Being new to photography and hoping to learn more, can some one tell me what kind of filter I need to get to make Christmas lights photograph clear and not distorted. I have a cannon rebel t3.
Thanks
In most cases, they would be clearer without a filter; every piece of glass or plastic that is stacked onto the front of the lens compromises the photo in some way.
Could you post an example of what you are trying to correct?
Are you seeing V or check-marked lights? You need a tripod. Or are they blobby? You need to experiment with Fstops and find your best, probably around F8 or F11. The blobs get smaller and the sunstar spikes around the lights get more distinct.
Ok thanks, I was using a tripod and had the lens on AF will try MF and play with the f stop and see how they turn out, seemed blurry to me. Thanks for the information!
Here is a photo and using the AF and tripod it blurs when having the tree lights on. Thanks
the snowman in the foreground seems sharper with the tree out of focus. There is no metadata attached so I don't know what the fstop might be, but based on what I am seeing i will take a quess on focus issues. What focus point (s) are you using?
You might want to use a faster shutter speed, sort of like with the moon. to long exposure blows it out. Your exposing for the whole room and not just the xmas lights.
can some photographers on here show an example of a good representation of holiday lights? I would love to see the different ways that this could be demonstrated for I am also interested in how to shoot creative holiday light photos
afoolinatruck wrote:
Being new to photography and hoping to learn more, can some one tell me what kind of filter I need to get to make Christmas lights photograph clear and not distorted. I have a cannon rebel t3.
Thanks
If your lens has IS, perhaps you might want to turn it off and use the 2 second timer which alters timing of mirror flop, or lock mirror up and use a remote, bump up your aperture as suggested, change metering to all modes, testing to see which works best, manual focus, and how to do these things is all in your manual. I'm not suggesting you read your manual but when you know what to do, your manual can tell you how to do it. Your problem is you need more time to get to know what you need to do. Good luck and show us the results.
I agree with the others - after checking all the settings, change one thing at a time until you've got it.
Play around with fill-in flash. I think you are probably getting some over-exposure on the light bulbs themselves, because you in-camera metering is reading the entire scene. By using a 1.5-2 stop fill (set your flash so that it puts out about one-half to one-fourth the light required for a proper exposure if it were the only light sourse) you will be able to lower the overall exposure, which will reduce the glare commonly found when trying to photograph a light sourse.
Nevada Chuck wrote:
Play around with fill-in flash. I think you are probably getting some over-exposure on the light bulbs themselves, because you in-camera metering is reading the entire scene. By using a 1.5-2 stop fill (set your flash so that it puts out about one-half to one-fourth the light required for a proper exposure if it were the only light sourse) you will be able to lower the overall exposure, which will reduce the glare commonly found when trying to photograph a light sourse.
You know, I wanted to suggest a little flash but there's what looks like two mirrors on that far wall. What's are those going to do?
Seeing as you're an old fart like me, I suspect that your question about what will happen with the mirrors on the back wall comes from the same source as mine do when I find myself asking this sort of question, namely, we still have a little bit of the old-time film shooter's mind set. When shooting film, we always tried to perfect the exposure technically so as not to waste film, and forget that the easiest way to answer such a question with digital is just to shoot it and see what you get! :D
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