Christmas lights ... why so dang hard?

Finally got around to putting up the lights today and wanted to shoot them and share them with the family ... but they are way off ...

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Try shooting before it gets pitch dark out. Having some ambient light helps keep the exposure times shorter so you don't blow out point sources like the lights.

Best time is before it gets too dark and make sure to use a tripod...

ok I will try it when there is still some light out ... I used a tripod, is it that bad you cant tell?

Filter on the lens? If so, take it off so you don't get bloom or reflections.

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #11402049
Filter on the lens? If so, take it off so you don't get bloom or reflections.

Nope no filter ...

shot at about 930 pm

I'd also kick your ISO down to 100. 20 sec exposure vs 5 second exposure isn't gonna make a difference if you're using a tripod and will just clean up the noise since you're shooting with an Xsi. Just make sure you use a remote. If you don't have one, set up a timer. Hope that helps

Try this method:

http://strobist.blogsp​ot.com …aph-christmas-lights.html

I did the other night and it turned out pretty well.

I agree with the suggestions of shooting earlier. The alternative to me would be to have a lot of lights illuminating the building. Your first shot seems to have that but the shot was overexposed so bringing out the lights on the building blew the lights on the trees. On the other shots the lights were much better but the building was just dark.

If you can find a well-lit building with good lights then a night-time shot can come out really well, but otherwise the idea of shooting with enough outside light to allow you to get a good shot of the building will give those lights a good "context"/background.

Just my take...

This would be a perfect situation to apply a multi exposure HDR.

bsmotril wrote in post #11404451
This would be a perfect situation to apply a multi exposure HDR.

I was going to suggest this as well. I think you would get the best result from HDR as you can get the highlights of the bright lights, while still getting all the detail from your house and trees.

Aressem wrote in post #11402192
I'd also kick your ISO down to 100. 20 sec exposure vs 5 second exposure isn't gonna make a difference if you're using a tripod and will just clean up the noise since you're shooting with an Xsi. Just make sure you use a remote. If you don't have one, set up a timer. Hope that helps

Ok I will try that ...

Celtic Tiger wrote in post #11402254
Try this method:

http://strobist.blogsp​ot.com …aph-christmas-lights.html

I did the other night and it turned out pretty well.

thanks for the link I will take that into consideration ... I like how they say you got about 10 minutes

tonylong wrote in post #11402325
I agree with the suggestions of shooting earlier. The alternative to me would be to have a lot of lights illuminating the building. Your first shot seems to have that but the shot was overexposed so bringing out the lights on the building blew the lights on the trees. On the other shots the lights were much better but the building was just dark.

If you can find a well-lit building with good lights then a night-time shot can come out really well, but otherwise the idea of shooting with enough outside light to allow you to get a good shot of the building will give those lights a good "context"/background.

Just my take...

ya I will aim for just after the sun goes down and there is still light out

bsmotril wrote in post #11404451
This would be a perfect situation to apply a multi exposure HDR.

tristinGrind wrote in post #11405229
I was going to suggest this as well. I think you would get the best result from HDR as you can get the highlights of the bright lights, while still getting all the detail from your house and trees.

ok I will try the HDR as well and see how that turns out ... I should have more pics up tomorrow. Wont have enough time to shoot today

If you are looking to do inside lights - i did this just by setting a 10sec exposure and having some minimal (very dim) ambient light from adjacent rooms.

so should I be setting low ISO and higher exposure times to help with this as well?

by the way that picture looks amazing Naioh

copenhagen69 wrote in post #11416493
so should I be setting low ISO and higher exposure times to help with this as well?

by the way that picture looks amazing Naioh

thanks man!

here is all the meta info on that photo:
http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ianrt/417250814​1/meta/

key points:
-1 EV
f/8
ISO 800
and a 1.3sec exposure (so i was way off)

with lower ISO and longer exposure, you might lose some of the softness, but what do i know?

take tons of shots and take a look and see what you like best, and what settings you used that made them look that way.


edit:
for comparison purposes, here is a shot i took at the same time: