Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

I am beginning to hear questions about how to get good shots of Chrismas lights at night.  So here is my research in the form of a few links:

From Lifehacker

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/photography/how-to-photograph-christmas-lights-221400.php

From “Strobist”

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/12/how-to-photograph-christmas-lights.html

Some general rules are as follows:

• Close-ups, like a homemade ornament on the tree or your favorite elves, will need a flash.
• The tree all lit up will require the use of the night time setting (yeah, the dial you almost never use) or for the “flash” to be turned off. The drawback to the night time setting is that camera’s shutter is slowed down, and the result is camera shake (resulting in blurry pictures.)  To make-up for that possibility use a tripod.
• Take oudoor pictures of lights (i.e. the amazing Christmas extravaganza down the street!!) should be done at dusk, where you can reasonably use a little of the remaining daytime light, but still see the Christmas lights.

Apologies for the dual postings.  Happy Holidays everyone!!

David Jakes has created a great visual guide that can be printed to help novices use Photostory3, but he has gone one step further.  He has also created simple, easy to follow screencasts to view for learners who need visual, audio, and video cues.  I can’t wait to share this with our teachers!

http://www.jakesonline.org/photostory.htm