Halloween family photo ideas — costumes, porches and pumpkins

A Halloween family photo is the one picture where someone always has to hold the camera — which means someone is always missing. These Halloween family photo ideas are the ones that put everyone in the frame, and they are cozy rather than scary, because a card to the grandparents is not the place for fake blood.

Every picture here is one of our Halloween scenes, made by Headshot DP. Nobody in them is a customer.

Group costumes on the porch

A scarecrow, a cat, a lion and a pumpkin: family costumes that go together without matching. The porch gives the group somewhere to stand in a line that does not look like a line.

The jack-o'-lantern porch

Everyone on the steps, every pumpkin lit from inside, sweaters instead of costumes. It is the Halloween family photo that doubles as the fall card.

At the pumpkin stall

A farm stand stacked with pumpkins and gourds, a parent and child holding one up. Good for a smaller family, or for one parent and one child.

The parents, in costume

A witch's hat and a broom, a caped coat, the porch light on. Stylish and cheerful, and a nice counterpart to the children's pictures.

More Halloween family photo ideas

• Carving pumpkins together at the kitchen table by candlelight.
• Trick-or-treating up the path, photographed from behind.
• The kids in a hay wagon with lanterns at dusk.
• A candlelit doorway, garland and lanterns, for a couple.

The children's pictures are gathered in Halloween photos for kids, and every idea is in Halloween portrait ideas.

Tips for a Halloween family photo

• Let the costumes be a set, not a uniform. A theme — a farm, a zoo, a story — reads better than four identical outfits.
• Seat people at different heights. Steps and hay bales do this for you.
• Shoot at dusk. Pumpkins only glow when the sky is darker than they are.
• Keep it cozy. Carved faces and warm light age better on a fridge than horror make-up.

When getting everyone together is the hard part

You can make a Halloween family photo from photos you already have. Add each person once, with a close-up and one wider photo, and choose the scenes. The costume scenes put everyone in costume, so nobody has to dress up — and nobody has to hold the camera, so nobody is missing.

You see one free preview of your own family first, small and watermarked, before you pay. The scenes are on the Halloween portraits page; for autumn pictures without costumes, see fall family photo ideas.

Questions

What are good Halloween family photo ideas?

Group costumes on a decorated porch, the whole family on steps lined with glowing jack-o'-lanterns, a parent and child at a pumpkin stall, or carving pumpkins together by candlelight.

Can the whole family be in the picture?

Yes: one person, a couple, a parent and child, children, or the whole family. Add each person once, with a close-up and one wider photo.

Do we need our own costumes?

No. The costume scenes put everyone in costume, so any everyday photo works.

What happens to our photos?

Everything you upload and everything we make is deleted after 30 days, and you can delete it sooner yourself.