Shooting Christmas Lights

Everyone is wanting to get pretty pictures of all the holiday lights and with the snow coming, I thought I had better share some tips to getting those enchanted photos that we all dream of! Keep in mind these are just starting points and you may need to make some adjustments along the way! The first thing to make your holiday light photos perfect you will need a tripod. It is hard to handhold your camera and get great shots in low light situations! So a tripod, the roof of your car with books under your lens, whatever works for you! I have done both when my tripod was not with me!! Next you want to set your white balance to tungsten! This will give you the color pop that you are looking for! Set your ISO to somewhere between 400-1600! I play with this by starting at 400 and boosting it as needed! Now lets go to your f stop. You are going to want to set this between f4 and f6.7 to get that star effect from the lights you are shooting. Now we move on to shutter speed, you will need this to be between 1/10 and 1/30 sec. Of course, you need to be in manual mode to get your speed and f stop where you want them without your camera choosing one or the other! You can even use your flash for a little fill light if needed. This last tip is important because people usually wait too long for the good shots! So when is the best time to capture amazing Christmas light photos??? Twilight is just right!!

So, go out and play and take lots of photos of your pretty lights! Send me a picture of your work if you like!! I will be sharing some light photos soon because I have been hired by my city to photography our lighting display at the park! Happy shooting!