How To Photograph A Christmas Tree

My 10 tips for capturing great holiday photos of your little ones post got me all excited about photography so today I thought I’d share how to photograph a Christmas tree.  Because who doesn’t like taking a killer photo of their tree and showing it off on Facebook and Instagram?

There are two pieces of equipment, besides my Canon 7D camera, that I use when taking photos of my tree– a tripod and remote shutter release.  The remote shutter release isn’t dire because you can use the timer on your camera.  I just like having the remote shutter release.  (Read more about my photography equipment here and here.)

The tripod and remote shutter release (or timer) are important because even if you hold your camera really still your photos won’t come out as crisp because the camera’s shutter will open and close slowly and the slightest tiny movement can cause a photo to look blurry.

Some tutorials will tell you to ramp up your ISO.  I don’t do that because when you go to too high of an ISO the photo becomes grainy.

This photo of our 2012 Christmas tree was taken during the day, as you can see.

Here are the settings I used:
f/9
4 sec
ISO 200

This photo was taken at night.  I turned off all the lights, making sure it was pitch dark in the room besides the tree.  The longer shutter speed/exposure time is what caused the lights to look like little stars.  The 15 sec means that my shutter was open for 15 seconds.

Here are the settings I used:
f/25
15 sec
ISO 200

I shot the next up close photos with my 50mm lens.  It’s a great lens for the value.  See how the longer exposure time (10 sec) created the star effect with the lights?

Here are the settings I used:
f/14
10 sec
ISO 200

Here are the settings I used for the photo below:
f/5.6
1.6 sec
ISO 200

I got my wish of putting up a white Christmas tree last year.

Here are the settings I used for the photo below:
f/10
1 sec
ISO 200

Here are the settings I used for the photo below:
f/10
1 sec
ISO 200

Here are the settings I used for the photo below:
f/10
1/8 sec
ISO 200

Here are the settings I used for the nighttime photo:
f/14
3 sec
ISO 200

Keep in mind that I do some light editing in Photoshop to enhance the majority of the photos on the blog.  But there are free photo editing sites out there like Picmonkey that you can use to edit photos.

In other news, I’m co-hosting a Twitter party with Hallmark Baby TONIGHT at 8:30 PM EDT.  We’ll be giving out fun prizes!  Make sure to follow me (@two_twenty_one) and Hallmark Baby (@HallmarkBaby).  Use the hashtag #PicPerfHoliday.  I hope you’ll join in on the fun!

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