Any special techniques for photographing Christmas lights?

Question

The camera I use is a Minolta Maxxum 5 (film, not digital).

Answer 1

Hey Casicad,

If you are using film, be sure to get an ASA 1000 (fast film), and put the camera on a tripod for stability. If digital, use the tripod, and leave the shutter open a little longer, no FLASH.

Answer 2

How to Do It:

1. Arrive early. The best time to shoot is before it gets totally dark. Arriving around sunset will give you time to plan your shot before the good light happens. You may have to ask your subject to turn the lights on early - most people don't flip them on until the good light is already gone.

2. Compose your photo in such a way as to include as much sky as possible in the background. Shooting from a low position can help. Even better: If you have your choice of shooting direction, shoot into the afterglow of the evening sky.

3. Once you get your picture framed, set your camera's white balance for "tungsten," as if you were shooting indoors without flash. All of those little lights are tungsten balanced. As a bonus, the tungsten setting will turn your afterglow sky royal blue once your light balances out. The sky will look great - even if it is a cloudy evening. And your lights will gleam crystal white. Or whatever color they are supposed to be.

4. A light (or reflective) foreground, like snow, or a puddle (or the roof of a car) can give nice foreground interest. See what you can find.

5. Use a tripod or a beanbag to steady your camera. You'll be shooting in the range of a quarter second to a full second at twilight. If shooting with a phone or PDA, use both hands to brace the phone against something solid.

6. Now, wait for the light to happen.

Shoot a test shot every minute or so. At first, you'll be exposing for the sky and the lights will appear unimpressive. Check the back of your camera after each shot to watch the Christmas lights appear to "come up" as the ambient light level goes down. (Aren't digital camera great?) Your eye is constantly adjusting to compensate for the dropping light levels, but the changes will be happening nonetheless.

Answer 3

Reading some other responses you have gotten, some advice from them...if you leave the shutter open a little longer that is fine, but make sure you are using a tripod. Do not try to do this holding the camera. It will just end up being a well lit blurr :) Also, the speed of the film is important. 400 and above is for moving objects (like a basketball game), the slower speed of film takes a little longer to "burn" the image onto the film but usually turn out a beautiful picture if used appropriately. Leaving the shutter open will allow more light to reach your negative. Remember, do not shake the camera! and have fun.

Answer 4

Well the important thing to do assuming that you will be using color print film is to be sure to purchase tungsten balanced film also known as indoor film. Most indoor lights give off a somewhat yellowish tinge light, and what tungsten film does is sort of offset the balance of yellow that you see in your image.
As far as the speed is concerned go for 400 ISO ( 400 iso is versatile and doesn't have the inherant grain issues associated with high speed films of 800 iso and above...the general rule is the higher the ISO the faster the film reacts to light but the more grain you have...what I mean by grain is that the image will have a dappled salt and pepper look to it), and mount it on a tripod, and like the last post said, dont use a flash, a long exposure will do just fine. Set the camera to aperture priority if possible and set the aperture to around F16. By setting your camera to F16 what this will increase the depth of the image, everything should be fairly sharp. Also by putting the f stop at f16 your shutter speed should increase and as such if you have lights that are intermitant i.e, they flash on and off, all the lights will be captured. good luck, its actually quite easy to photograph christmas trees, and if you want to make your christmas tree sparkle buy one of these filters for your camera http://www.tiffen.com/star_filters.htm

Answer 5

1. mount the camera on a tripod and place this in automatic mode. Check what speed the camera is metering the photo and use this as your guide. If it is reading the photo at 30 secs, you can experiment by taking several photos between 30-60 seconds.

2) Set the camera to manual and take photos with speeds between 30-60 seconds.

3) To avoid camera shake (taking slow speeds), use the timer to trigger the camera.