Few things capture the sentiment of the season like the holiday lights you find decorating downtown, your local neighborhood and in your own home. Make this year’s photographs picture-perfect with a few tips for shooting holiday lighting:
Try the Long View: When photographing a decorated street or even a single home, start first by shooting at an angle that allows you to capture as much as possible in a single frame. You’ll need to experiment with where you stand and how you frame the shot; don’t settle for a standard head-on photograph. Try capturing the street’s sentiment by playing with various angles of a single scene.
Now Zoom In: A single light or a lit ornament can hold tremendous beauty and detail but is often lost in the larger scene with so many other decorations competing for attention. Choose a favorite decoration on the tree—maybe an heirloom ornament—and play with nearby tree lights to see if you can add a bit of reflection on to the subject. Spend a few minutes experimenting and adjusting; you’ll be surprised at the kind of results you can do.
Adjust Your White Balance Settings: On your camera, your white balance setting (WB) is designed to help you capture an exact ‘white’ in your image. However, a number of things can influence the ‘true white,’ leaving the color to be more orange or blue depending upon the situation. If you’re shooting indoors and find your images are too orange, consider changing your white balance setting to ‘tungsten.’ The term ‘tungsten’ simply refers to lighting from artificial sources such as standard room lamps or overhead lighting. If you’re shooting outdoors, consider waiting until just past sunset and changing your white balance settings to ‘outdoor.’ You will still have some colorful ambient light but it will enhance, not compete, with your outdoor holiday lighting.
Get the Action: Some of the best holiday displays combine motion with lights, but this can make getting the perfect picture a bit more challenging. Try switching your camera to a motion or action mode to freeze your subject. And don’t be afraid to take several shots; it often takes a number of images to get that perfect one.
Take Your Tripod: Regardless of whether you’re using a DSLR or a compact point-and-shoot camera, having a tripod will greatly assist in capturing the essence of your light display. The tripod will help eliminate image shake, which will be especially important when shooting in low-light settings such as this one. We have many tripods to fit every need and budget: http://tinyurl.com/y9uneap
Make it a Blur: If you’d like to add an artistic twist to your photographs, consider setting your shutter speed to a lower setting—as far as a few seconds– while moving your camera as you take the photograph. Your images will be visually interesting while still standing out from the standard litany of traditional holiday light photographs.
