Best setting for Christmas lights?

Question

So, I have a canon powershot S3 IS, and since it's christmas time, I wanna take pictures of Christmas lights and such.
But they all come out bad.
Either the lights get really blurry, or the lights come out good, but you can't see the house.

So what kind of settings do I put it on, so they come out better?

Answer 1

hi
Make sure you use outdoor extension cords, and never attach more stings of lights end-to-end than the manufacturer tells you is safe.

Answer 2

First, mount your camera on a tripod.

Second, put your camera in Manual Mode since you will be setting everything yourself. Your minimum shutter speed is 15 seconds so you can use the camera's self-timer to release the shutter. Make sure the flash is OFF.

For outdoor Christmas lights* :

ISO 100

f2.8 @ 1/2 sec.
f4 @ 1 sec.
f5.6 @ 2 sec.
f8 @ 4 sec.
f11 @ 8 sec.
f16 @ 15 sec.

You may want to try playing around with the shutter speed to get results you find most appealing. You might try f11 @ 6, 8 and 10 sec. Change only the shutter speed.

Try composing at 36mm and then zoom in during the exposure.

Take a piece of screen wire and attach it to your lens hood. You'll get a "starburst" effect - 4 "rays" emanating from every point of light.

If your lens doesn't have a lens hood you can do this: Take a 1/2" strip of thin cardboard and cut it long enough to fit over your lens like a tube. Tape it together. Now trace its diameter on a piece of screen wire. Draw 4 "tabs" equally around the circle and carefully cut out the tabs and circular part. Bend the tabs back and tape them to your cardboard tube.

* These times are from my FotoSharp (fotosharp.com) Day & Night Exposure Guide. IMO its a good thing to own.

Answer 3

1) Timing is everything. Take your photos after the sun has set, but before the sky goes completely black. This gives you a very dark blue sky, but not a black one in which your house gets lost.

2) Use a tripod. You need it to reduce blur from the long shutter speed.

3) Turn off your flash. It's not enough to light a house up.

4) You can use manual exposure and experiment with the shutter speed length and aperture, I find it easier to use automatic exposure (like aperture preferred) and do an exposure compensation, usually + 0.5 to let in more light.

5) Use the lowest ISO to reduce problems with image noise.

Answer 4

the images are blurry because of camera shake. The shutter stays open for the appropriate time, but you are holding the camera which causes the blurriness. Basically, there's not a lot of light outside, so you need to leave the shutter open and keep the camera still. That's why you need a tripod.

Next thing is that you need to play with the aperture. Play with aperture priority until you find a nice image. Start with it wide open, and see what happens. For me, it's trial and error, although I'm just a beginner so I take lots of images.

Answer 5

I agree with the other posters (except for #1 ha ha). If you don't have a tripod, put the camera on top of a garbage can lid, your car's room, or any other stationary object. Also, the lights are bright and the house is dark. If you want REALLY good results, this is your perfect chance to learn HDR (high dynamic range) photography.