Halloween photos for kids — 8 ideas, and how to get them without the chase

Halloween photos of kids are the hardest pictures of the year to take. It is dark, they are excited, the costume was finished at four o'clock and one of them is already halfway down the path with a bucket. These are the ideas that make the best Halloween photos for kids, and what makes each one work.

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

1. The porch costume portrait

The classic: whatever they are dressed as, stood on the front step with lit pumpkins either side. The trick is light — the porch light and the pumpkins light their faces, and the sky behind is still blue, not black.

2. The little witch

One child, a pointed hat, a cauldron to stir. It is the Halloween photo idea for kids that gets saved more than any other, because it is a whole story in one frame.

3. Trick-or-treat at blue hour

Shot from behind as they walk up a path lined with pumpkins, buckets swinging, porch lights just coming on. Nobody has to look at the camera, which is the point.

4. Pumpkin carving by candlelight

Brothers and sisters at the kitchen table, newspaper everywhere, a pumpkin half carved. Candlelight is kind to faces.

5. Lanterns in the hay wagon

A wagon full of straw, every child holding a brass lantern, the last of the sunset behind them.

More Halloween photo ideas for kids

• At the pumpkin stall, holding one up for the camera — see the pumpkin patch photo ideas too.
• In costume with the whole family — ideas in Halloween family photo ideas.
• Close-up, for a Halloween profile picture — hat, face and a pumpkin.

Tips for Halloween photos of kids

• Take them before trick-or-treating, not after. Before, the costume is intact and the face paint is on the face.
• Use the last light, not the dark. Twenty minutes after sunset the sky is deep blue and the pumpkins glow; an hour later the phone is guessing.
• Give them something to hold. A bucket, a lantern, a broom. Hands with a job stop fidgeting.
• Get down to their height. A costume shot from above is a picture of a hat.

Or skip the evening

You can make these Halloween photos from photos you already have. Add each child once, with a close-up of their face and one wider photo, and choose the scenes. The costume scenes put them in costume, so nobody has to dress up for the photo you send — and nobody has to stand still on the night.

You see one free preview of your own child first, small and watermarked, before you pay. All the scenes are on the Halloween portraits page, and there are more in Halloween portrait ideas.

Questions

How do you take good Halloween photos of kids?

Photograph them before trick-or-treating, in the twenty minutes after sunset when the sky is still blue, and give them something to hold. Get down to their eye level.

Can you put my kids in Halloween costumes?

Yes. The costume scenes put everyone in costume, so nobody has to dress up for the photo you send.

Is it safe to upload photos of my children?

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

Can I make a Halloween profile picture of my child?

Yes. Choose a close-up framing for a picture that works as a profile photo for the season.