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Shooting Holiday Lights - resurrected again

Dbl

By Dbl
in Photography and Photo Sharing

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Dbl Grand Master

Dbl

Posted
Posted

I thought I would throw out a few tips to make your holiday lights stand out from the crowd. This is a resurrected post from the last few years so for some this is old information. We have some new users to digital photography so this may be of some benefit.

1. You will need a tripod or some type of good support. A remote shutter release will be a plus as well, though you can get by with using your cameras self-timer, this works for point and shoots as well as DSLR cameras.

2. Most people shoot Christmas lights when its dark, what you really want is to catch the lights when the ambient light is close to the Christmas lights themselves. Another words you should be out shooting just before sunset. You will be taking a a lot of shots and you will find that there is about a 10 minute window of really good light that balances out your Christmas lights. Your colors will pop off the screen.

The problem with shooting them when it is dark is that the camera will overexpose the Christmas lights and underexpose the dark scene around it. If you expose for the Christmas lights you will have points of light in a sea of dark. Get out and catch the lights when you have some color in your sky.

3. Christmas lights are tungsten balanced light. If you are shooting in AWB you normally will end up with white lights yellow, red lights orange, etc. Set your White Balance for tungsten or indoor lighting. Your bulb colors will be close to what they actually are. Your sky, since you are shooting with some ambient light still around, will take on a nice blue color as well. This one tip will make your shots stand out from most others! Many point and shoots have the ability to set WB so you can get beautiful results with them as well.

This is not the greatest, shot a bit early. You can see the blue tinge caused by the adjusting the WB, but the sky should have been a bit darker to bring out the blue lights in the tree to the left.

228440453-XL.jpg

4. Use some interesting angles, a lot of sky, experiment if you have a zoom by zooming in or out while tripping the shutter. Use reflections from sheets of ice and bulbs to show objects or yourself. Shots that use the environment around them make the most memorable photos.

228440465-XL-1.jpg

438752969_YhTXR-XL.jpg

229271604_nhrRR-L.jpg

If you have any questions please ask. Good luck shooting some displays this year!

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dockothebay Experienced

dockothebay

Posted
Posted

Thanks for reposting this Dan - I was just thinking about this thread! We're going to head over to the IBEW light display at Lake Phalen sometime this week. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get out of the car or if it is just a drive thru deal, but it will be nice to prepare!

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SpecialK Proficient

SpecialK

Posted
Posted

I took some up at Bentleyville a couple weeks ago and could have used this info then smile

No tripod and the battery died so there are only a few and not on this computer. If I think about it tonight I will post them so you will have some pictures to show folks what not to do...

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wishing for walleyes Experienced

wishing for walleyes

Posted
Posted

I am bringing this back up from the depths to help out anyone interested in a few tips! Lets see some lights!

That time of the year again.I shoot video with my canon t1i of my christmas display.

Here`s a link to one of my videos.Any ideas to make the video better are welcome.I do have a window mount but adjusted it at the begining of the video.

My christmas lights

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aanderud Grand Master

aanderud

Posted
Posted

Wow. That's a lot of lights. Looks awesome! Are the individual LED bulbs multicolor capable so you don't have to do multiple strings in the same location to do the various colors you are doing? I checked out your other vids from 2011 and whatnot too. Are you broadcasting the music on an FM channel or do you just have speakers outside your house?

I better not show my wife. She put 2000 lights on our indoor tree this year (and it's not tall at all -- fits under an 8 foot ceiling). If I'm not careful she'll take her addiction outside and before we know it there'll be a site about lights in carver smile

Speaking of sites, the green text on the red background on your schedule page has got to be the hardest text on the eyes of any HSOforum I've ever seen. I'm still going cross-eyed because of it. Anyone else have a hard time reading that green on red? I'm not sure, maybe it's a sign that i'm going partially colorblind or something. I didn't remember being colorblind in the past.

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wishing for walleyes Experienced

wishing for walleyes

Posted
Posted

Wow. That's a lot of lights. Looks awesome! Are the individual LED bulbs multicolor capable so you don't have to do multiple strings in the same location to do the various colors you are doing? I checked out your other vids from 2011 and whatnot too. Are you broadcasting the music on an FM channel or do you just have speakers outside your house?

I better not show my wife. She put 2000 lights on our indoor tree this year (and it's not tall at all -- fits under an 8 foot ceiling). If I'm not careful she'll take her addiction outside and before we know it there'll be a site about lights in carver smile

Speaking of sites, the green text on the red background on your schedule page has got to be the hardest text on the eyes of any HSOforum I've ever seen. I'm still going cross-eyed because of it. Anyone else have a hard time reading that green on red? I'm not sure, maybe it's a sign that i'm going partially colorblind or something. I didn't remember being colorblind in the past.

The lights are single color led lights.I make what we call mega strands on the house.4 colors wound together to make a mega strand.I just looked at the text on my HSOforum and yes...ouch.I changed the red back ground a few weeks back and have not been to that page.Will get that fixed.I do have 2 fm transmitters.you can listen in your car and i also have outside speakers.I also give out candy and glo bracelets to the kids that come up on the sidewalk.The looks and comments from the little ones is priceless.You can see 2012 videos on facebook....fairmontlights
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