Light Up Your Christmas

by Joseph T. Sinclair

You can have some Christ­mas fun by get­ting out and pho­tograph­ing Christ­mas lights. Most peo­ple will find plen­ty of nice stuff to shoot in their own neigh­bor­hoods. Sparkling col­ors against a dark back­ground pro­vide a pho­to op we won’t see again until the Fourth of July, and Christ­mas lights are eas­i­er to shoot than fireworks.

As for me, I’m going after the bizarre and the beau­ti­ful, and I’ve found exam­ples of each. Here’s a bizarre light­ing arrange­ment from my neigh­bor­hood in California.

These hol­i­day lights are a lit­tle busy for my taste, but they’re inter­est­ing. And many peo­ple will find them delight­ful. I pre­fer some­thing a lit­tle more tra­di­tion­al, and we’ll get to that later.

For now, let’s review how to shoot lights in the dark with your phone cam­era. It’s sim­ple. Let your cam­era do the work. You just point and shoot while keep­ing two things in mind.

First, you can check the pho­to you took after­wards on the screen of your phone. You’ll know instant­ly whether you took a good pho­to or not. If it’s not sat­is­fac­to­ry, take anoth­er. Keep tak­ing pho­tographs until you get one you like. This is one of the most con­ve­nient fea­tures of dig­i­tal cameras.

Sec­ond, keep the cam­era steady. Remem­ber, you’re shoot­ing in the dark. There are sev­er­al things to keep in mind. Lean against some­thing such as a tele­phone pole. Or hold the cam­era with your elbows propped up on the hood of your car. Or rest your elbows on what­ev­er sol­id object you can find in your imme­di­ate vicinity.

You can always use a tri­pod, but most phone own­ers don’t own a full-size tri­pod. Some peo­ple have a tiny tri­pod, good for set­ting down on some­thing sol­id and shoot­ing a photo.

Oth­er­wise, stand up straight with your feet plant­ed square­ly on the ground. Hold the phone cam­era with both hands and with your elbows tucked into your sides. This pro­vides about as sta­ble a foun­da­tion as you’re going to get with­out some­thing to lean against. When you’re about to take a pic­ture, hold your breath for a sec­ond or two while you take the shot.

What’s the penal­ty for not pay­ing atten­tion to steadi­ness? Blurred pho­tos. Let’s not let that happen.

That’s about it. But there’s one more thing. Many phone cam­eras have image sta­bi­liza­tion, which you can turn on and off. When you’re tak­ing shots in the dark, make sure that image sta­bi­liza­tion is turned on. In fact, I leave it on all the time. Image sta­bi­liza­tion goes by many oth­er names such as Anti-Shake and Steady-Shot. It’s the great­est inno­va­tion in the new pho­tog­ra­phy of the dig­i­tal age. I can’t over state how impor­tant it is for low-light photography.

All these tech­niques will help you to get crisp shots of Christ­mas lights. The cam­era will take well focused shots so long as you hold the cam­era steadi­ly. There is some risk, how­ev­er, of get­ting a pho­to with over exposure.

If your pho­to looks like this pho­to, look for an expo­sure com­pen­sa­tion con­trol in your phone cam­era. Adjust the expo­sure to –1 or –2. This will cut out the glare.

While you’re out and about shoot­ing Christ­mas lights, don’t over­look the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pho­to­graph mul­ti­ples of lights. If you have three blocks of retail stores along Main Street and they all have Christ­mas lights, a shot at an inter­est­ing angle down Main Street may make a ter­rif­ic photo.

And now on to my beau­ti­ful shots—at least, I like them. Here’s a scene I shot with my phone cam­era on the Chesa­peake Ener­gy cam­pus in Okla­homa City.

Let’s look at this pho­to­graph from a dif­fer­ent angle that includes more buildings.

Because this pho­to includes build­ings, it enhances the set­ting and is of greater inter­est per­haps. Either of these pho­tos might make a nice hol­i­day card.

Christ­mas lights are not only fun to shoot, but it’s easy to get good pho­tos. Shoot­ing Christ­mas lights is an event you won’t want to miss each year if you love pho­tog­ra­phy. Your friends and fam­i­ly will enjoy see­ing what’s light­ing up your neigh­bor­hood. And it’s also an oppor­tu­ni­ty to look for the bizarre and the beautiful.

Hap­py Holidays