Photographing Christmas lights

[squirl033]

rduve wrote:

What about Night Scenery Mode? Has worked pretty well for me for getting it just right. I have not taken Christmas light pictures, but my night shots are generally right on using that mode.

fireworks mode might work well too. my pic above was shot on auto, with a tripod. i just let the camera pick the exposure settings. at the time, i think i'd had my FZ for all of about 2 weeks, and i wanted to see what it would do if i left it to its own devices! :G

[rduve]

This shot was taken in Night Scenery Mode: http://euromaninla.zoto.com/gallerie...ings/detail/1/. Perfect exposure and WB. Exposure time was 1.6 seconds.

However, I also observed that the longer the exposure time, the more the WB shifts toward red. This shot, also taken in Night Scenery Mode, had an 8-second exposure, and came out too red for my taste. The night sky was a neutral black at the time. http://euromaninla.zoto.com/gallerie...ings/detail/0/

But bright Xmas lights should not need more than 1 or 2 seconds exposure time (or less)and the red shift should therefore not be a problem.

[squirl033]

rduve wrote:

But bright Xmas lights should not need more than 1 or 2 seconds exposure time (or less)and the red shift should therefore not be a problem.

my shot above was taken at something less than a second... 1/4. i think... but because the camera was set to "auto", it selected f2.8. now, i'd go for a smaller aperture, and let it shoot at whatever speed it needs...