One of my favorite things about the holiday season? The soft glow of Christmas tree lights all December long! What parent hasn’t asked for “one photo of the kids in front of the Christmas tree”, as a way to remember the magic of childhood and Christmas.
But parents (and photographers!) quickly realize how tricky this one quick photo can be!
Have you noticed how all those moodily lit, nighttime Christmas tree photos on Pinterest all use white lights? With their subject facing the tree?
What happens if you’re more of a multi-colored light sort of person? Or if you want to have your subject facing the camera? What if you’re trying to take a photo of extended family with the tree in the background? Have you tried flash in the past, but the photo looks “flashy”, with the Christmas lights showing up as little pin pricks of light? (Image 1.1)
The answer: you need to learn to balance off camera flash with Christmas tree lights.
Step One: Meter for the tree.
Start by exposing as you would if you were metering for just the lights on the tree. No meter? Setup your camera to take a photo of the tree, using the internal light meter in your camera. Keep in mind your sync speed, and don’t worry about having too slow of a shutter speed, since your strobe or flash will freeze motion for you (keep reading!).
For image 1.2, I set my ISO to 3200 because the room was dark, my f-stop at f4 and my shutter to 1/15 because I wanted to let in as much glowy light as possible.
The tree looks lovely, but the subject (my posing doll, Betty) is back lit and in shadow. (Image 1.2)
Step Two: Add your flash.
Set your flash on a stand to the side of the subject.
Add a small modifier to soften the light. (For image 1.3, I used a 3 foot, shoot through umbrella)
Leave your settings exactly as they were for your natural light shot, and then adjust the power on your flash until you reach the perfect level of fill flash. (For image 1.3 I had to turn my flash, the Westcott fj80, to its lowest power setting.)
With the fill flash, the tree lights maintained their glow (which I love), but my subject, Betty the Posing Doll) is illuminated in what that looks very much like natural light to me!
SO pretty!
Why is your shutter speed so low for Christmas tree photos?
Why do I have my shutter speed set SO low?
When using a strobe or a flash, your shutter speed controls how much ambient light is let into an image. That low shutter speed is the reason we’re able to create such a glowy image while using a flash! If we had set our shutter speed to 1/200 second, rather than 1/15 second, your light would have been less glowy and more pin pricks of light.
The lower your shutter speed, the more light from the tree will show up in your image! So cool, right?!
I suggest giving it a try for yourself! Test out what happens at different shutter speeds, as well as different flash powers and apertures. The only way you’ll learn what you love is by trying it out for yourself!
More resources on using artificial light for in home sessions
I’ve put together a class specifically for in home photographers, call Lighting On Location. This class teaches in home photographers how to confidently use off camera flash, even when working outside their studio! It’s perfect for newborn and family photographers who are tired of struggling with changing light conditions, even when indoors.
