Don Ellis
4th of December 2001 (Tue), 08:37
Is that what they call those tiny Christmas lamps? Anyway, there's a big shopping mall (Pacific Place in Hong Kong) that every year strings orange lights around the trunks of their trees. Much more inspired that stringing them in the branches -- it looks somewhat surreal, like an army of radioactive tree trunks with invisible arms.
I used a Manfrotto 055PRO (they'll sell those things to anybody) splayed out to within five inches of the ground, extended the horizontal shaft for the ballhead so that it was within a few inches of the tree trunk, gave thanks for the G2's swivel LCD and here you are...
http://www.kleptography.com/dl/fairylights.jpg
Christmas is coming and someone on one of the forums was asking about taking photos of the Christmas tree. Hopefully Santa leaves you a tripod so all you have to do is to set your camera to manual. You don't bracket -- at least I don't. You shoot half a dozen photos across a variety of apertures or shutter speeds (pick one). Load them onto your computer, check which settings are best and then you can bracket future shots from there. Since I was nowhere near a computer, I shot six photos for every one that I wanted.
If you leave your digital to P mode, the lights will blow out and you'll see all the needles/leaves of the tree. I chose the shot where the lights weren't too blown and the leaves were just barely coming into view. If you're using a G2, remember that low-light noise reduction kicks in at 1.3 seconds, so, if it's appropriate, use that or a slower shutter speed to lessen noise.
If you actually try this at Pacific Place, go up to their rooftop garden where you have a little privacy away from the circular drive and taxi stands. They'll boot you out for using a tripod. Tis the season...
Here's the information for this shot.
Canon PowerShot G2
Shutter speed: 1.6 sec
Aperture: 6.3
Exposure mode: Manual
ISO: 50
Image quality: Raw
White balance: Auto
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal
I used a Manfrotto 055PRO (they'll sell those things to anybody) splayed out to within five inches of the ground, extended the horizontal shaft for the ballhead so that it was within a few inches of the tree trunk, gave thanks for the G2's swivel LCD and here you are...
http://www.kleptography.com/dl/fairylights.jpg
Christmas is coming and someone on one of the forums was asking about taking photos of the Christmas tree. Hopefully Santa leaves you a tripod so all you have to do is to set your camera to manual. You don't bracket -- at least I don't. You shoot half a dozen photos across a variety of apertures or shutter speeds (pick one). Load them onto your computer, check which settings are best and then you can bracket future shots from there. Since I was nowhere near a computer, I shot six photos for every one that I wanted.
If you leave your digital to P mode, the lights will blow out and you'll see all the needles/leaves of the tree. I chose the shot where the lights weren't too blown and the leaves were just barely coming into view. If you're using a G2, remember that low-light noise reduction kicks in at 1.3 seconds, so, if it's appropriate, use that or a slower shutter speed to lessen noise.
If you actually try this at Pacific Place, go up to their rooftop garden where you have a little privacy away from the circular drive and taxi stands. They'll boot you out for using a tripod. Tis the season...
Here's the information for this shot.
Canon PowerShot G2
Shutter speed: 1.6 sec
Aperture: 6.3
Exposure mode: Manual
ISO: 50
Image quality: Raw
White balance: Auto
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal