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.

Photography Tips

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!

Digital Photography Tip - How To Photograph Christmas Lights

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

Unique Christmas Card Ideas: Sending Photo Holiday Cards And Other Tips

Creating unique Christmas cards is an excellent way to bring your immediate family together and to build new holiday traditions, as well as continue some old favorites. Gather around the computer and select the photographs that will be used, choose a color scheme, create a personal message, and determine the best font and style that will pull it all together.

This year's unique Christmas cards can be made even better with the addition of a newsletter that tells recipients what has gone on over the past year, a much-loved recipe that is popular during the winter holidays, or even a special gift coupon good for a free car wash by the kids, a special dinner at your home, or any other fun idea that helps to bring loved ones closer together during the upcoming year.

Photography Tips

Family Photographs

Unique Christmas Card Ideas: Sending Photo Holiday Cards And Other Tips

Photo Christmas cards are one of the best ways to share with loved ones how your family has grown over the past year, to allow them to share in a special event, or to give them a good laugh with a funny theme. You can take photographs with everyone wearing Santa hats, thrashing about in the midst of a mad snowball fight, or standing around the tree. Photographs can also be used to create a collage of what has gone on over the past year: graduations, births, parties, personal achievements, or even comical disasters work well to help connect with loved ones, regardless of how far away they live.

Family Letters And Other Special Touches

Anyone can buy, sign, and send a Christmas card bought from a discount store, but creating unique Christmas cards will make this year extra special. Memorable inserts, such as a family letter, a favorite recipe exchange, a gift coupon, or some other personal touch that no one else can provide is what makes this holiday message so precious. In these days of families being spread out farther than ever, photo Christmas cards may be just what your loved ones need to feel connected.

Christmas letter inserts are a favorite way to maintain close contact with people who live far away. Also known as a newsletter, these Christmas letter inserts include pertinent information about the achievements, activities, and memorable moments of family members throughout the past year. The nice thing about newsletters is that they can be sent to everyone once they are written. There is no need to hand write the same message over and over again.

Recipe exchanges are another holiday tradition that is gaining in popularity. Everyone selects a favorite recipe and adds it to their holiday correspondence. This is an inexpensive way of sharing something personal with loved ones. The recipes that are exchanged within a large group of family and friends can become quite extensive, and the cooking adventures that follow are a gift of their own!

Other Winter Holidays

Of course, December 25th isn't the only winter holiday. Photographs and personalized messages can be integrated into Hanukah cards, Kwanzaa, Thanksgiving cards, New Years cards, and other autumn and winter holiday correspondence. Dark, chilly days leave many loved ones feeling alone. A warm message graced with familiar faces can be a profound boost during down times.

Rejoice With Recycled Paper

Not only can messages of goodwill toward man and peace on earth be sent in this year's unique Christmas cards, but using recycled materials protects precious resources and helps to create a better world for future generations. Instead of using new paper made from living trees, recycled Christmas cards reduce the amount of waste in landfills and improve air quality around the globe by allowing trees to remain standing. What better gift can anyone give loved ones than a healthy future?

Birth Announcements

Speaking of blessed futures, a birth around the holiday season is one of the greatest gifts ever. Families can share this joyous news with a unique Christmas card that doubles as a birth announcement! An adorable Santa hat or pair of inflatable reindeer antlers may be all it takes to turn this year's photo greeting card into a birth memento that will be treasured for generations to come!

Everyone from next-door neighbors to distant relatives will enjoy receiving photo Christmas cards that share your message of joy and goodwill at this special time of year. Whether your unique Christmas cards are solemn reminders of the religious significance of the season or a playful nod to your sillier side, they can be shared with family and friends around the world. The little bit of time it takes to create a photo Christmas card is a gift in and of itself. Familiar faces, kind words, and reminders of love and friendship are always a welcome gift, any time of year.

Unique Christmas Card Ideas: Sending Photo Holiday Cards And Other Tips

9 simple Christmas Photography Tips

Christmas is an amazing time of the year! So much color, so much fun and so many precious moments! Here are a few tips that Christmas photography camera will help you this holiday season unforgettable pictures with your digital camera.

Tip # 1 - Make sure you have plenty of supplies

If you have enough batteries and memory cards available to have forgotten, you might miss that precious shot of the joy of your loved ones face when they open this special gift.

Tip # 2 -Get up close

Fill capture your screen viewfinder or viewing the subject their expressions. You can capture amazing pictures when you snap your shots and if they do not look at the camera photo time. Do not forget to take the "traditional" group shots of your family and friends.

Tip # 3 - Use different angle

Have fun and get interesting shots by a chair and shot. Kneeling or laying on your stomach, you can make your recordingsmore dynamic and personal. First eye level with your subjects are to produce great shots.

Tip # 4 - The Blitz

Most digital cameras have a zoom feature. Use this to your advantage, if the flash of the camera. Get zoom so far from your subject as possible, and take your shot. The extra distance you put between you and your topic will soften the sometimes harsh white flash. You can also opaque diffuse light by taping a tissue or otherMaterial on the pop-up flash. How would it be creative and add a colored piece of transparent plastic over the flash. You may end up a shot from your own Blue Christmas!

Tip # 5 - Photograph of Christmas bells and whistles

Do not forget to take photos of lights, decorations and the tree. A close-up of precious jewelry is that memory keep for a lifetime. You will be amazed at how different aspects of the shooting, your Christmas photo album for years to improveto come.

Tip # 6 - Fixing red-eye

When using the flash, we sometimes this bright red reflexes in our subject's eyes. On most cameras there is a feature for removing red eyes. Become familiar with the use by reading your owners manual. There are also many other free photo editing software programs available to help you customize your photos and removing red eyes.

Tip # 7 - Take outdoors

You can see some great shots outside at Christmas, but you might tendto think, you do not need Flash. Often, the faces of people in the photo are dark and the backlight light is turn on your flash and use it will help light up the faces.

Tip 8 - Take many shots

With digital cameras and memory cards we have available, now is a very worthwhile practice to a ton of shots. You do not have waste your money or disappointed, because half of the recordings that you attended with your film camera were not getting good.Simply delete the bad ones, print the good!

Tip # 9 - Have fun

There is so much to see and do at Christmas to collect as many ways, the warmth, fun and excitement. It is a wonderful time to experiment with the camera go so out there and capture the moments! You have the option of a precious memory with a click of making your shutter speed.

Use these simple tips this holiday season to help capture those precious memories of this time takes a life.