Capturing Christmas Lights

As the twinkle of Christmas lights begin to shine almost everywhere you look, I can’t help but want to capture them with my camera. There is just something magical about Christmas lights, wouldn’t you agree? But–they are not AS easy to capture as they appear! Today I want to share with you the easiest way to get that amazing bokeh effect for gorgeous Christmas light photos.

If I take my camera with my 50mm 1.8 lens (seriously, the best for the money–can’t beat it!), put the f/stop at 1.8, and just point and shoot, I get something that resembles this:

Not terrible–some of the lights still have that bokeh effect-but some of them are also in plain focus– and that’s not what I am going for!

The easiest way to get the fuzzier affect is to switch your lens from Auto Focus to Manual Focus. There will be a slider switch on your lens–like this one!

(photo credit here)

Then, YOU control how much of the photo you want in focus! When I take the lights completely out of focus, this is what I get–

The dreamy, lovely haze of glittering Christmas lights! You can even see how the gold ribbon wrapped around the tree blends in as well, and the sunlight from behind gives this photo a beautiful glow.

My second tip for capturing Christmas lights? Turn off your flash. Trust me on this one!

Do you plan on trying this out? What would you most like to capture this holiday season? I would love to know!

© 2012, Julie Sancken. All rights reserved. Love it? Print, email, pin, tweet or share but please don’t use my work without permission. {Copyright Fancy Little Things. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this article or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.}