Halloween 2025
A spooky photographic evening in Sheffield General Cemetery
Text by Brendan Ellis, Photo credits in filenames
It was a dark and creepy evening, but also technically two days before the actual day. It was the day of our usual regular meetup but this time we met at the Sheffield General Cemetery for a special spooky evening of photos.
I was the first to arrive but was shortly joined by Leigh and Luke. They were trying out using coloured filters over either the lens or the flash to produce some interesting effects.
Once the rest of the group arrived we walked deeper in to the cemetery. It isn’t lit up by any artificial lights and gets quite dark in the centre. Perfect for some practice and experimentation with night time photography.
We stopped at some old gravestones and set up a light. Some people took photos of the process, some took wider shots while other got closer up. So many different angles and perspectives everyone saw the scene differently.
Laura got a great shot of Nicky in costume and a ghostly Luke. I started playing with light and cut out shapes.
The next stop was the Samuel Worth Chapel, which dates back to 1836! (Though heavily restored in 2016) This part of the cemetery is a bit higher in elevation and from here you can see the lights of the city shining through the bare trees. The group became a hive of activity as everyone explored the new location searching for the vision. El and Nicky have a portrait shoot and end up with a photo in an amazing cold clear blue with the help of Luke’s filters. Meanwhile I point my camera at the sky and get a full 30 second exposure of the stars above the chapel.
Luke also got a bit abstract during the portrait process.
There was one shot I’d been planning in my head for at least a week prior to this trip. I wanted to light paint some ghosts around one of the gravestones. Now seemed like the time. I was behind the camera while Victor was painting with the light. It took quite a few attempts! There are a lot of different variables some of which cannot be consistently controlled for. The human ones of course. We ended up with four really good shots. Then we also projected another ghost on the side of the chapel.
Eventually it was time to move on again. Next stop was the slightly newer but much more traditional looking Anglican Chapel. It’s seen better days but is also Grade II listed. The graffitied main church door is the star here and became the backdrop for many portrait photographs.
With that, it was unfortunately time to go home. Everyone had a great time and captured some fantastic images. I enjoyed it so much I stayed a little longer a captured some mushrooms and some creepy backlit hands on more gravestones.
