The Portland Metro Photographic News

PMPN welcomes Oregon's own Steve Anchell as a Guest Commentator.  Steve shares his photography, his passion and his techniques for capturing the magic of Halloween in this article, The Witching Hour.

It is half past midnight on All Hallow's Eve. I'm surrounded by Killer Clowns from Outer Space, spooks, goblins, and witches. The Grim Reaper hurries past with his girlfriend, Jack the Ripper is hot on his heels. But wait, there's Elvis! He's sharing a sundae with . . . Dolly Parton! The Joker is wild, Ronald McDonald is out for a stroll, and the Devil is having dinner with an Angel. Fortunately, I have a camera or nobody would ever believe me!

© Steve Anchell

Since 1982 I have been photographing Halloween, first in Los Angeles, then San Francisco, and most recently in New York City. It's not the Halloween parade which takes place in each of these cities that attracts me, it's what happens around, outside, and after the parade breaks up. In fact, the best time to photograph Halloween in the streets is after midnight. All the spectators who have come for the parade and to see the costumes have gone home, taking their sleepy eyed kids with them.

All that remains are the guys and gals who have knocked themselves out to have the best costume, preening up and down the streets and alleys showing themselves off to each other - Carmen Miranda, Glenda the Good Witch, Catman and Catwoman. This is "The Witching Hour." This is the time I do my best work.

The first year I photographed Halloween on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, I used a Nikon F and a 35mm f/1.4 lens. Although I came back with a few good images, such as "Ride to Live," it only took that one experience to realize the SLR is not the ideal camera for handheld night photography without a flash. The next year I switched to using a Leica M3 and a 35mm f/1.4 lens.

© Steve Anchell

The Leica M3 doesn't have a meter and I don't like carrying one in the streets. I feel that taking a handheld exposure reading is a way of bringing attention to myself. It takes about two weeks of practice for just about anyone to learn to work without a meter - within one f/stop of correct exposure. With color transparency film, that may not be close enough. But with black and white film, and color negative up to an ISO of 400, that will take care of almost anything you can capture on film, especially if you err on the side of slight overexposure (with a digital camera, including the new Leica M9 digital, all you need do is check your histogram).

The rangefinder-style camera is simply the best camera to use for street photography, day or night. This is because you never lose sight of your subject through the viewfinder window, as you do with an SLR. The concept of the "decisive moment" was invented by Henri Cartier-Bresson using a Leica Rangefinder, and is not possible to achieve when the mirror of an SLR, any SLR, obscures your view for even an instant.

Not having a mirror flipping up and down causing camera vibration also means you can use slower shutter speeds. Some of the images accompanying this article were made at 1/4 of a second or less, handheld. This is only possible with a rangefinder camera. Even then, it is important to keep your elbows in tight to your body and brace yourself against a wall, stairway, or other solid object.

When I began my Halloween project, I was using Kodak Tri-X and pushing it to Exposure Index (EI) 1600 and sometimes as much as 6400, using vapors of hydrogen peroxide during development. I switched to Kodak P3200 when it became available sometime around 1989, using T-Max developer to obtain the maximum film speed of EI 3200, and later XTOL. When Ilford introduced Delta 3200, I switched again. Delta 3200 has more red sensitivity, a bonus when it comes to night photography as red wavelengths of light are more abundant in tungsten light. It also has a faster ISO than P3200.  Ilford Delta 3200 has an actual ISO of about 1600, whereas Kodak P3200 is closer to ISO 800, possibly 1000.

My current technique is to rate Delta 3200 at an Exposure Index (EI) of 2400 and develop for 11 minutes at 75 degrees in Ilford DDX 1:4. DDX is the best pushing formula I have yet found, and that includes XTOL, T-Max, D-76, Diafine, Acufine, and many others I have tried over the years. I have also found, through experience, that it is not necessary to use a faster EI than 2400 or 3200 for the type of situations in which I photograph.

An alternative is to rate Ilford HP5+ at EI 3200 and develop in DDX 1:4 for 18 minutes at 75 degrees.

In February of 2002, I acquired a new Leica M7 with auto exposure capabilities. Until then (from 1983 to 2002) I had carried only one camera and one lens with me in the street, the M3 with a 35mm f/1.4. Now I carry two cameras in case one fails - it has been known to happen. The M3 with a 50mm f/2 has become my backup (usually carried in my jacket pocket - Leica rangefinders are conveniently small), and the M7 is my main camera. I place the M7 on automatic exposure and don't think about it, unless I'm using flash or there is strong backlighting. I have found that, with the exception of backlit situations, the M7's meter is exceptionally accurate, even at night.

For years, I considered myself a "purist" and always worked with available light. In recent years, I began playing with the Leica SF 20 flash. After all, if you don't try new things you become stale at what you do. Photographer Bill Brandt said, "A photographer can even become a prisoner of his own rules. Unless he invents new ones, he will soon copy himself, and his work will become sterile and repetitive."  Remember this and make it your credo.

Like the Leica camera, the SF 20 flash fits easily into my pocket so I don't walk around the streets with a neon sign saying "photographer . . . photographer." In a further effort to avoid looking like a photographer, I search for lightweight jackets with large pockets on the inside, and have even had pockets sewn inside. Jean jackets are especially good for this. There is absolutely nothing wrong with looking like a photographer, it's just that people relate to you differently if they think you are a professional rather than just another shlub with a camera taking snapshots.

