Monday, December 13, 2010

How to Take Great Pictures of Your Christmas Lights

You asked for it!! So, I thought I might try my best to explain it.... so....here goes.

The very most important first thing you need to do is to TURN OFF YOUR FLASH. So, if you aren't going to be using your flash, you will need to have some extra light in the room. Try taking pictures of your lit up Christmas tree just as the sun is starting to go down so that you still have some ambient light in the room, but your tree is already starting to look all sparkly and shimmery!

If your pictures turn out blurry, it's because your shutter speed is too slow.   The cure for this is more light.  If you are able to use the manual setting on your camera, to speed up your shutter you can either take your aperture down, or your ISO up.   I explain this a little better in Photography 101 and Photography 101 Part Two. (Scroll all the way down).

Sunset time is also a great time to take pictures of your outside decorations too.   There is still plenty of ambient light, but your Christmas lights are starting to shine... perfect!

Click over to At The Well to see one of my pictures of Christmas lights featured, along with the digital scrapbooking talents of Carrie from Live, Learn, and Love Together.  !!    To take a photo similar to the one that was featured, I simply set my camera to manual, and set the exposure accordingly.



Happy Snapping!!


Live, Learn, & Love Together



2 comments:

Wendy said...

Perfect timing--the sun is just getting ready to set! Off to attempt a picture of the tree and some other decorations...will share soon :)

LOVE the pix of the new little sweetie in the post below too--what a wonderful lesson in patience and trusting God--thanks for sharing.

Carrie said...

Thanks again for sharing your photo, Heather! God has given you such a gift!! ;)