How to shoot Christmas lights

The time of year has arrived, Christmas!

We all love to shoot those lovely Christmas lights and create some great bokeh shots.
Looking for some tips on how to shoot those lovely lights?

1) Shoot with a “fast lens”, a lens with a large aperture (low f number, like f/4.0 or below)

When using f/4.0 or below you throw the background (and foreground) out of focus and thus making the lights appear in lovely small soft balls of light

2) Shoot with a tripod and keep your ISO low

Because it is dark, you will need a longer shutter speed or higher ISO.
A lot of modern camera’s can shoot with an ISO of up to 3400 and you can correct the noise in postproduction. But it is better to get it right in camera.
So try to shoot at ISO 400 or below (100 being the best of course).

3) Use manual focus.

Autofocus can have a hard time during darkness. But even more important, get that background out of focus and get in love with that sweet bokeh

4) Use a tripod and low ISO and aim for a slower shutter speed.

If you use a shutter speed of around 4 seconds, and you take a photo of a Christmas tree. The light appears softer and it looks like it is glowing more.
When you shoot it with a higher ISO and fast shutter speed, you will get more “hard lights”.

5) Be creative with those lights!

Why not make a custom bokeh adapter? A … what … you say?
Your camera (aperture blades) make the lights which go out of focus, appear as soft small little balls of light. You can shape those soft small balls of light.
There is a great tutorial about how to make it yourself, on wikihow.com - DIY Custom Bokeh Adapter
I tried it myself a couple of time and it is great!
You can also buy a Bokeh Masters kit on Amazon for $ 25,-

Please share your images in the comments below!
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