Category: Halloween

Capture Fall Memories: 6 Fun Photo Ideas for Autumn and Halloween Events

Capture Fall Memories: 6 Fun Photo Ideas for Autumn and Halloween Events

Published September 15, 2017

The air is getting crisp, the leaves are changing, and the sun’s setting earlier each evening. This means one thing: fall is almost here! And with it, fall festivals and Halloween parties.

At Studio Style, we love this cool, colorful season and all of the fun events that come along with it: pumpkin patch outings and apple picking to fall harvest festivals, costume contests, and fall photo shoots. We have some fun ideas to help you celebrate all of the special memories you’ll make this fall. Try our custom autumn themed photo folders for your Instax, Polaroid, 2×6, 4×6, and 5×7 fall and Halloween photo prints!

If you’re a photographer or an event organizer we’d love to help you create the perfect photo folder as a giveaway or party favors for your guests’ fall memories. Check out our fall and Halloween themed photo folders, or give us a call at (800) 346-3063 to chat about creating a completely custom paper frame for your Halloween event.

1. School events

Halloween Photo Folder and Instax paper frame

Send parents home with a “back to school” photo of their child working on a project in class or playing outside on the playground. Whether the kids are decorating gourds, playing in the leaves, or making a scarecrow, capturing candid school shots can make sweet memories during the fall season.

2. Fall fundraisers

Fall fun-runs and 5k events are popular in October because it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Photos can be a great way to raise some extra cash for your philanthropy, and your community will be glad to chip in for a good cause.

Set up a photo booth area with a fun fall-themed backdrop so participants can pose with friends and family. Take donations for those who want to have their picture taken, and offer them prints inside a custom photo folder to match your event theme.

Offset the cost of the photo booth and accessories by finding a “photo sponsor” to cover the cost of the booth, props, and photo folders. The sponsor’s logo can be included on the front or back of printed photo folders at no extra cost, providing them recognition and exposure to your guests.

3. Pumpkin farm, haunted house, and apple orchard outings

Fall Photo Folders with autumn leaf design

Nothing says fall like taking a trip to the farm! Orchards, farms, and haunted house attractions can boost engagement by offering seasonal photo ops to their guests, with on-site prints and custom photo folders for sale for a small fee.

4. Oktoberfest and autumn harvest festivals

You may only don the lederhosen once a year, but you can proudly display your Oktoberfest memories all year long with a custom photo folder. Guests at every fall festival love to take home a personalized photo keepsake, and photo folders are a great way to keep prints safe from beer splashes and mustard smudges.

Custom photo folders for your fall festival also present a great advertising opportunity for event sponsors who want to build brand awareness. Add a logo or a special offer to the back of your custom photo folder or paper frame for targeted advertising exposure to festival goers.

5. Halloween parties and costume contests

Take photos of everyone as they line up for the costume contest. Pose them in front of a plain background or a branded step-and-repeat backdrop. Have couples pose together and print the images as souvenirs for your guests. Some costume contest ideas:

Best dressed
Scariest costume
Best couples costume
Most creative costume
Winner by votes

Don’t forget best pet costume!

This can be a blast for your furry friends, too. Pet costume contests can be a great way to drive business to your doggy daycare, pet store boutique, or pet spa. A Halloween costume contest can also help raise awareness for shelters and adoption centers. Hold a special event to drive foot traffic to your location and delight your customers with photos and other prizes! Bonus idea: sell the photo prints or take donations as a fundraiser to help a local animal shelter or wildlife rehab center.

6. Fall photo shoots for engagements, families, and pets

Turn your favorite fall photos into homemade greeting cards! Landscape shots, family photos, engagement pictures, or snaps of your pet against a fall backdrop fit perfectly inside our blank photo insert cards for 4×6 prints.

Best of all, you won’t need any glue or tape to hold the photo in place; just slide your print into the front pocket. Try the natural flax or desert storm colors to make your own DIY autumn and Thanksgiving greeting cards.

Have another fun fall event or photo idea? We’d love to hear it! Drop us a note on the Studio Style Facebook page, or leave a comment below.

