Christmas Lights

[MarkBarbieri]

Anyone have any good shots of Christmas lights? Any good tips for shooting them?

[orchjoe]

Tips:
1. Use a tripod and stutter release
2. Try different exposure times of the same shot (you never know which one you will like without having to over-process a lot of the pictures. Example: look at the first two pictures below; the lights in the top picture are not as crisp as in the second picture.)

I was out last week and shot these for practice for my upcoming trip:

http://orchjoe.smugmug.com/photos/226953354-L.jpg
f/9 ISO 100 18mm 4sec manual

http://orchjoe.smugmug.com/photos/226954169-L.jpg
f/3 ISO100 18mm 4/10 shutter priority

http://orchjoe.smugmug.com/photos/226955914-L.jpg

Here is the gallery (http://orchjoe.smugmug.com/gallery/3911162)

[DueyDooDah]

We went to Zoolights in Tacoma the other night and I was very disappointed in my shots. The biggest problems I ran into were 1) getting the correct colors to show up; 2) either the lights were too bright or too dark; 3) focusing; 4) capturing the feeling. I have not processed any yet so have no examples.

[SharonLowe]

External lights - shoot at dusk when the light will be closer exposure-wise to the lights of the trees. You'll also get that pretty blue sky.

Inside - use your flash or strobes for fill - lots of hits and misses. Take without adjusting until you get the lights the way you want; tree likely too dark so then add flash/strobes adjusting until you get the right balance. Another way to help out might be to turn on lights in the room to get the right balance of being able to see the tree lights while also getting detail in the tree. Also, make 2 exposures (on tripod of course) - one for shadows and one for highlights and merge in PS.

both - use tungsten or fluorescent white balance

[disphoto]

I did our tree last night. I turned off all the lights in the house. Used manual on the camera and on my flash. Set the flash to 1/32 for exposure compensation. I used a tripod and the timer on the camera. I was happy with the results.

http://bp0.blogger.com/_H1R-E0jjl_U/R1deCZCOUtI/AAAAAAAAAKU/o_XhdKPz6-M/s400/tree5.jpg

[boBQuincy]

For just lights I use "P" mode (as usual) and set the exposure compensation to avoid any major spikes on the right side of the histogram. For this one that meant -1, most of the Osborne Lights photos were between -1 and -4/3.

I would normally use a tripod and a smaller aperture but for Osborne lights that is not a good option on most nights so I use a monopod and try to keep the shutter speed faster than 1/15.

http://suzieandbob.com/wdw/osborne_5218.jpg

Btw, if this looks dark it's because my (calibrated) monitor seems to be brighter than most others, something I have to investigate.