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

Night Photography Techniques

Digital Photography Tip - How To Photograph Christmas Lights

Digital Photography Tip - How To Photograph Christmas Lights
Digital Photography Tip - How To Photograph Christmas Lights

Night Photography Techniques

Digital Photography For Beginners - Step by Step Guide to Stunning Digital SLR Sunset Photography!

Having a Digital SLR camera to use is the ultimate thrill for a budding photographer. Taking great sunset shots should be easy with such a tool, surely? You would think so, yet I know people who have invested in decent SLR's - but still could not create stunning sunset shots that even their previous compact camera could take. This digital photography for beginners article therefore suggests steps you can take to optimise your digital SLR for sunset photographs.

Many compact cameras have a setting for sunsets, yet DSLR's don't, so you have to take control of the situation. Turn off your fully auto, or basic shooting modes, and use your creative zone modes of P (program mode), Tv (shutter priority), Av (aperture priority) or M (manual) so that you have full control over the camera's parameters.

Auto White Balance can neutralise a sunset's glow, so switch to Manual White Balance and choose a setting of Cloudy or Shade.

Most DSLR's give you a number of "user defined" Picture Styles, so set one of these up for taking sunsets. Leave sharpness as standard, and add a little saturation.

You need to reduce the contrast to avoid your final image appearing over silhouetted. Adjust the Contrast slider in your user defined Picture Style one or two notches to the left. A reddish colour cast can also be achieved by doing the same with your Colour Tone settings.

Set your ISO at the lowest setting of ISO100. There's usually plenty of brightness in the sky, so this is fine. Sunsets can suffer from grainy images with higher ISO settings.

Exposure is important in any sunset shot. It's best to switch to Partial metering mode and take a manual meter reading. This can be a difficult aspect of digital photography for beginners to understand, so I'll explain how to do this. Once in Partial metering mode, point the camera at a bright area of the sky, directly above the setting sun. Press the Star button on the back of the camera to take a light reading and to set the exposure. Then compose your shot and press the shutter release to drive the autofocus and capture the image.

Consider your composition. Silhouetted objects and figures in the foreground will add interest. Reflective surfaces, such as lake water, the sea or wet roads will bring added colour to the shot.

Beware - once the sun starts to near the horizon, it sinks surprisingly quickly. This also happens to be the optimum moment when you will catch the strongest shots, yet it can come and go in an instant. Be prepared - make sure all your settings are in place well before this time.

When the sun has disappeared, it doesn't mean you should. For another thirty minutes or so, there can often be some amazing colour across the sky, so keep looking for more opportunities for great photos.

I hope this step by step digital photography for beginners sunset guide has been helpful, and that you can catch some beautiful sunset photographs in the future. They truly are wonderful shots to look back on.

Digital Photography For Beginners - Step by Step Guide to Stunning Digital SLR Sunset Photography!

Night Photography Techniques

Digital Photography For Beginners - Step by Step Guide to Stunning Digital SLR Sunset Photography!

Digital Photography For Beginners - Step by Step Guide to Stunning Digital SLR Sunset Photography!
Digital Photography For Beginners - Step by Step Guide to Stunning Digital SLR Sunset Photography!

Night Photography Techniques

Perfect Prom Photos - 4 Tips For Taking Stunning Pictures on Prom Night With Compact Digital Camera

Most people would dress up elegantly in their glamorous prom night. As a photographer, you could expect many participants would dress up all in vain that could add more colors in your photo-taking process. If you're chosen (or hired) to take pictures of some people in the prom night - you have to know that the prom night can be an important time of their life; hence, it's a great challenge for you to capture their unforgettable moment of their life.

If you seriously want to capture good pictures with a compact digital camera during the prom night, there are few tips that you need to focus on:

Tip #1: Strike a pose

Although all prom night participants dressed up in vain, they still need to strike a perfect pose for the perfect shot. For close-up shots, it's similar to taking portrait pictures. You can ask the human subject to stare slight left or right at the camera lens. As for their body posture, avoid putting their hands in front of them. It is better that they keep their back straight and curl their arms like fashion models in the magazines. In this case, the perfect pose for both sexes is angling their body slightly to the side and anchoring their one foot forward.

