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Digital Photography

Photographing Decorative Light Displays by Alfred DeBat Using a tripod can really help you capture decorative year-end lighting displays. Article rating: 8.53

During the year-end holidays there are many homes, shopping malls, and public places illuminated with attractive seasonal light displays. These “light shows” are easy to capture with your digital camera, if you have a tripod. When you want to make long-exposure photos inside or outside your home, you really need a sturdy tripod. Tripods don’t have to be heavy, since many lightweight materials are used today in their construction, such as duralumin and molded carbon fiber.

The way to test a tripod for sturdiness is to set it up and tighten all the movable “locks” or fittings, then see if it can easily vibrate. First, push down on the tripod head and release it. Does it move down and spring up? If so, that’s not good. Second, try twisting the tripod head left and right, like a doorknob. Do the tripod legs twist with the motion? If so, that’s not good either. You want a sturdy platform for your camera – one that doesn’t wiggle. Some tripods have center post supports. That’s helpful, because it adds to the tripod’s stability.

You may have noticed that on the bottom of your digital camera there is a threaded hole. That’s how the camera is attached to the tripod head. If a camera is screwed directly to the tripod, you wouldn’t have up and down movement, or tilting ability – that’s where the tripod head comes in. There are two completely different kinds of tripod heads: pan head and ball-joint head. The pan head is sold with most tripods, and is designed for easy “panning,” so that a video camera can swing along a path following moving subjects. The pan head can be easily used with still cameras, but it requires fiddling with two adjustments to correctly frame a subject. On the other hand, the ball-joint head moves in all directions and is locked into position with a single lever, making it a much easier tool to use with still cameras.

Velbon Pan Head

Manfrotto Ball Joint Head

Other considerations for selecting a tripod include: How high will it go? Most photographers prefer a tripod with a maximum height that will, at least, extend to eyelevel. Also, some tripods have adjustable feet, which convert from rubber tips for indoor use to sharp points for outdoor stability. More expensive models may have built-in “bubble levelers” that help you adjust the tripod to a level footing on an uneven surface.

Okay, let’s go to picture taking. The best time for night photography of light decorations is at twilight when the sky is still blue, yet there is no illumination from the sun. Twilight only lasts for a few minutes, so you have to be set-up and ready to shoot before it occurs for the best photos. After twilight passes, the winter sky tends to be inky black. You can still make photos, but the building’s outline will not be as well defined.

Next, the white-balance controls on your digital camera can make photos look different. It you set the white balance for tungsten light the image will look more natural. If you set the white balance for daylight, the picture will be warmer with more yellows and oranges. You might like that look better, so try both settings.

The ISO setting on your camera controls the sensor sensitivity. Therefore, the shutter speed will be shorter at ISO 800 than at ISO 100. However, the higher ISO setting usually creates more “noise” in an image, and that makes a photo look grainy. It’s best to use the camera’s lowest ISO, and depend upon the tripod to hold the camera steady during a long exposure. Obviously, you want to squeeze the shutter release button as gently as possible so that you don’t move the camera. Too many photographers “push” the shutter release button so hard that the camera dips, even when it is on a tripod. So use a light touch here. If your camera has a wireless shutter release remote for making snapshots without touching the camera that is the best solution.

If your photos look too dark or too light on the camera’s LCD monitor, you can correct the exposure by using the camera’s Exposure Value (EV) control, which can lighten or darken images. It is usually labeled on the camera by the symbol: +/-. EV 0.0 means no change in exposure. EV minus, such as -1.0, makes a darker photo, while EV plus, such as +1.0, means a lighter picture.

Turn the camera’s flash off. It doesn’t do any good in this kind of photography, since its range is usually only 8 to 10 feet away. (All of these controls and adjustments are described in your digital camera’s instruction book. Do your homework if you don’t understand the settings.)

© 2006 Brandon Remler

These tips also apply to indoor nighttime photography, like photographing a Christmas tree, for example. If you take a flash photo of a lit Christmas tree, it really looks lackluster. But when using the tree’s own lights to illuminate the photo, it becomes one of those magical images of the season. And, don’t forget to take close-ups of some of your favorite ornaments.

One night photography trick used by professional photographers is the “star filter,” which creates attractive starburst patterns around individual bright lights in the photo. The filter goes over the front of the camera lens and is screwed into the lens mount. You can find star filters at your local photo dealer or online camera accessory sites.

You can also use these same techniques to make nighttime photos of fireworks on the Fourth of July, distant lightening storms, and rotating carnival rides with electric light displays. With fireworks and lightening strikes, you have to guess where the action will occur, mount the camera on the tripod, point it in the right direction, and keep the shutter open before the light show begins. Many cameras have a “Bulb” setting, an old term for opening the shutter as long as the shutter release is held down. Or, put the camera in “Manual” or “Shutter” mode and select a long shutter speed of 30 seconds or so.

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