Since it was Christmas time, I thought I would share a "How To" on photographing your Christmas tree. This is how to capture those christmas lights and get them to "sparkle". You know that I avoid using the flash whenever possible. Thanks to my daughter for being my model tonight. She is such a good sport.
So here are two shots.
In order to get these shots, I had to do the following:
1. Turn off all the lights in the room but the Christmas tree lights.
2. Turn your camera on MANUAL. Yes, I know it is scary but once you try it, you always want to shoot in manual.
3. Go to your menu on your camera and click on the ISO setting. Set to 800.
4. Set your f-stop to the lowest setting possible. This meaning that it is a wide apeture, allowing more light to come in. I had mine set to 1.8. I use a prime lens of 35 mm but a standard lens will have a lowest f-stop of 3.5.
5. With a low f-stop, you will need your shutter speed to be at around 1/50. If you have a higher f-stop, you need to adjust this. Trial and error works best.
I did a little editing in Lightroom 3. I brighten, sharpened a little, and added a little contrast. I also used the Spot Removal tool because I had a few reflectors from the christmas lights.
Here is my screen shot of a before and after.
Here are a few more.
Here is the before and after.
My daughter thought this was funny.
So to wrap it up, here are the stats for the photos.
Shot with a 35 mm lens set at 1.8 at 1/50 ISO 800
Happy Photographing!!!
Would love to see your shots, just send them to me over on my FB page to share!!!
* I also shoot in RAW images and then edit, allowing me to have more flexibility to edit. Then convert to jpgs.
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