a Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 lens at 30mm, with a Profoto A1 flash. 20 seconds, f/4, ISO 1600.
Wrapping Up
As the nights become longer, I hope this inspires you to do a little ghost hunting of your own!
Share your spirits with us in the comments below, on our Facebook page, or by tagging #nationalparksatnight on Instagram.
Note: Want to learn these techniques and more during a hands-on workshop? Our Night Portraiture in Catskill workshop is the perfect match!