Tip #2: Use the Image Stabilizer mode to avoid blurry images

In some non-improvised situations, your photo-taking process has to be fast and accurate as well as maintaining the high-quality image. By using the Image Stabilizer shooting mode, you'll be able to avoid having shaky pictures when you're taking pictures in various angles. It's also necessary to use your tripod or a monopod if you're taking pictures at the same spot for a long period of time.

Tip #3: Use the advance presets in suitable conditions

You have to aware of the specifications of your digital camera including the advance presents that can be used in different environment. For example, there's an "evening" preset that are suitable for evening photo shoot outdoors or you can increase the ISO settings that is suitable to capture fast moving shots. If you can manually alter the white balance preset, you can control the color temperature based on your preferences - as an alternative of using the auto white balance.

Tip #4: Avoid taking dark images

If everyone pose perfectly during the photo-taking process - it would be pointless if the colors of the image are not distributed orderly. For example, many would be disappointed when they see their faces overshadowed by other things - causing shades on their faces.

Most digital cameras have this problem resolved - for instance, Canon PowerShot SD780IS which offers Intelligent Contrast Correction system; that brightens the dark images without changing the originally bright sides of the image and enhances the picture with vivid colors.

Perfect Prom Photos - 4 Tips For Taking Stunning Pictures on Prom Night With Compact Digital Camera

Night Photography Techniques

Perfect Prom Photos - 4 Tips For Taking Stunning Pictures on Prom Night With Compact Digital Camera

Perfect Prom Photos - 4 Tips For Taking Stunning Pictures on Prom Night With Compact Digital Camera
Perfect Prom Photos - 4 Tips For Taking Stunning Pictures on Prom Night With Compact Digital Camera

Night Photography Techniques

So You Got a New Digital SLR? Here Are a Bunch of Tips on How to Get the Most Out of It!

Here are a bunch of tips and ideas for you to learn more about your new Digital SLR camera and make better images!

1. Shutter Priority. Use this mode to control the camera's shutter speed. It's best used in these situations: a) Dark rooms, such as auditoriums, when you need to stop motion but can't use flash; b) Settings where you want to blur movement, such as a mountain stream, and c) Settings where you want to stop fast motion, such as an insect wings or water droplet.

To learn about this, set your camera to Shutter priority and experiment with various things that move. You'll be able to see the difference in the motion of the subject by varying the speed and letting the camera do the rest of the exposure settings.

2. Aperture Priority. Use this mode to control the camera/lens aperture. Often this is used to force a "wide open" shutter, which will focus your subjects but blur the background, or a "stopped down" shutter, used to put every item in the viewfinder in sharp focus.

To learn about this, experiment with a couple of staged "still life" images and vary the aperture or "f-stop" from wide apertures such as f/3.5 (wide opening), to small apertures such as f/8 or f/11. Let the camera figure out the rest of the settings, and then compare the images to see how the sharpness of the background changes as the f-stop gets smaller.

3. ISO settings. The ISO is a measure of the sensitivity of the image sensor. Similar to the different film speeds of the film cameras, you can vary the ISO to get specific results. Remember that the smaller ISO number means better quality but less light. So if you want the sharpest, best image in bright daylight, ISO 50-100 may be your best setting. Shooting in low light? Maybe ISO 800, 1600, 3200 or higher would work for you. You'll get exposures with more noise in them, but the subject movement will be minimized.

To learn about this, Change your ISO out of Automatic, to 100, choose Aperture Priority of around f/5.6, and then take a series of shots in a somewhat dark setting, such as an indoor room out of sunlight. Then change ISO from 100 to 200, 400, 800 and as high as your camera will go. You'll find the camera choosing faster and faster shutter speeds, but the images will start to become noisy.

4. Macro mode. Your camera has at least one removable lens. It has a minimum focusing distance, meaning that it can't focus sharply on images closer than that.

