Decorating the prop Christmas Tree - Opinions??

[AdrianeCale]

My mother was in a Christmas-y mood today, and since my stepfather absolutely refuses to let her put up a tree before Thanksgiving, she came over to my place and set up my studio's prop Christmas Tree.

I have 2 trees to choose from, a white pre-lit tree, and a green pre-lit tree. Last year, we used the green tree at the studio, and the white one at home. But now, my studio is in my home, so I only need 1 tree.

Here is a quick crop from a shot from last year:



And here is what my mom threw together with what I had picked up last year.



We decided to go with the white tree, but I'm starting to second guess it. We used different shades of silver and different textures and patterns of black ornaments. I'm just not quite sure if I like it. I think once I get all the packages and whatnot it might look better. I need to get a different tree skirt for sure.

Should I ad some more color? I am wanting something a little different than your normal tree, but I just don't know if this will work.

Any opinions? Can anyone show me how they've decorated their trees in the past?

[AdrianeCale]

No one, huh??

Moderators, could you delete or move this thread to a place where someone may reply?

[in plain sight]

I would suggest looking at some of the high end Christmas displays and taking ideas from those.

[AdrianeCale]

high end Christmas displays

Like where?

[in plain sight]

Around Colorado Springs they are already setting up Christmas displays in the department stores in the mall. They usually all have beautiful displays. There are also some year round Christmas stores in this area too. I don't know what all would be around were you live, but I hope this helps.

[AdrianeCale]

Nope, not really, but thanks for the advice. I'm in a small town, and the nearest mall is about 60 miles away, and they've been using the same tree for the last 20 years that I've never really been too fond of... It's hard to be a Jew at Christmas... I've never been good with Christmas trees, and only 1 other family in town would have a use for my menorah...

I don't really think this year's tree looks too bad, and I don't want the same style from year to year. I just really don't know what else to do with it. I'm thinking about adding some more color, but I can't decide what color. Of course, your standard Christmas colors are red and green, but now-a-days people are going for more modern trees, which was my attempt here. The tree isn't very big, so I don't want huge ornaments... I just don't know what to do.

[FlyingPhotog]

IMO, your white tree is gonna be a PITA...

It's going to blow out or nearly so (exposure wise) well before you get decent light on any subjects surrounding it...

[AdrianeCale]

IMO, your white tree is gonna be a PITA...

That's what I'm thinking too...

I took this shot of my mother after she was done. The tree doesn't look too blown out, I see a few hot spots, but otherwise not too bad. This has no PP done to it.

[in plain sight]

Some of the more recent trendy color combos for Christmas are red/silver, blue/silver, gold/copper/chocolate. You said the tree was not very big so you didn't want to go with big ornaments, but adding a few big ornaments might be a good thing. You might want to think about going with a topper that has more presence for your full tree shots too. I like the toppers similar to THIS ONE. You can usually get them outside of the kits.

[AdrianeCale]

I do have one other topper, but the problem with this tree, and the green one I have, is that the branch the topper goes on isn't strong enough to keep in standing straight up. I'm considering adding that really pretty blue I've seen ornaments in.

[in plain sight]

I think the blue would look good with what you already have. The top branch not holding toppers up is pretty typical. My husband usually handles getting that to work out and I don't know how he does it. I would ask but he is TDY (he's military) right now.

[AdrianeCale]

Alright, I head to the store later on, maybe tomorrow, and pick up a set of the blue ornaments and see how those look... if all else fails... set up the green tree and decorate it.

[Dermit]

Thoughts...
The green tree is predominantly dark (low key) and the white one light (high key). I think there is good use for both trees and which one you use should depend on the color of clothes the person is wearing. For example the one with your mother i would have shot in front of the green tree since she is wearing low key clothes. Now for someone wearing lgihter, or high key clothes I would use the white tree.

Another thought is to not use a tree at all but create a backdrop with wreathes, lights, ornaments, etc. For me the background should show a hint of the theme/season. For an individual shot or even a couple you can position them in such a way where they are the main items in the frame and the tree/decorations are just a slight blur in the background. But expand your shoot to a family of 5 or more and now you need a bigger tree, or some other decor to fill the background space. Where with a backdrop of just left to right top to bottm wreathes, bulbs, etc. you can more easily create a nice background for larger groups.

[AdrianeCale]

Ok, thought maybe I should update this, just in case someone actually cared to see what I went with.



I kept the white tree just because I wanted something different (and I don't like decorating trees!). Went with the same scenic background I used last year, just because it works the best with the scene. I took off the black balls and replaced them with some red, and dressed up my chair with a Christmas blanket. I was able to light the people and the tree without any problems. I had my key light (at about 1/2 power I believe) to the left of me to light the subjects, and used my "fill" light (at about 1/4 or 1/8th power) to light the tree on my right, and used my 430EX (set to manual, bounced off the wall to the left, at about 1/8th power) to fill in some minor shadows on the kids. I brightened it up a little bit more in DPP, but that's all I did PP-wise.

I've decided that next year, I'm going to have 2 trees. The green will be decorated the exact way it was in my first post (with maybe a little more added), and the white is going to be the more modern style. That way, I have options!

[in plain sight]

It looks good.