Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It also happens to fall during the end of the busiest month of the year for me which means that it often sneaks up on me before I find the time to create a costume or look.

Don’t fret if you’re in this boat, I can help you create the scary portrait of your dreams for social media without having to lift a makeup brush.

I started with a plain wall, a softbox, a tripod for iPhone, and a bluetooth remote. You can find these things here. Here are the photos that I started with – just me with some good light and a plain wall.

Remember, the most important part is LIGHT. For this to work easily you need to have you or your subject evenly lit so there is a clear distinction between the person and the background. You can also use A DSLR, I chose to use iPhone because it’s what most people have access to and for the point of this tutorial it’s easiest.

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Let’s Get to it!

You’re going to need these apps : Makeup Plus, PicsArt, and Facetune 2

Open your photo in Makeup Plus – chose which makeup you like best, this one was under “costume” under “themes”. You don’t need to use this app, but if you’re not experienced in overlays and blending this will be easiest for you. We want to tailor it to fit your face and I often erase the eye part bc I’d rather my real eyes and it looks more legit. Also dilute the opacity.

Next, open the photo in FaceTune2 and go to outfits if you’d like to change the color or texture on your fit. Go to backdrop and make the background the color that you want. I chose black. Make sure you clean up the edges so the real background doesn’t peep through. Utilize the blending tool to blend the edges of your subject with the background.

Open the photo in PicsArt. Go to Mask and pic a texture, I like the dust one. Invert it so the dust is only on the background and not the subject. Next part is important – choose a filter! This will color grade the subject and background together so they are seamless.

Watch video below or a visual step by step.