Shooting Christmas lights

newtda

newtda

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I am looking for the best ways to shooting Christmas lights. I am reading that I should use tripod, some stuff I read say to use a iso and lower iso. I am confused. Is better to use a point and shoot camera or dsl? Any help,Tricks, tips would be great.
 
You would need a tripod if the shutter speed was too long to hand hold. Or you were shooting multiple exposures. But you could also rest the camera on some other solid support.

Some compact cameras can get good results in tricky lighting. However a camera that let's you control the exposure settings may be safer.
 
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As mentioned for this type of shot ideally you want a tripod as shutter speeds will be slow. Forme a DSLR will almost always give cleaner images in low light than your average compact, even if used on a tripod with low ISO.
 
newtda said:
I am looking for the best ways to shooting Christmas lights. I am reading that I should use tripod, some stuff I read say to use a iso and lower iso. I am confused. Is better to use a point and shoot camera or dsl? Any help,Tricks, tips would be great.
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You'll need a tripod if the shutter speed is too slow to take the shot hand held and I suppose that the shutter speed will be largely decided by how dark it is...

Looking at my shots from last year many are at over 1/100 second shutter speed with ISO's ranging from 6400 to 4,000 and some are at 1/20 second at ISO 800 so for me in that light and for the look I was going for a tripod wasn't required, even for the 1/20 shot :D

So, my advice would be to point the camera you have at the scene or one you think will be similar to the Christmas light shot you want to take and see what the resultant settings are. If your camera wants to use higher ISO's and is pretty bad at higher ISO's you're going to need to lower the ISO by using a longer shutter speed and that could mean using a tripod.

A DSLR or even a compact system camera is almost certainly going to be better than a compact or phone camera especially when using higher ISO's.
 
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Always remember that the lights will generally look better if you photograph them in the blue hour, ie the hour after sunset when there's still a bit of colour in the sky. That will help you maintain your shutter speed too.
 
yeah, try to get a mix of natural and the Christmas lights, tripos is essential.. put it in manual and take a shot, if it's too dark adjust the shutter and try again..
 
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