How To Take A Nice Photo Of The Christmas Tree?

[MissMolly]

Hi all,

I wish to take some nice shots of our beautiful christmas tree with its lights on, but none of the shotos look nice at all..

I have a canon 450D and would love to get ony tips on how i can take a great tree shot..

Thanks

Cathy

Edited December 9, 2009 by MissMolly

[PossumCorner]

Must use a tripod for best result. Even a monopod, but tripod better, to avoid squiggles. (Unless you want an arty effect like lines of tail-lights moving along a highway). Close lens up, f16-ish or more for max depth of focus. Experiment with shutter speed: start off using aperture priority or whatever the buzz-word for that is with Canon, could be av, Canon people will correct if that's wrong. Then experiment on manual with slower shutter speed, higher f-stop. But you can't hand-hold at the slow speeds without causing light squiggles, so the tripod is the key to a good shot with the lights pin-sharp instead of movement blur.

If you over-expose it is a problem to fix in photoshop. But if it is slightly under-exposed the tree lights should be okay, and just put some detail in the tree shadows with fill-light, tiny amount.

[jrm88]

Similiar to what Possum said..

I took a photo of my tree with 500D with the following settings;

At night, One light on from the side(quite dim). Shutter speed I think was around 15-20sec, definately need a tripod. I had the lights flashing as well, I found they looked nicer. I experimented with fstop but higher I think was the go (16ish). Just experiment alot! I had lots of fun with the long exposures and making the lights look sparkly and nice