Electronics Hobbies How to Photograph Holiday Lights


by James Kronefield - Date: 2007-07-20 - Word Count: 489 Share This!

Capturing pictures of holiday lights was very difficult in the past because of the limitations with film sensitivity. Since holiday lights are not very bright, they can be seen well only at night. Using a flash is not an option, because this would wash out the lights themselves, defeating the purpose. So capturing holiday lights meant having to use either a very long exposure time or very sensitive film -- or both -- in order to capture a quality image. Each option presented it's own problem: A long exposure time increases the chances of a blurred shot unless extra setup time and equipment is used (e.g. a tripod and a remote shutter release to keep the camera as steady as possible), and high ISO film typically created a more grainy image.

Today's digital cameras have solved these problems, and now allow anyone to capture beautiful shots of holiday lights.

Most digital cameras' image sensors are able to capture images even in low-light conditions. Many offer sensitivity up to ISO 1600 or even ISO 3200 with very little "noise" added to the picture; this is the equivalent of the fastest "fast" film in the past 35mm days. You will have to experiment with your own camera to see how high you can go and still capture a noise-free image.

Many digital cameras -- both point-n-shoot and digital SLRs -- also offer a vibration reduction system built into the camera or the lens system. VR systems allow the photographer to get a much steadier shot, especially in low light conditions; the best systems give the equivalent of setting the shutter speed 4 stops faster.

Since the technology now allows much better photos to be taken in low light conditions, your shots of holiday lights will probably be much more dramatic if you leave the flash off. Let the holiday lights or candles light the scene themselves.

"Bracketing" is a technique where many photos of a scene are taken with slight variations in shutter speed, aperture settings and color adjustment in order to ensure getting the best possible shot. Bracketing is a great technique to use for holiday lights since the scene is not moving, and time can be taken to get several shots over a few minutes, adjusting the settings manually in between. Digital cameras technology also supports this technique since memory cards can usually hold dozens (or even hundreds) of images at a time. Examining the photos afterwards will allow you to detect and keep the best ones right away, and the others can be discarded.

Digital camera technology has made better photography possible in many ways; capturing more spectacular shots of holiday lights is just one example. Go put your digital camera to good use, and capture those holiday memories!

Camera-Notes.com is a digital photography blog contributed to by a community of digital photographers. Our goal is to provide the latest news about digital camera technology, tips, advice and digital camera reviews.


Related Tags: photography, digital, video, slr, camcorders, cameras, dslr

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