 James E. McKinney |
Christmas portraits I have been asked to shoot some family portraits in front of a lit christmas tree in the family's home. I am wondering what the best way to accomplish this would be as I am sure the lights on the tree are going to be a challenge. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. James
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John C. Schwentner |
Can you use fill flash? Hopefully with ttl flash it should not diminish the christmas lights, but give you the frontal illumination you need at the same time. In theory fill flash is supposed to fill in ambient light while still using the existing light
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Jean-Sébastien Duchesne |
If you have an SLR with full manual capabilities, you can try a technique called “shutter drag”. What this means is that you expose your portrait wit an “on camera flash” at the recommended aperture but, instead of using sync speed (usually 1/60 or 1/125), you leave the shutter open longer (1 or 1/2 sec.) A fully automatic mode will give you the proper aperture but automatically sync speed. So instead of using that setting, switch to manual, set the same aperture as the automatic mode wanted but try 1/2 sec instead. This will ensure a proper exposure for both your subject and your Christmas lights at the same time. Just make sure that your camera is on a tripod and your subjects can sit still for such a long shutter speed. This can be tricky when photographing young children because some of them just wont stop moving. Also, beware of extra light sources like household lamps. Especially the ones you can see in your viewfinder. Keep them to a minimum if you’re not sure. This techniques takes a little practice but can produce very exciting results. Good luck, Jean-Sébastien Duchesne
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