Adventures · Inspiration

An elf guided lesson on photographing Christmas lights

Shelley

The sound of plastic and paper rustling in the other room broke the silence of my blog writing today.

Grr…feeling all Grinch-like I grabbed my camera and dashed to the other room before the culprit disappeared.

Those damn cats better not be in the tree…

I threw on all the lights and what should appear…

Whew – no tree damage, it was just Chubba playing in the decoy bags.  What a good kitty, Dessy is.

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I, feeling all superior having provided her with optimal play toys instead of the Christmas tree or the real presents in gift wrap bags under the tree, remembered how I love to play with my camera and Christmas lights.  The best play time is at night or early morning, not mid-day.

Since I already had my camera in hand…why not?!

Go ahead girl, throw on some more lights to make the whole house all aglow.  Wonder if the neighbors were watching?

I grabbed a prop or two and set out to play in front of the tree with the other cat who was momentarily behaving.

The first photo attempt of the Christmas season is there to remind me I need a steady hand for this kind of photography!

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I love the blur of Christmas lights in the background.  My childhood Elf on the Shelf keeps me company when I play.  I love how his color has faded over the years but he still has that adorable little face.

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He was the model for yesterday’s post about the lichen elf!  Striking resemblance, right?

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I discovered how to take the soft lighting pictures a few years ago.

The important tricks you need to remember are:

  1. Turn on every available light in the room and adjoining rooms – yep – you need lights to make this work!
  2. Use a tripod, or a steady surface for the camera – and don’t drink too much coffee before the shooting session – you need a steady hand to hold the camera.
  3. Use manual mode and set the ISO to 200.  (I would recommend trying the Tungsten setting too, but I forgot that and ran out of cat posing time!)
  4. Then click away and just play to see what you get!

If you’re unsteady, you get this kind of fun look.

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If you’re ready and steady, you can catch the room, and the lights to capture the overall ambiance of a twinkling peaceful moment.

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The fun comes in when you zoom in and focus on the props – the lights in the background will blur giving you the soft Christmassy look.

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Most importantly, stop before the tranquility of the moment is interrupted by a temporarily quiet and unassuming cat who is just ready to take off and get in trouble.

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Or you get the looks of ‘beat it, baby’ –  (Who was, by the way, just plotting her return later to destroy the bag on the far right…).  

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So there you have it, from one Santa Elf Photographer to another, remember the ultimate lesson here is to just have fun!

Post Inspiration – Dutch Goes the Photo – Tranquil and Playful Photography

PS – Am I right…I should’ve changed it to Tungsten setting?  How about you, do you enjoy taking photos in manual mode and the softness of the blurry lights in the background?  A cat at rest always looks tranquil to me.  They know how to pause…(paws)…

 

 

Published by Shelley

Letting my quirk out one post at a time.

40 thoughts on “An elf guided lesson on photographing Christmas lights”

  2. Hmm, people are going to think I’m copying you. I have my own elf post cooking. It should be done and ready to serve later today or Thursday at the latest. Your elf is clearly related to my three; the resemblance is striking, you’ll see!

  4. I have always felt cats enjoy the season more than we do. First their fascination with Christmas trees.
    Next they think that unwrapped paper is their own personal toys. And wait until they find the empty boxes
    that have lost the gifts they once contained. Party city.

    Adorable photos

    1. Andrew – have I just discovered by reading your words that you’re a cat lover too!? Are all your poems about a mysterious cat who is aloof to your admiration? 😉 PS – thank you for the feedback, I so appreciate you taking time to stop by to read and share your thoughts!

  5. I love the blurry look of the lights. I don’t know why but we never got into the Elf on the Shelf thing here. Wonder how I missed that when the kids were little?

    1. Thank you – I vaguely remember it from childhood, and we didn’t do it for our kids, but when I inherited my mom’s decorations I found this one and have put it out at Christmas every year since. Its face is just so darn cute.

    1. Thank you, Sebby, glad you enjoyed it. I’m with you there, I do like the blurry photos too – its fun to see what movement does to the lights!

  7. Quite tranquil Shelley. The cats are plotting. the tree will have a cat attack and I hope you are there to record the devastation lol

    1. Thank you, Brian. Are you sending them secret mission messages…? They are getting braver, one of them started moving the presents and ransacking the gift bags yesterday while the other watched in admiration.

