This week's question is from Ethan Fleming in Acton, Massachusetts. He posted some photos of Christmas lights in the Facebook Group and asked for help. His images were pretty good, some were taken too early and some too late. A bit of creative editing and they could be perfect.
So the question is
The best time to take photos of outdoor lights is just before it goes totally dark. You want the sky to still have some color, so be ready to shoot just before sunset. Once the sun sets you only have 15-30 minutes to work.
What equipment should you use?
Your entry-level camera and kit lens will work great shooting Christmas lights. Yes, a better quality camera and lens will give better results, but not that much better.
What you do need though is a tripod, handholding won’t work here. To capture the lights at night will need a slow shutter speed and a tripod will let you do that. Handholding will get you lots of blurry images.
Which Settings?
The one constant with Christmas lights is their output. They put out the same amount of light whether it's day or night. To capture the lights the aperture needs to be f/5 or f/5.6 and the shutter speed needs to be ⅛ second to 1/15 second. This is a rough setting as not all lights have the same output.
So start with f/5.6 aperture and 1/15 second shutter speed.
Next is ISO, a setting of 500 or 640 will work. If your images are underexposed as the sun starts to go down, put it up to 800.
Your metering mode is really important for this kind of shot. Using evaluative metering makes the camera consider everything in the image. You need to use Center-Weighted or Spot metering.
White balance needs to be set to Daylight or Tungsten. Daylight will make the lights warmer, Tungsten will give everything a blue cast. The best method is to use daylight WB and shoot in RAW. When you edit RAW files you can change the white balance to get the best effect. Shooting JPG’s doesn’t give you this option.
Once the light starts to fade, keep shooting. Don’t start changing your settings for the light. The light changes really fast and if you keep shooting your settings will match the light.
Your photos will be too light, then perfect, then too dark. The aperture of f/5.6 and shutter speed of 1/15 second are perfect for the Christmas lights, you just have to keep shooting until the available light makes the building and the lights look perfect.
Don’t worry too much about the ISO, stick it at ISO 640 and leave it there. With this technique, you just shoot away, and somewhere in the middle, the settings match the available light.
Before you know it the sunset has finished and off you go to edit them. You might take 30 or 40 photos, but only 3 or 4 will be just right.
Give it a try before everyone takes their lights down.
Thanks to Ethan for the question. If you have a question, join the Facebook Group and ask away.
Today is 31 December 2021, and starting tomorrow I’ll be taking a photo a day during 2022, and posting them in the Facebook Group.
If you want to join in you are very welcome. It doesn’t matter when you start, just get started. Start whenever, and finish a year later.
The only rule is you have to shoot in Manual Mode or Aperture Priority Mode.
You don’t need to spend hours editing them, straight out of the camera is good.
I believe shooting one image a day is going to improve your photography and make you more creative.