tips on christmas light pictures

[slayer7124]

Anyone have any good tips or know some sites on how to take pictures of christmas lights? I shot some today and most of the lights seem to get blown out, even if the light meter is reading correct exposure. This especially happens if I attempt a macro shot. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

P.S. I shot indoors lights today. Tips on both would be great

[photophorous]

I haven't done this, so I can't tell you exactly what to do. But, what you're dealing with is a huge contrast range and anything you can do to flatten out that contrast will help. The lights will be much brighter than anything around them, so you want to make everything else brighter to reduce that contrast.

For outdoor lights, it would be best to shoot them before it really gets dark (maybe right after the sun sets, or even before the sun sets if it's a cloudy day), so you can retain some detail in the house and sky. In complete darkness, if the lights are exposed correctly, everything else will be very dark. I doubt that's what you want. For indoor tree lights, try bouncing a flash off the ceiling to brighten up the entire room, but reduce the flash level by 1-2 stops so the tree lights still come out brighter than everything else. If you can't bounce a flash, the next best thing would be to turn up the room lights as high as they'll go.

With digital, it should be easy with some experimenting. Get the exposure for the lights figured out first. Reduce exposure a little bit from what the meter says, shoot, check the histogram, and repeat until nothing is blown out. After you get that right, then experiment with the flash or room lights to reduce contrast. Leave the exposure set for the xmas lights, and change the flash or room lights to fit. If you're shooting film, I'd suggest bracketing from about 1.5 stops under to about 3 stops under, but that is kind of a guess.

Hopefully someone else can comment with more precise suggestions.

Good luck.

Paul

[slayer7124]

Hey, thanks for the tips! I didnt even think about changing the brightness of the light in the room, that might help.