How to Take Great Pictures of Christmas Tree Lights

Credit: Tomashko

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Merry Christmas, you guys!!! It’s almost Christmas Eve and Eddie has been asking me for a while if he could guest post on the blog about his latest passion: photography. Of course I said yes, and he has a very cool technique to share about how to photograph light. Particularly, Christmas tree lights.  

Hey everybody, it’s Eddie. You know, the Hubs. By now you oughtta have that Christmas tree up. If not, what are you doing reading this? Go put it up!

It’s up? Good. Decorated and lit? Better. Photographed and ready for Facebook? Cool. After all, who doesn’t like to take a picture of their hard work? I know I like to. Did the picture come out kind of blah? Just not feelin’ it? Don’t worry, it happens. I’ll let you in on a secret (and by secret, I mean you can find this technique, in a sense, all over the internet) to make that picture shine a bit more. Here’s what you need to make the lights look like stars:

1. DSLR Camera (a point-and-shoot just won’t cut it) We started with a Canon EOS Rebel  
2.  Tripod (unless you have surgeon’s hands)
3. Timer Shutter Release Remote Control (recommended, but not required)

That’s not too bad is it? You’ve got the gear, now you need the technique. First, a little explanation. If you’ve used your DSLR and understand some basic principles of photography, you’ll know that the aperture dictates the depth of field and therefore how much light is let in the camera. The smaller the aperture (higher f-stop, e.g. f/22), the greater depth of field, but the less light you let in. Conversely, the larger the aperture (lower f-stop, e.g. f/1.8), the shallower depth of field, but the more light you let in. Confused? Don’t worry. I noticed something the other day that (I think) translates well as an analogy:

Go stand in front of that lit tree. Open your eyes all the way (like someone just said something super surprising). Notice the way the lights “enter” your eye. The light is kind of “rounded.” Now squint your eyes until just a bit of the lights are showing. Notice how the lights turn into much sharper points and begin to develop rays? This principle is known as diffraction. The light is being squeezed through a much smaller opening and then bounced around inside your eye/lens. 

To get the starry look when you are taking pictures of Christmas tree lights, you’ll need to crank your aperture down to at least about f/8 or f/11. Problem is, you aren’t letting in much light because you’ve closed down the aperture and your shutter speed will be too low to handhold. In comes the tripod. Mount that sucker on the tripod (or a steady surface, like the kitchen counter, if you don’t have one). If you’ve got a remote shutter release, now is the time to use it to avoid camera shake. If not, set the shooting mode to have a 2-second delay to remove any vibration from pressing the shutter release. You may want to turn off the Image Stabilization or Vibration Reduction as well, since this will actually impart movement. Fire away. 

All of the following pictures are straight out of the camera: 

This technique won’t work with things that are constantly moving (like kids!), but it is a very cool trick for making your photos of things that are standing still have some extra pop.  

Now that you know the technique, you can apply it to any light source that piques your interest.

 Have fun!

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