To learn about this, check in your lens manual or look up online the minimum focus distance and experiment with some close-up imagery. Some suggestions: pull out some kitchen items like grains or beans and do a close-up. Vary the f-stop and camera angle to get some of the material sharply in focus and some blurred. Try it with office supplies, pets, you name it. The key is to play with the "world of the small".

5. People perspective. It's not intuitive, but the best images of people may be taken at the farthest end of your zoom lens. When you use the wide angle setting, you have to approach your subject and in doing so, your lens will distort the closest features, such as the nose. By stepping back and zooming in, you place the subject's features in more of the same distance, so distortion is minimized.

To learn about this, get a cooperative subject and make a series of head and half-body shots in the full zoom range of your lens, starting with wide angle, and stepping back as you zoom in to keep roughly the same body proportions. Then look at the series of images and see if you can detect the difference between wide/close faces and zoom/far faces.

6. Monopod. This handy and inexpensive device will let you create many good images in lower light. It has a thread that connects to the bottom of your SLR. Use lt like a walking stick when out and about, but put the camera on if your shutter speed is below around 1/250 second, and it will keep your camer from moving too much.

To learn about this, get a monopod and experiment with some hand held shots, then put the camera on the stick and take the same images. It works!

7. Anti-shake. It's called many things - Anti-shake, VR (Vibration Reduction), and IS (Image Stabilization) to name a few. Some cameras have it on the body (Sony), and others in the lenses (Canon, Nikon). Some don't have this at all. The trick is that the camera/lens compensates for some amount of camera motion from your holding it, allowing you to get sharp images at much lower speeds.

To learn about this, find out how to turn it on (if you have it), and experiment with hand held images with it on and off. Note that this feature is not useful if your camera is on a tripod.

8. Night Images. If you can keep the camera very still, you can get some amazing images after dark. Usually you use a tripod and sometimes a cable release or a timer release to keep the shutter open and minimize the vibration from the camera's mirror.

To learn about this, put your camera on a tripod after dark and shoot your neighborhood or indoors at various exposure times. Take that next birthday photo only using candle-light, or try "light painting", where you illuminate part of your set with white or colored lights for a creepy effect.

9. Reflectors. You can take some wonderful natural light shots, but sometimes the contrast from bright side to dark side is too high, leading to blown out highlights or black shadows. An external reflector can help to smooth out the contrast and provide highlights.

To learn about this, make a cheap reflector from a flat white object such as foamboard, white cardboard or a ceiling tile. place it to the opposite side of your subject from the bright light source, and let it reflect some of that bright light back on the subject to lighten the shadows. Try another one to divert light from the back or side to provide highlights for hair or the back/side of a subject. Experiment with "negative light", where you place black objects near the subject to reduce the level of light on that side of the subject.

10. Put it all together. Go through these exercises and then build an assignment for yourself. Try to set up and photograph some of these things to show your knowledge and skills with your SLR:

A. Compose a still life with nice side light and narrow depth of field and clean background. Try a fruit basket.

B. Compose a portrait with a subject lit nicely from window light, with and without fill light.

C. Photograph a piece of fruit falling into a container of water. Provide enough light and a short enough shutter to capture water droplets.

D. Take an image of a moving person or animal where the subject is frozen.

E. Take an image of a person or animal where the subject or background is blurred.

F. Compose a portrait in or of your residence and shoot it after dark.

Note that I didn't mention that little flash on the top of your camera. I think of it like a fire extinguisher - use only in emergency! The camera flash will do more to harm your images than it will do to help. Learn to work without it. If you really want to use flash, consider a separate flash unit, especially one that you can remove from your camera and fire from other locations.

With a little constructive play, you can learn a lot about photography, improve your composition and shooting skills, and create some great art!

So You Got a New Digital SLR? Here Are a Bunch of Tips on How to Get the Most Out of It!

Night Photography Techniques

So You Got a New Digital SLR? Here Are a Bunch of Tips on How to Get the Most Out of It!

So You Got a New Digital SLR? Here Are a Bunch of Tips on How to Get the Most Out of It!
So You Got a New Digital SLR? Here Are a Bunch of Tips on How to Get the Most Out of It!

Night Photography Techniques