8 Simple Halloween Photo Tips for Great Pictures of Your Kids in Costume

Published October 22, 2015

We love Halloween. And we love photography! We combined these two loves to come up with some simple Halloween photo tips to help you capture creative shots of your kids in their Halloween costumes this year.

1. Don’t wait until October 31st!

Halloween day can be busy with last-minute preparations. Take some time a few weeks before Halloween to let your kids try on their costumes. This is a good idea to make sure all parts of their costumes are in order before they head out for Trick-or-Treating.

Photographing during the mid-late morning hours when the lighting is crisp is ideal, but late afternoon or during the evening golden hour is the perfect time to capture the essence of fall. Whenever you decide to snap your Halloween photos, be sure to take your most important shots first, like the portraits and group photos.

Two kids hold up Halloween pumpkin candy buckets while both are dressed up as mummies

2. Explore different settings

Set up a photo area in the back yard, or take some shots around the neighborhood if you’re pressed for time. Make use of the traditional Halloween décor you already own (cobwebs, pumpkins, hay bales, cornstalks, etc.) as background or props to accent your shoot.

If you have a couple of hours to spare, head out to a local park or nature preserve to capture the colors of changing autumn foliage for a backdrop. If you’re willing to deal with the crowds, you can even take your kids to visit a pumpkin patch or apple orchard in their costumes for some ready-made fall scenery.

3. Capture the little details, as well as the big picture

This is especially rewarding if your child is sporting a home-made costume this year. Don’t forget to zoom in on the details of their costume garments, face makeup, and accessories. Ask your child what their favorite part of their costume is, too so you can highlight that in your photos.

4. Use pumpkins as props

Lit or unlit, carved or whole, pumpkins can be used in countless ways to accent your Halloween photos.

This one is for the brave of heart. If your child is an infant, carve a larger pumpkin out completely and cut holes large enough for your baby’s legs to stick through. Place your child inside the pumpkin and capture the moment. Results may vary, and the best one might be a candid shot of (hopefully) everyone laughing!

This one is for everyone! For photos of your glowing Jack-o-lanterns, hit the lights, turn off the flash, and set your camera on a stable surface to avoid blur. Make use of the self timer on your camera for the most stable effect. Substitute a flashlight or LED for your light source inside the pumpkin to achieve a more even glow.

A mother and daughter are outside in witch costumes, sitting next to a smiling carved Jack-O-Lantern for a Halloween photo

5. Try different angles

Elevate yourself and get a bird’s eye view of your kids acting out their characters in costume for a creative Halloween photo. Get down low and get on their level, too. Capture the world from their perspective by lying or squatting on the ground as they approach you in costume.

6. Get some action shots

Ask your child to get in character and strike a pose that fits their costume. Take some photos of the kids interacting with one another if they are trick-or-treating with a group of friends. Make sure to get some shots of them going both up to and from the door. Capture their smiles and excitement as they reach into their candy buckets to measure their loot.

If it comes naturally, take the opportunity to photograph your child as they hold hands with a sibling, or with their parents while walking down the sidewalk. For more ideas of great actions shots, visit our Halloween ideas board on Pinterest.

A girl dressed as a devil seriously points her trident at the camera. The other girls is dressed as a witch and is gleefully pointing her broom at the camera.

7. Set up a DIY photo studio at home

If the weather doesn’t cooperate for your outdoor Halloween photo shoot, you can always set up a simple makeshift photo studio in the garage or a large space inside. You’ll be able to make use of the soft, natural light that floods in from outside. Hang your backdrop of choice from your garage shelving (make sure to get all of the wrinkles out first if you’re using fabric). Use a sheet of black stretch velvet fabric, a heavy weight blanket, or fleece fabric for the ideal backdrop.

Other DIY Halloween photo booth backdrops could be made from:

Balloons and streamers
Cut-out bats, pumpkins, and spiders taped to the wall
Wrapping paper or even orange or black cellophane
Those big skeletons! Perhaps not the 12′ skeleton, but a few smaller ones propped up, or even skeleton cut-outs
Make your own monsters
Bundles of corn (sometimes called “corn shocks”) with stacks of pumpkins
If you have a dark backdrop, make a big spiderweb from white streamers

Have any other DIY photo booth backdrop ideas or Halloween photo tips? Leave your idea in the comments!

