Tips for capturing holiday lights

It’s getting to that time of year again. Everywhere I go I am seeing Christmas decorations appearing in shops and even houses. Nothing quite says Christmas like holiday lights. Some people go all out and that is so much fun for everyone, no matter the age. Here are some tips on capturing the beautiful lights.

Use a tripod

Where ever possible, use a tripod. In high traffic areas, that can be difficult, but if you hang around a little later, or even come a little later you may find the crowds have dispersed.

As you are often shooting at night, you will need to use low light settings. Using a tripod will allow you to capture longer exposures. This is two-fold. Longer exposures can eliminate or at least blur any people that may get in your shot. As well as allowing you to capture the lights. Unless of course, you are going for intentional in-camera blur … and that can be fun too.

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Don’t forget to capture the atmosphere

Just because the lights are the story, they are not the whole story. Try to capture the atmosphere as well. Christmas lights shining on children’s faces. Ornaments or individual pieces of the overall scene. Families and kids having fun. Crowds. Car lights. Is there snow (or even fake snow)? Are there festivals or Christmas Carols?

Capture the nuances that make up the holidays in your area.

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Some settings to consider

Decide what it is you wish to capture, the emotion, the lights, the blur? Then set your settings appropriately. If using a tripod you can keep your ISO at 100, try an aperture of around f/13 and a 2–2.5 second shutter speed, which should be long enough to catch the twinkle, but you can always go for longer. If there is lots of ambient light, try f/9 for one second.

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If you’re handholding you will need to raise your ISO, perhaps to 3200 or even 6400 and use a wider aperture to let in more light. An aperture of f/2.8 may be too much (depending on the ambient light), so try f/5.6–7. Try locking your elbows to your side to steady the camera and if possible. Even try leaning on a fence, wall or railing to steady the camera.