      1. I am a cat whisperer from afar. Not many trees or presents are safe from oft innocent looking felines whose mission in life is to look cute before and after a heinous crime involving Christmas trees and presents. Try wrapping presents in barbed wire and have an automatic water spray linked into an electric fence that also shouts a warning that the cats are about to attack. 😀 😀
        This blog will be a doozy Can hardly wait

  8. Hopefully in spring I can learn what you are talking about with settings. Buying a camera for Christmas,not fancy but more than my phone camera. Fun post. Kitties look like they are calculating you next move.

    1. I have a hunch you’ll find playing with the camera settings fun! Some people love working with their phone cameras, I just can’t figure it out as well as my other camera. Yes – the cats are plotting something…!

  9. The Elf on the Shelf is sweet Shelley – I don’t think we had Elf on the Shelf in Canada as I don’t remember it growing up. Thank you for the photography lesson on how to shoot Christmas lights. OK, I have the lesson, the valuable setting info, the camera which begs to be used … but no lights. I will work on this part. 🙂

    1. I can’t wait to see what you come up with for lights. My daughter calls them fairy lights and has them up year round. Maybe you could do that, then you don’t have to worry about storing them!?

      1. That would be nice Shelley – any time I have to store something I wig out as I have things stuffed here, there and everywhere as it is. I think I will get something out for Christmas this weekend, just to lend a festive air to the house. Not as festive as your fresh tree and ornaments, I’m sure. 🙂

        1. Hmm…maybe create a space you’d invite Parker too if he were an indoor kind of squirrel – superimpose him in areas in your room using Windows 10 editor! (Don’t shoot the mischievous writer…!)

          1. That’s interesting – and also interesting that Windows 10 has an editor similar to Photoshop? Wow – now I am really interested in Windows 10! I did a post which I just finished and I had a shadow of Parker and me. I had a better shot earlier this year but the long shadows yesterday morning were very unusual looking so I took a picture. I am tall to begin with, but wow!

          2. Yay, go, Linda, go!! I can’t wait to see how much fun you have with it. It isn’t as great as Photoshop, but you can do more than Paint with it.

          3. I one time checked out Photoshop Elements which is the free version of Photoshop but haven’t been on there since discovering Fotor.com. I’ve used it to make collages and put text into a photo, and only recently noticed that you can create photo collages right in WordPress if you want. That was news to me. They recently went from free for most enhancements to subscriber and it is $40.00/year so not going to do it as I don’t like these companies with their auto-renewal – they hold your credit card info hostage and renew forever if you don’t step in (and even then, it is difficult to get out of the relationship with them). I discovered Canva also and it may have some possibilities until I get Windows 10.

          5. Yes try the monopod and see if that helps. I try to stand on solid ground with my feet apart, but sometimes I will shake if it is not flat ground. I priced them – there are various sizes and strengths – and some are collapsible which would be good.

          7. I am finally here to catch up hopefully – I’ve never been so far behind with Reader. And today my boss was out and I was caught up (a rarity these days) so I had errands and grocery shopping, so I did that and didn’t return to sit down here for work til 2:00 p.m. and I feel like I’ve been away for eons. I just started following this photographer last week when her blog popped up at the bottom of a post I was reading. I have to adjust her subscription to Reader but this came to my e-mail – perfect to share with you on Christmas photography. I like the 4th and last pictures the best. She gives some pointers too. https://bellaremyphotography.com/2018/12/10/creative-captures-for-christmas/

          8. Thank you for taking the time to catch up – your efforts are admirable!! Thank you for the link to Bella’s blog, I can’t wait to read and try new tricks!

          9. Yes, I just started following her last week – she had stopped by the side of the road and said that to most it would look like a bunch of bare trees and kind of ho-hum, something like that, but she decided to take a closer look. It was interesting and then this post with the Christmas shots – I knew I had to send it to you … you should try the shot with the lights that looked like bubbles. I have spent the entire evening electronically trying to locate my boss’s lost cellphone. I wanted to finally catch up in Comments/Reader and squeak in a short post, but I have to say I had an interesting time tracking down the phone for him. It will be a future post for me. SMH

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