Tag: Christmas

5 Ingenious Photo Tips For Your Christmas Celebration

Christmas is right around the corner and most of us want to capture the sparkle in the children’s eyes when unpacking their presents, baking cookies together and a delicious Christmas feast or simply to capture the great Christmas spirit. Thereby, Christmas lights and darkness are making it difficult to take the perfect shots. Here are 5 tips to catch the festive highlights in perfect quality.

1. Plan Your Photo Equipment

The better prepared you are, the more fun and successful your Christmas shoot will be. Before your family and friends arrive, or you leave to visit them, check if you have enough memory cards. Are the batteries charged? Do you need a tripod or a remote control for the self-timer? If everything is packed and prepared, you are ready to go!

2. Timing Is Everything

To be sure that every facial expression is captured when unpacking the presents, the serial image setting in combination with the sports mode for moving pictures will be the perfect solution. Simply hold down the shutter button to snap as many pictures as your card will hold.

3. Avoid Direct Flashlight

We recommend: Do not use the flashlight! Many of us believe that the flashlight function makes pictures in the cosy, dark light turns out brighter. Unfortunately, most of the time this is not the case. Instead, opt for the night setting together with a slower shutter speed, which will ensure that enough ambient light is captured and create a warm Christmas atmosphere.

4. Magical Christmas Photos With The Bokeh Effect

Christmas decoration creates many opportunities for you to experiment and work with interesting effects. The bokeh-effect is one of our favourites. The term bokeh comes from Japanese and means blurred or out of focus. In photography, it is intentionally blurred parts of a photo that are created by the lens. If you want to isolate a Christmas tree bauble from the background, use a large aperture (e.g., f/1.8). This creates bright circles or other shapes that create wonderful Christmas magic over your pictures.

5. Shooting On Christmas Markets

For most of us, taking a stroll on one of the local Christmas markets creates the perfect pre-Christmas feeling. Of course, it is also perfect scenery to take a nice picture. However, Christmas markets are usually packed. Therefore, ensure that the autofocus is switched off, otherwise the camera will not find a reference point for focusing. Pictures taken in RAW mode will give you the possibility to adjust the white balance afterwards with certain image editing programmes.

Now you are perfectly prepared to capture this year’s Christmas. Try things out and have fun taking images of your special moments!

What to shoot in November – Longer wintry nights

Remember, remember, there’s plenty to shoot in November! Don’t put your camera into hibernation just when the nights are drawing in – try our pick of this month’s most photogenic events

Couple walking in night lights.
Australian seascape at sunrise
Starry sky in winter
Manhattan
Boats on shore of Lake Motosu with Mount Fuji in background

The end of October saw the clocks shuffle backwards by an hour across the whole of Europe, giving early risers a little more daylight, and earlier sunsets at the end of the day. Don’t be disheartened by the encroaching dark or use it as an excuse to hang up your camera until the spring, though – there’s plenty to shoot in these shorter days. For starters, why not try your hand at some low-light photography? Before you even leave the building, do a little planning.

Think about where you’d like to shoot, and be sure to tell someone where you’re headed – or better still, convince an equally shutter-happy friend to come along for the ride.

Don’t let your quest for the perfect shot get in the way of personal safety, and be sensible about where you plan to stop and take pictures. Cities and remote landscapes alike can be beautiful once the sun’s gone down, but they can be scary and potentially dangerous as well – so be safe.

Low-light landscape pictures can be incredibly impressive, but getting a great shot when there’s little light around is a real challenge – longer shutter speeds are essential, so make sure you’ve got a tripod or other support on hand to ensure pin-sharp details. Keep your ISO setting low and set a shutter speed of around 15 seconds to capture as much light as you can. Set your lens as wide as possible and ensure your aperture’s also as wide as it can go, which will help to retain details and make the most of available light. Adjust your camera’s white-balance to change the mood of the image: you might find that cooler, bluer tones give you more of a midnight feel, so don’t forget to experiment while you have the chance.

Want to capture a lifelike scene at dusk? You could always test-drive the built-in HDR feature on most X-series cameras to layer exposures and achieve as much detail as possible in your final image. And if your dramatic sunset landscape has turned out cloudy, try using the X-series’ Film Simulation modes to shoot a moody black & white twilight scene with real drama in the skies above. Most importantly, don’t forget to take a torch, keep a spare camera battery cosy in your pocket and wrap up warm, because the more comfortable you are, the more you’ll enjoy your low-light shoot.

First frost

First FrostIf the month lives up to its reputation we’re in for chilly mornings – but this means beautiful images of finely-detailed frost for you. Get close to the fronds of plants in your garden, or seek out a frozen cobweb for a glorious late-autumn shimmer. Just head out around sunrise before any thaw and don’t forget your gloves!

Winter wildlife

Winter wildlifeWild creatures are readying themselves for the rigours of winter, so this time of year is an ideal opportunity to see beasts out and about collecting their food. If you’re a fan of feathered subjects, try setting up a feeding station in your garden and see what local birds you can lure in front of longer lenses like the XF 55-200mm.

Christmas lights

Christmas lightsThe big switch-on seems to happen earlier every year – but that just means more time for shooting the decorations! Larger towns and cities become a festive light show, but make sure you time your shooting for twilight so there’s still some blue in the sky – it’s this contrast of natural and man-made light that will make your shots sparkle.

Festive markets

Festive marketsWith Christmas just around the corner, you’ll find festive markets aplenty in your local towns and villages. Seasonal crafts, twinkling decorations, cheerful crowds and a variety of unusual foods present ideal subjects, and if you’re shooting handheld, remember to switch your Optical Image Stabilisation on for sharper shots.

Traffic trails

Traffic TrailsLong exposures change the way you see the world, and a great example is when shooting the rush hour. Using a shutter speed of around 10 seconds turns crawling cars into an amazing stream of light and with its shortened days November is the perfect time to try it out – you can even shoot a few on your way home from work.