Holiday Lights

'Tis the season of holiday decorations. The air is getting cooler, the sun is setting earlier, and the holiday lights are slowly being put up. It sure seems like it happens earlier and earlier every year, and this year the lights are out in full force even before Thanksgiving is done here in the States, which is great for photographers because it means we have more chances to get those sparkly, pretty captures. Here are just a few ideas on how to best capture the twinkling magic of the season.

Where to Go

Find out where the local holiday displays are happening. In your neck of the woods, you can check the local paper in the events section. Christmas tree lightings are usually a big deal and there will usually be a notice in the local paper. You can also check various sites online that list events like Going.com, Upcoming, About.com, and your local newspaper online. Here in the Bay Area, you can go to About.com to see where to see the best Christmas lights and holiday displays or even check out Yelp Events for a few listings. If you live near SF, you may want to check out the annual Embarcadero Center Building Lighting, happening this Friday, November 21st.

Turn Off the Flash

Once you figure out where to go to shoot the lights, be it outside at a public display, or in the privacy of your own home, it's time to get down to businesses. Holiday lights usually don't look so great when you use a flash to illuminate the scene. The best thing to do is turn off the flash and use a longer exposure to shoot them. If you prefer take a photo with a subject in the foreground, you can use the flash to illuminate the subject and then a longer exposure to get the lights in the background.

Also, the meter on your camera might be fooled by the bright pinpoints of light, so you may not be able to trust it as far as getting a good exposure. If you're shooting digital, the best thing to do is try various exposure settings until you get a preview image that looks right to you. Of course, if you're shooting film, you have to have a bit more experience as far as the light exposures, or you can use a digital to get the readings for you. In general, the camera will underexpose, since it will think the pinpoints of light are too bright and will try to overcompensate by closing down. You may need to manually open up 1-3 stops in order to get the effect you are looking for.

Bokeh

Have you heard of the term "bokeh"? According to Wiki, it's defined as: "Bokeh (derived from Japanese boke ぼけ, a noun form of bokeru ぼける, "become blurred or fuzzy") is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field." It's basically what happens in the blurry section of a photo when pinpoints of light become a soft bubble of light. Now, why is this important when it comes to photographing holiday lights? Holiday lights are perfect for creating a string of soft bubbles of light in your photos. You can use them as the subject of the photo itself or as a wonderful background for a foreground subject. Depending on how soft your lens is, the bokeh will have different shapes, and you can even find tutorials online for making bokeh made of other shapes like hearts or stars, to name a couple.

Get Creative

When all else fails, you can always find some photographic inspiration by browsing through Flickr. Who says Christmas lights have to be on trees? Check out this Flickr Group called Human Xmas Tree Lights where people cover themselves with Christmas lights and take photos (not all photos in this group may be safe for those under the age of 18, so please browse at your own discretion). There's also another group dedicated to Xmas trees around the world where you can see how people celebrate around the world.

There is truly something out there for everyone.