innershield Loc: phoenix, az

Any helpful hints on photographing Christmas trees indoors . Have d7100 with 50 1.4, 17-55 2.8, 105. 2.8, 70-200. 2.8 and others also tripod and sb700 and slaves with tripods . Any suggestions. thanks

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Lens choice is your issue as we have no idea on how restricted you will be.

Light is and there you have many choices..

- Dull tree? Select full flash and damn everything else.
- Everything visible and good lighting? Use a fill flash and a lower sync speed (use a tripod)
- Weird effect? Use the above with either a front or rear curtain sync (if your camera allows for a choice) just do not use a tripod.
- Warm look? Use a longer exposure and a tripod.
- Weird warm look? do the above with no tripod.

This little list is only a sample of what you can do. Add peopled pets or whatever you want and... Just do not forget this a season supposedly made to be with other folks...

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

I posted a link on this subject in Links and Resources. Feel free to use the search function at the top of the page to find it and other discussions on this subject.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

The tree lights are a light source, and typically if you set exposure to make the rest of the room look right, those lights will be over exposed to the point of clipping.

The way to work around that is by finding an exposure that does not clip the lights, and is also with a shutter speed low enough to use flash. Then add flash to give the rest of the room proper exposure. Using a large diffuser, and probably bouncing the flash off the ceiling, may be the best way. Since you can remote trigger the flash, locate it off camera positioned for best results. Probably near a corner of the ceiling, aiming the light into the corner to reflect it evenly over the entire area around the tree.

Of your lenses, the 17-55mm f/2.8 is almost certainly the one that will work best.

Rick36203 Loc: Northeast Alabama

I like to expose for the lights on the tree first, and then add fill flash to suit my taste. I want to see a starburst effect from the tree lights. So, I shoot at the smallest aperture I can, but at least f/16, and at a low ISO to keep noise to a minimum. That normally means a multi-second exposure time (and a tripod).

I think a lens with 6 or 8 blades gives a nice starburst effect, but I only own 7 and 9 blade lenses myself. A lens with even numbered blades has the same number of starburst points as blades. A lens with odd number of blades have 2x the number of starburst points as the # of blades.

Lens choice will depend on scene composition. All your listed lenses are 9-blade, and will give 18 point starbursts. The 50 1.4 will only go to f/16, all the others will give you f/22 or smaller. The 17-55 will probably do best in a confined space.

Also, I would recommend removing any distracting furniture and/or cardboard boxes from the scene before pressing the shutter release. (Not that you would find those in my example :))

The example was taken earlier today with 50mm 1.8d on a D750, @ f/22, 6 sec, iso320.

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jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I'm not sure if these Christmas Lights links cover indoors, but they should help.

http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/how-to-take-better-photos-of-christmas-lights
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/12/how-to-photograph-christmas-lights.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Photograph-Christmas-Lights
http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/12/13/how-to-photograph-christmas-lights-the-best-camera-settings-to-use-free-cheat-sheet/

EDIT:
More links - Christmas tree lights.

http://www.lightstalking.com/successfully-photograph-christmas-tree/
http://www.thelawtog.com/how-to-shoot-christmas-tree-lights/
http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/how-to-take-great-photos-of-your-christmas-tree/
http://www.lilblueboo.com/2011/11/christmas-tree-photography-with-your-dslr-a-tutorial.html

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

The most simple way I've found, this will sound amateurish I'm sure, but set your lens to f/10 in aperture and with a tripod use your 10-second internal timer and allow the camera to decide the rest. f/10 is a good lens sweet spot that will give you sharp images of the lights. When I do this often the exposure will run 5+ seconds but the images are sharp and clean.

Just a thought but it's what I use, indoors or out.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

My take on it is this;

don't take pictures when it's dark. The best time to take pictures of Christmas lights is at blue hour, when there is some context except a bunch of colored dots floating in the air.

Set your camera up on a tripod well ahead of time and wait. When it starts getting dark take an exposure. Check it via chimping.

if the sky is too light, wait a few minutes....try again.

And repeat.

If you do this, at some point the sky and lights will equalize and make a nice looking picture with context.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/12/how-to-photograph-christmas-lights.html

dannac Loc: 60 miles SW of New Orleans

Interesting info and nice shot ... Thanks Rick

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

I just realized that you said "indoors" and not outdoors.

Scratch my whole long comment...sorry.

ABJanes Loc: Jersey Boy now Virginia

Many have mentioned flash, IMHO it can often adversely impact the soft quality & mood of the lighting. Our D7100's can do so much in the initial camera setup ...... vivid, Auto WB II (warmer), specific Kelvin settings. I like to enlarge my view in Live view and manually focus, mirror up, wired, ISO 100, longer exposure, tripod. So much can be done initially and also in PP to change the entire mood of the shot.

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Outdoor lights, much higher ISO, monopod

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ABJanes Loc: Jersey Boy now Virginia

Rick......love the approach and the tree is AWESOME.