There are many ways to use flash for street photography. One is to place the flash on top of the camera and simply illuminate the scene. If you're going to do this, set the flash at about half the film's rated ISO. For example, if you are using Ilford FP4+, which is rated at ISO 125, set the flash at ISO 250, and expose accordingly.

Another method, one which I find more interesting, is to use long exposures, 1/4, 1/2, or 1 second, setting the camera to discharge the flash at the moment the shutter is released (first curtain), or just before the shutter closes (second curtain). Both techniques will freeze the subject and allow motion blur to appear in the image.

© Steve Anchell

© Steve Anchell

With first curtain, the moving subject is sharply focused when the flash is discharged, then becomes a blur. With second curtain, the moving subject is seen as a blur then suddenly appears sharp just before the shutter curtain closes and the flash discharges. In the first instance, the blur is usually in front of the subject (unless they are moving backwards which is rare), and in the second instance, the blur is usually behind the subject.

Many of today's digital cameras allow you to choose between first or second curtain. If you are using a camera that does not have a second curtain function, you can simulate second curtain by setting a long exposure and manually firing the flash before the shutter curtain closes. Have your finger on the flash test button, release the shutter on the camera, and before the exposure is over discharge the flash. This can create an effect that is even more interesting if you set your shutter speed at one second and manually discharge the flash in the middle of the exposure.

While having a super fast film (Fuji Neopan 1600, Kodak P3200, Ilford Delta 3200) is a boon for available light, a slower film works better for flash exposures. I like to use Ilford HP5+ (ISO 400) or FP4+ (ISO 125) for flash photography in the street. To retain the nighttime ambiance, set the exposure according to your camera's meter, and set the flash manually to underexpose by at least one stop. FP4+ film will allow much longer exposures wide open, whereas HP5+ film will allow you to stop down for more depth of field. Both create interesting effects. However, it is usually not possible to photograph using a flash and remain undetected!

To work incognito means available light, or as I prefer to call it at night, available darkness. Digital SLRs are a great improvement over film SLRs for remaining invisible. Setting your digital camera to an EI of 1600 or 3200 will allow you to photograph most effectively in low light situations. Use the histogram to see if your exposure is correct before spending the entire night over or under exposing. The noise which is created by boosting the ISO on a digital camera is equivalent to the excess grain which occurs when film is pushed during exposure and development in order to obtain photographs in low light. In both cases - digital noise and increased film grain - the effect usually serves to enhance the nighttime effect.

© Steve Anchell

© Steve Anchell

Even though digital SLRs do work well for low light photography, the rangefinder has other advantages, and I include the Leica M8 and M9 digital rangefinders. In addition to not having a mirror, the lenses found on Leica Rangefinder cameras are marked for hyperfocal focusing (aka zone focusing). F/stops are marked on either side of the lens focus mark. When you set the f/stop on the lens to, say, f/5.6, anything between the two f/5.6s which appear on either side of the focusing mark will be within your depth of field. For example, using my 35mm f/1.4 lens set at f/5.6, if I set my focus distance at eight feet, I don't have to refocus every time I raise the camera to my eye, as long as the subject is somewhere between six and twelve feet (see Figure 1).

This technique will also allow you to "palm" the camera, a technique in which you hold the camera at your hip and press the shutter release with the palm of your hand. This is a good technique when you don't want someone to know you are photographing them. I used it extensively in Los Angeles in the '80s to photograph drug dealers and other unsavory characters. Use a lens with a focal length of at least 35mm to ensure all of your subject is included and be prepared to run.

Both of the above techniques, hyperfocal focusing and palming, are not possible with auto-focus cameras. In the first, the lenses aren't marked for hyperfocal focusing, and using auto focus in low light may give you a sharp image of your main subject, but by the time it locks in on the subject, even with infrared detection, you will often miss the decisive moment.

In the second, palming the camera to avoid detection does not work with the lens focusing in and out. Using the palm method and an auto-focus lens while photographing gang members, drug dealers, prostitutes, or police, can be a giveaway in all four instances.

© Steve Anchell

While technique is important, the manner in which you approach and record your subject is equally important. In most cases, I usually don't make any attempt to disguise the fact that I am photographing someone. I may do it quickly to capture a spontaneous motion, but there is no attempt on my part to hide the camera. With the exceptions noted above (gang members, drug dealers, prostitutes, or the police) most people are flattered that you think they are important enough to photograph. I have even had the experience of walking past someone to photograph someone else, only to have them say, what about me?

People want to be noticed, they want to be remembered, they want to be immortalized. And even if they know they will never see the photographs you have made, there is a part of them which knows that someone has thought them to be important and interesting and that there is a chance they will be remembered. Nowhere is that more true than the Halloween Witching Hour, when people have gone out of their way to be seen.

More from Steve's Halloween Collection

© Steve Anchell

Above images © Steve Anchell

© Steve Anchell

© Steve Anchell

© Steve Anchell

© Steve Anchell

© Steve Anchell

© Steve Anchell

------------------------------------------------------

Steve Anchell is an internationally published photographer/writer. Anchell has authored many books on technique and has conducted workshops since 1979. This year he will be leading a workshop entitled "Halloween in Greenwich Village", October 28 to 31. For more information on this workshop visit his web site, www.anchellworkshops.com, or e-mail him at info@anchellworkshops.com.