Christmas light tips

[lmbee59]

I'm still a noob with my new digicam and I'm trying to take some really good pics of my Christmas tree, and I've tried several settings to get the lights and the tree.

With my Panny, I've several scenes listed here for low lighting:

Night Portrait
Night Scenery
Candle Light
Starry Sky
Fireworks



which setting would best capture the lights on the tree?

And for close ups on ornaments....do I need to open up the shutter and leave out the flash?

I did the doll's face...came out pretty good (close up)
Focus: 3.6
Shutter 1/8
ISO: 160
Light: auto white balance
Flash w/Red eye reduction

I'll have to post my picture later for a demo.

would apprecite tips/suggestions

[Greg Chappell]

Here are a couple images I shotof and around theChristmas tree at my parent's home...





I used a Panasonic LX2,no flash, in program mode, with spot metering. Flash will "turn off" the lights, so don't use it. If you have a camera where you can make the typeadjustments I did, you don't need a "mode" in order to get the shot. Spot metering can really help. Just move it around within the scene until the intensity of the lightsgets to where you want it, then lock the exposure, recompose and shoot.

The issue is going to be the shutter speed. The tree image was shot at ISO 400 and the Santa with the tree in the background was shot at ISO 800 because I needed a fast enough shutter speed to hold the camera steady enough, even with image stabilization.

[VTphotog]

I'll go out on a limb here and guess that night portrait mode would be your best bet at a shot of a lighted tree. It is designed to give you a properly illuminated subject without having a totally blacked out background, so should allow the lights to show up well while still allowing the flash to illuminate the rest of the scene. You will probably have to experiment some to get things exactly right.

Another way to try this shot would be to have as much room light as possible, and take the shot without flash, using appropriate White balance for the type of lighting. Your shutter speed will probably be pretty slow, and a tripod or camera rest is likely to be needed. If possible, select a low ISO setting to give the least amount of noise.

I'm trying to be general here, as I am not familiar with your camera, and what works for one particular camera may not produce the best results with another. Best advice I can give is to try many things, and delete the ones that don't work.

brian