shooting xmas lights

[slowboy]

If I were standing across the street from a house that was all lit up with Christmas lights, what would be the best settings to capture it? maybe forty feet away.

[aledc78]

It all depends on light... you can have the same exposure having different settings for the F-stop and aperture...
My recommendation is...if you have a digital camera, take many pictures and record the settings... oh, and I highly recomend a tripod

slowboy wrote:
If I were standing across the street from a house that was all lit up with Christmas lights, what would be the best settings to capture it? maybe forty feet away.

[henkbos]

Sorry Slowboy, seems you are a little lazy. You have digital? You have a tripod? Get yourself some hot coco and sit in front of the house, write down what you do for each pic, evaluate at home. If you then have a problem, please post it here.

[gudac]

You won't find a setting that works for every scene you shoot, but will find a pattern. Use a tripod if you have one or set the camera on something that won't allow it to move.

As for keeping track of your settings. I use a Macintosh and have several programs that tell me the settings I had the camera on in each photo. iView Media Pro, iPhoto and EXIF Viewer all give me the settings.

You will find the settings will be determined by the situation of if there is flashing or moving lights faster shutter with a smaller apeture, with still lights you may find a slow shutter with a large apeture.

If you can change your ISO try each setting also as it varies and thank god it is digital as you can through away the mistakes.

Good luck and let us know how it works out. Hope you post them for us to view.

Happy Holidays
Joe Gudac
gudac@charter.net

[Leighow]

SLOWBOY

I took a minute to scan your past posts, and I think that you have received reasonable replies to your "grey card" and "how do I use my G3" posts.

I would like to touch on your "Xmas lights" question be for I head close for the day.Please refer to the "slide rules" that I posted at : http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...hp?t=1835#8153. This will you give you a fast feel for the range of controls to consider.

You need a critical amount of light on the CCD, and that will be a function of Aperature setting .. Shutter Speed... Film Speed....subject light intensity (and a solid camera footing).Try a few settings. You may not win a contest, but you will get you past GO.


HOWIE