How'd You Do That?

Welcome. What I've got for you today is more like a super quick tutorial rather than a typical post. So if you have no interest in photography you may leave now. 

*pauses*

Okay, those of you who chose to stay, please silence all of your electronic devices. I hate interruptions.

Now, let's get started - shall we?

In last night's post you may have noticed this photo:

And apparently some of you were scratching your heads as to how I got that shot…because, well, let's be honest, usually Christmas trees don't photograph well. You typically get a suuuuuper dark tree in the photo and aren't able to capture the true-to-life look of the glow of the lights. As an example, check out the pic I snapped of our tree with my camera on auto (same tree, same camera, same day, hour, minute, the only difference is my camera is on auto in the pic below rather than manual like the pic above).

Night and day - right?!

But! If you have a DSLR, you're in luck. I've had a few friends call/text and ask if there is a trick to getting the same look I've got in the first picture

…and there totally is. I mean, yeah, our tree is pretty, but the camera definitely helped capture that. I'm sure everyone else's tree is just as nice, it's just a matter of capturing it properly with your camera. 

Okay, so here we go. Oh, and I am by no means a pro at this, I learn more and more about my camera every day. I typically find these things out through trial and error, google, or happy accidents. So there may be other ways to do this but this is what I do and it works for me! If you have other ways please share them, I always love learning new things when it comes to photography.

First and foremost you're gonna need a tripod and preferably even a shutter release remote. But if you don't have either of those things you're not SOL. Just prop your camera on a steady surface and when you snap this photo do so gently so you don't shake the camera.

I have a Nikon so I can't speak for Canons or any other brand but for you Nikon users you are gonna wanna put you camera on manual and then set your ISO as high as it will possibly go (1600 or Hi1 both work great). Now, set your shutter speed as low as it will possibly go. Next, turn off all the lights in your house (you're going to want to do this at night so you don't get any sunlight through the windows), put your camera on your tripod or steady surface, and snap!

Flippin' fantastic - huh?! 

I guarantee you'll be able to just pull that pic from your camera with no editing because it's THAT GOOD of a photo. You may notice that in my good first photo the tree has a bit of a glow or halo around the whole thing, that's because it's right up against a wall, literally - we've got that thing crammed in a corner (more on why here). So I had to go in and take the exposure down a notch so that it didn't lose the outline of the tree and star. But unless you've got your tree in a corner like us you shouldn't have that problem and your picture should be amazing with only the steps I described above.

If all you own is a point and shoot, all I can suggest is to wait until the evening, turn off all other lights, prop your camera on something, turn off your flash and snap the picture. It may not look quite like the photo above but I'd imagine it'll be a nice shot nonetheless.

Well, I hope that helped for those of you who were curious and have a love of all things Nikon DSLR like me. 

Alright, you may now turn your cellular phones back on.

Class Dismissed,

Lor