How to Photograph Christmas Lights

In this post, I’m going to help you understand how to photograph Christmas lights. The spectical of Christmas lights is certainly something that can bring enjoyment and inspitration to adults and children alike, and it’s a great time . What a great time to pull out your camera and get some lovely festive photos! Unfortunately, for the average photographer, taking photos of Christmas lights can be problematic. Why? Well, the answer is really quite simple. It’s because lights are bright, and night isn’t.

The most common problems are the same that plague many of us at different times; blurred and/or out of focus photos, or photos that are under/over exposed. So, to help you capture the inspiration, I’ve compiled a few tips to help you on your way.

It really doesn’t matter whether you’re shooting with a SLR/DSLR or a point and shoot, I’m sure that at least some of the following 9 tips will go a long way to helping you to understand how to photograph Christmas lights and get better results.

Think:

The first tip here is the most basic, and that is to simply plan for the shot. What do you want to achieve? Do you want just lights on a black background? Or maybe you want to include some of the surrounding buildings/scenery? The settings that you use on your camera should be changed to suit your desired result.

Shoot at dusk:

If you want to include the surrounding scenery and/or buildings, the best time to shoot will be dusk when there’s still enough light around to see the features you want to include. Timing is important, you’re trying to get adequite light on the landscape without over-exposing the lights themselves.

Try geting down low:

Getting down low and shooting upward will allow you convey a sense of magnitude – it will help to make the viewer of your photos feel as though the display was large and impressive. You don’t need to necesarily do this with every shot, but certainly try it out to offer a different perspective.

Set your white balance to tungsten:

The Tungsten white balance setting on your camera is tuned to the tones of incandescent lighting. Using this setting for Christmas lights will ensure that the colours of the Christmas lights are represented reasonably acurately as they are, for the most part small incandescent bulbs. This setting will usually work well for LED christmas lights too.

Use a tripod:

You’re going to be shooting in low light so you will need to steady your camera somehow. If you don’t have access to a tripod or a beanbag, use whatever you can – a fence, a car roof, whatever. Taking long exposures without stability will invariably result in blury shots, so steady your camera however you can.

Set your ISO:

You may need to set your ISO a little higher than usual. It’s a balancing act – the higher your ISO setting, the easier it will be to capture darker areas within the frame but there will also be more noise in the shot. Always go for the lowest possible setting that the situation will allow. The tip here is to start low (maybe around ISO 400), and go higher ONLY IF you have to.

Set your aperture appropriately:

Obviously, a wider aperture will allow more light in. But opening your aperture right up will usually result in a very short depth of field and in situation a short depth of field is usuallu undesirable. A smaller aperture will give us a loner depth of field, but don’t forget that you will have to slow down the shutter speed and/or set your ISO higher to compensate. Start with a mid-range aperture, experiment and adjust as necessary.

Use spot metering:

Set your metering to spot mode, aim the absolute centre of the frame at some of the lights, and take a measurement. Now take a few sample shots and see what the results are like. If they’re not what you’re after, take another measurement using either brighter or dimmer lights and try again. It may take some experimentation, and the results will vary from camera to camera.

take lots of shots:

This tip speaks for itself, and is a recurring theme when shooting just about anything. Take lots and lots of shots. Fill your cards and don’t delete anything during the shoot. By the time you finish, you should have no memory or film left.

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So, that’s it for my how to photograph Christmas lights tips. Do you have any of your own?

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