8. Frame your prints with Halloween themed photo cards

Jack-o-lantern photo folder with park district imprint frames a picture of a child in a chicken costume at a pumpkin patch.

When you’re all finished and have selected your favorite Halloween shots, you can use Halloween themed photo folders or photo insert cards from Studio Style to display and share your Halloween memories. Available in several spook-tacular stock designs, our photo cards and frames also come with optional personalization and custom imprinting.

Happy Hauntings!

Halloween Photo Insert Cards: An Unexpected Way to Stay in Touch

Published September 3, 2010

Take a picture of your little pumpkin for spooktacular Halloween photo insert cards or party invitations that will put the TREAT into trick or treat!

Autumn is a great time taking pictures of kids, pets, or the whole family. The annual trip to the pumpkin patch (and subsequent carving party), a weekend of raking leaves, and of course dressing up in costume for Halloween all make for memorable photo opportunities.

Halloween photo greeting cards are the perfect way to share those precious photos with family and friends.

While most photo card enthusiasts traditionally send their personalized greeting cards out at Christmas or to announce the birth of their child, Halloween is an unexpected—and fun—time of year to send out special fall-themed greeting cards to friends and family.

Never made your own Halloween greeting cards before? We’re here to help with photo tips (like when to take the pictures) and what to write in the card (we’ve included plenty of puns because puns are fun). So grab a slice of apple pie, pour a cup of pumpkin spice latte, cozy up, and learn how easy it is to create one-of-a-kind Halloween photo insert cards.

Where to take pictures for your Halloween photo insert cards

Here are some fun fall photo ideas for your personalized Halloween picture cards:

Halloween Party
School Costume Parade
Costume Contest
Apple Orchard
Pumpkin Patch
Pumpkin Carving
Halloween Wedding
Halloween Parade
Haunted House
Hay Ride
Raking Leaves – be sure to get an action shot jumping in the leaves!
Halloween Birth Announcement
Oktoberfest Celebration
Fall Festival
Set up your own DIY photo booth, right at home (don’t forget the Halloween backdrop!)

Have some little ones involved in the photo shoot? Get some bonus tips for taking Halloween pictures with kids.

How to decorate your DIY Halloween greeting cards

Use a plain black photo holder card to make your Halloween picture really stand out. Just slide your 4″ x 6″ photo in—no glue or tape needed!
Gelly Pens (especially metallic) work great on darker colored cardstock. Use a bronze, copper, or pumpkin-orange pen to stay with the Halloween theme.
Rubber stamps are an easy way to accent your card with spooky imagery. Choose a lighter color cardstock for most stamp inks, or use a highly pigmented metallic ink to stamp on darker papers.
Decorate with washi tape! Add some pizazz to the window border frame on our photo insert cards with some Halloween-themed washi tape.

What to write in Halloween cards

Halloween is one of those holidays where you can get away with puns in your greeting, message, and sign-off. Not that you have to, but may as well get away with it when you can, right? Here are some Halloween card messages and wishes for you to use:

Intros and greetings:

Hello, boils and ghouls! (The perfect intro for fans of the classic Tales from the Crypt).
Ghoulish greetings
Howl-0!
To the coolest ghoul I know
Ghostly greetings
Trick or sweets!

Messages for Halloween greeting cards:

Wishing you a night full of frights and a bag full of delights.
Have a boo-tiful Halloween!
Happy Halloween to my favorite little goblin!
Have a killer Halloween!
Wishing you the best Halloween sugar high
Eat, drink, and be scary
Boo to you from our crew
Here’s to all the thrills, chills, and treats this Halloween
Here’s to delightful thrills and spooktacular chills
Have a spooky time!
Here’s to frightful fun and tasty treats!
Have a fang-tastic Halloween!

Sign-offs (closers):

Beast wishes
Bugs and kisses
Stay spooky
Best witches
Chills and thrills
Happy haunting
Happy Hallo-scream!
Creep it real

Do you have a Halloween photo idea? Or maybe you used a really clever greeting card message. We’d love to hear your creative ideas! Share with us in the comments.

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