Playing with Christmas Lights
December 11 & 13, 2014
As I have discussed on previous occasions, photographing Christmas lights is a great way to have some fun during the darkest days of the year. It is fun, organic and doesn't take much skill.
The photo above is a double exposure. It can be made in camera, with a camera like the Canon 7D mark ii or Nikon D7000. The layers can also be photographed separately and layered together later in Photoshop, using the lighten blending mode. The big circles of color were created by focusing manually at infinity and then shooting a string of lights less than 3 feet away, using a 100mm lens. The strings of lights were made by focusing on lights about 5 feet away and then panning the camera as I shot a 1/4 second exposure.
The image below is a single image, made with a Canon G11 point and shoot camera. I stood about 2 feet from a hedge covered with a blanket of Christmas Lights. After focusing, I began walking towards the bush as I pressed the shutter continuously, taking multiple shots at 1/4 second. The pattern is enhanced by the different distances of the various lights.
Experiment and have fun.
