Saturday, December 15, 2012

Photo Recipe For Christmas Trees

Everyone likes to take a photo of their beautifully decorated tree gleaming with sparkly ornaments and colorful lights. But capturing a photo of your lit tree indoors during the evening hours can be tricky. If you want to capture the warmth and twinkle burst of your lights, I don't recommend using your flash. Instead, try using these settings on your camera. 

Set your aperture all the way up for lots of detail. For this photo, I set my P&S to f.8.

Set your ISO all the way down to 100-200 for best color saturation.

Set your shutter speed to 1/13.

I always use AWB (Auto white balance), but you can adjust that to your taste.

Place your camera on a tripod or steady surface to prevent the slightest movement.

Shoot away!


I added the special scroll work, compliments of the free online photo editor, PicMonkey. Wouldn't it be a nice gesture to take a photo of  your family or friend's trees as you visit them during the holidays? You could send them the photo of their tree! 

Here are some other fun photos I took of our tree. 

You may see a blurred image of a tree. I see a nice background image. To get the tree bokeh, focus on something in the foreground, then recompose the camera to the tree.


I gave this photo an old fashioned vintage look. This ornament is part of our collection of White House ornaments.


I would love to see your Christmas tree photos. Find me on Facebook, then post your photos to my wall!  By the way, I am no expert photographer. But I am learning alot in my Photography Club! Just sharing some things I've learned so far. 

4 comments:

Elizabeth Edwards said...

i love your Christmas tree. so festive. i love the white house ornament that is so fun. great find.

just found you on FB ... sent you a friend request. have a great weekend. ( :

Jan n Jer said...

Great job on the first shot...the lighting is great! It's fun to play with your camera settings isn't it!!!

betty said...

Great technique for taking a picture of the tree! Like your tree; so festive!! I don't have a fancy camera, but just this evening Koda was sitting by the tree and I thought "this would make a good picture". But I didn't get up to get my camera because then he would move. I'm going to keep my camera handy so I can see if I can "catch" him there again; if it comes out good I'll post it :)

betty

Faye said...

Thanks for sharing the results of your "capturing the lights" photography methods, Kelly. Each approach has its own charms. In the first one, I especially liked the lights shining on the floor. And SOMEDAY I'm going to take a successful bokeh shot. I'll try some of your suggestions with a drive around for Christmas lights.

Oh now, you're in trouble for posting your Facebook link. I luv FB so sent you a friend request. If you like to keep FB and bloggy friends separate, no worries! I'll just see you at Living Life. :-)

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