My Foto Friday submission this week is a failed photograph of Christmas lights, however I tried to take this failure and turn it into something interesting by using a technique I've picked up by reading other articles posted by A Macarthur and MalamuteMan.
I am learning new stuff all the time by reading their articles and for that I thank them! Another person I'm learning from is Ben Joesphs, he sent me a link this week that I'm going to share with everyone that describes some great hints on how to capture Christmas lights properly. Unfortunately I didn't get this link until after I had already been out so all I can do now is write about it and hope I can incorporate what I've learned the next time.
First I'll show you my pictures. I've put together in one frame, the original picture on the right and a copy of the original that I used the mosaic command from my photo editing software. The mosaic command is real easy to use and rather like the result.
One of the things I learned all on my own when taking night-time pictures is don't try to shoot without a tripod. I took a bunch of shots, none of them with a tripod and as you can see from the picture on the right, it didn't work. I was lucky when I took others that I was taking them out of a car window so I could steady my camera with my elbow on the window sill of the car.
I'm now going to post some of the hints I learned from Strobist: How to Photograph Christmas Lights
1. Arrive early. The best time to shoot is before it gets totally dark.
2. Compose your photo in such a way as to include as much sky as possible in the background.
3. Once you get your picture framed, set your camera's white balance for "tungsten," as if you were shooting indoors without flash.
4. A light (or reflective) foreground, like snow, or a puddle (or the roof of a car) can give nice foreground interest.
5. Use a tripod or a beanbag to steady your camera.
He explains each one of these hints in greater detail, if you want to read more check out this page .He also has some excellent examples of really nice Christmas lights there.
These photographs are a part of Foto Friday, a feature of Newsvine Photographers.
