I absolutely love having a beautifully-lit Christmas tree in my house. But have you ever taken a photo of your Christmas tree and been disappointed? Your tree is so gorgeous with those lights glowing through the branches. How the heck do you photograph the tree so the lights are all glowy and fuzzy – like you see it in person?
The good news is, it’s not hard to do, even with a phone camera! Below are some tips to help. I’ve simplified it quite a bit, so we aren’t getting into how exposure works, but these tips should get you on your way. Just play around with it and see what you get!
1. Turn off the lights
If you don’t, the ambient light of the room will compete with the lights on your tree for attention. See the difference?
2. Turn off your flash!
If you don’t, the ambient light of the room will compete with the lights on your tree for attention. Notice how there is also a big swath of light emanating from the tree. See the difference?
3. Move your body to zoom – not the camera zoom
Fill the frame with the tree, but don’t use your camera zoom to do it. Move toward or away from the tree to get the composition how you want it. When you use your camera zoom, the quality of the image is degraded quite a bit, so you might as well avoid using it when you can!
4. Use Exposure Lock
Did you know that you can alter the way your camera exposes your photo by tapping on an area of your camera screen? Tapping on a light area will make all of the light areas darker. Tapping on a dark area will make all of the dark areas lighter.
Here are a couple more examples. I didn’t use exposure lock on the image on the left. I just let the camera do its thing. In the image on the right, I tapped on the hardwood floor, which increased the exposure of the photo – making the lights look dreamy and glowy. Neither one of these is really better or worse than the other – it’s a matter of taste. I tend to prefer the dreamy, glowy look, but some of you may prefer the image on the left. The photo on the right was taken at a little bit different time of day, so had I taken this same photo a little later, I would have gotten a darker backdrop, which I would have liked better.
I hope you found those tips helpful! I always love a good photo of a gorgeous Christmas tree. Now if we could only put the amazing pine smell into the picture!
Happy photographing!
