Photography Tutorial | DYD 2019

If you are on Facebook, you have have seen this (or a similar) meme pop up every year:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1398432866896234

awwwwwww...such a sweet and heartwarming statement....but OMG, that photo is super FABULOUS!!!!

I'm biased though since that happens to be my photo that someone used to create the meme. I'm sure there are some copyright violations going on, but meh, I'm just flattered that they choose mine. =)

Anyways....I have been taking this same photo every year since my kids were little and I love to see how they've grown.

Shooting holiday lights might seem intimidating to some, but there's really nothing to it, if you have a few tips.

Here are a few example photos and some tips for creating them:

1. Holiday lights at night
***lights at night can be tricky because inherently, we want to over expose, but the key is to UNDER expose so the lights don't just blow out. ****


2. Silhouette in front of tree
***the key to this photo is to use a higher ISO and a wide aperture and then set the shutter speed accordingly. You may want to underexpose, but check your settings. Here, I used ISO 1600, f1.2, ss 1/160 and ISO 6400, f2.8, ss 1/250****


3. Holiday bokeh (blurry lights in the background)
***This is probably the most common type of shot for the holidays since everyone loves the big light behind the subject. The key is to use as wide of an aperture as possible from as far away as possible and zoom in. The greater the distance, the better the bokeh. For this shot, my settings were ISO 400, f2.0, ss 1/125****


4. Totally OOF (Out of Focus)
***the trick to this shot is to put your focus on manual and manually make it out of focus. The effect is similar to the shot above except that I don't have anything in the foreground to focus on, so I have to focus manually. My settings here were: ISO 800, f1.8, ss 1/400****


5. Shaped bokeh
***this shot is exactly the same as the shot above, except that I cut a hole in a piece of black paper and taped it onto my lens, causing the lights to take the shape of the hole when out of focus....so clever Note that the overall image is darker since I'm only letting light in through the cut out hole and not letting in any ambient light. Here, I used punches to make the holes about 1/2 and inch in size*****


6. Ooooohhhh aaaaaahhhh.....magic
***For this shot, I put a strand of lights in a box. As with the silhouette shot above, I went for a high ISO and wide aperture. I added the sparkles and text in PS. My settings here were ISO 6400, f2.8, SS 1/250****