Digital Photography Tip - How To Photograph Christmas Lights
Christmas is coming and so is the urge for us who love digital photography to get out there in the burbs and photograph the beautiful Christmas lights. It's a beautiful time of year and when you are as passionate about digital photography as I am, then this is the time you whip that digital camera out.
Taking photos of Christmas lights with your digital camera can be a very disappointing experience for digital photography enthusiasts. Pictures of Christmas lights in digital photography are aimed at being crystal clear with beautifully bold colours and hopefully we can capture the delicate glow that radiates from the lights themselves.
But...Christmas lights don't always provide the ideal digital photography experience does it? J In fact, in digital photography, Christmas lights can turnout to be smudged dots of colour, like water over ink and way too dark. The first time I took a digital photography image of Christmas lights the flash went off accidentally causing a flattening out of my images not to mention the lovely colours disappearing and it ended up just being a digital photo of the neighbour's front lawn. Not to mention how it set the dog off barking!
So just what is the digital photography secret to getting crystal clear shots of our suburban Christmas lights?
Okay now I'm going to share a secret with you. The best way to get suburb results of sharp, colourful Christmas lights is to choose the house you are going to photograph. Depending on where you live and how fast you can run, you may need to tee it up with your neighboughs first and offer them the photo. The same rules apply with your Christmas tree.
Take your tripod with you. Take your digital camera off "auto" and take it off "auto flash".
Now try a method called bracketing. Set the aperture at a wide f stop, such as 2.8 or 3.5 for example. Then proceed to try some different settings. Set the shutter to 1/30 or higher. I'd recommend, if it's really dark in the street something around the one second, two seconds or three seconds shutter speed.
There is a groovy little trick you can also do for helping you learning faster, about what works in digital photography and what doesn't. That's recording and documenting your digital photography experience. I usually take a note pad with me and write down the number photo and the f stop and shutter speed so when I look at the photos I know which digital photo has worked and what has not.
But in the dark it's very hard to write down anything so you can do what I sued to do, and that is record on Mp3 what your settings you had on what photo. For example you can record yourself saying "picture one, f stop 2.8, shutter speed 2 seconds." Then again as you have tried another setting "picture seven, f stop 22, shutter speed 1 minute."
These are just examples but they really work. Don't forget the basics with your night time photography such as wide aperture and slow shutter speed and the necessity of a tripod.
If you are in a moving vehicle for example and you are taking shots of Christmas lights from a bus or car, then you can always use the maximum aperture and a smaller shutter speed. For example f stop 1.4 and a shutter of 1/350 or higher.
And don't forget if you do have the time to set up a tripod and try the bracketing technique (ideal) also remember if you have the shutter open for a while the light can bounce off other objects such as windows and roofs. If you get too much reflective light, simply reduce the time the shutter is open.
Good luck and may you have a beautiful Christmas!
Happy Shooting,
Amy Renfrey
P.s Take a look at the photo used to describe the article; http://www.nomorebadphotos.blogspot.com
Digital Photography Tip - How To Photograph Christmas Lights
Macro Photography Techniques - Digital Photography 1 on 1 (#31) Video
Video Clips. Duration : 11.15 Mins.
Macro Photography Techniques - Digital Photography 1 on 1 (#31) Video
www.adorama.com - Macro Photography Techniques and Tips - In this episode number 31, Mark will show you how to take those up close photos! Macro photography techniques allow unique opportunities to produce creative and dramatic photos and Mark shows us a couple examples. Macro Photography On Wiki: en.wikipedia.org - "Quote" Macrophotography is close-up photography, usually of very small subjects. Classically a macrophotograph is one in which the size of the subject on the negative is greater than life size. However in modern use it refers to a finished photograph of a subject at greater than life size.[1] The ratio of the subject size on the film plane (or image sensor plane) to the actual subject size is known as the reproduction ratio. Likewise, a macro lens is classically one lens capable of reproduction ratios greater than 1:1, although it now refers to any lens with a large reproduction ratio, despite rarely exceeding 1:1. Outside of technical photography and film-based processes, where the size of the image on the negative or image sensor is the subject of discussion, the finished print or on-screen image more commonly lends a photograph its macro status. For example, when producing a 6×4 inch (15×10 cm) print using 135 format film or sensor, a life-size result is possible with a lens having only a 1:4 reproduction ratio. Reproduction ratios much greater than 1:1 are considered to be the realm of photomicroscopy, often achieved with digital microscope. "End quote ...
Macro Photography Techniques - Digital Photography 1 on 1 (#31) Video
Macro Photography Techniques - Digital Photography 1 on 1 (#31) Video
Macro Photography Techniques - Digital Photography 1 on 1 (#31) Video
Macro Photography Techniques - Digital Photography 1 on 1 (#31) Video
No URL Macro Photography Techniques - Digital Photography 1 on 1 (#31) Video
www.adorama.com - Macro Photography Techniques and Tips - In this episode number 31, Mark will show you how to take those up close photos! Macro photography techniques allow unique opportunities to produce creative and dramatic photos and Mark shows us a couple examples. Macro Photography On Wiki: en.wikipedia.org - "Quote" Macrophotography is close-up photography, usually of very small subjects. Classically a macrophotograph is one in which the size of the subject on the negative is greater than life size. However in modern use it refers to a finished photograph of a subject at greater than life size.[1] The ratio of the subject size on the film plane (or image sensor plane) to the actual subject size is known as the reproduction ratio. Likewise, a macro lens is classically one lens capable of reproduction ratios greater than 1:1, although it now refers to any lens with a large reproduction ratio, despite rarely exceeding 1:1. Outside of technical photography and film-based processes, where the size of the image on the negative or image sensor is the subject of discussion, the finished print or on-screen image more commonly lends a photograph its macro status. For example, when producing a 6×4 inch (15×10 cm) print using 135 format film or sensor, a life-size result is possible with a lens having only a 1:4 reproduction ratio. Reproduction ratios much greater than 1:1 are considered to be the realm of photomicroscopy, often achieved with digital microscope. "End quote ...
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Macro Photography Techniques
Digital Photography Tip - How To Photograph Christmas Lights
Macro Photography Techniques
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