Photographing your Christmas tree - Murfreesboro Photographer

Everyone wants to have a beautiful photo of their Christmas tree, but are very unsure how to achieve the beautiful results.  It is very easy, even if you are not a professional, the results may not be the same if you are unable to control the settings, but this will definitely improve you annual tree portraits.  For starters many people make the mistake of using their flash when trying to photograph their tree, we want to maintain dimension and we also don't want to over power the lights on the tree. 

What you will need:

-tripod (you can easily find one at Walmart, Target, Kmart for about $20 or more)

(a tripod is not even totally required assuming you have a surface that you can set your camera on that will be at the desired level for your photo.)

-camera

yep that's all folks

FOR STARTERS THIS HAS TO BE DONE AT NIGHT!

First turn off any ambient light (any background light) For non-professionals you will need to turn the flash off on your camera, then mount it to the tri-pod and fire the trigger ( I like to use the timer so when the camera does fire I have not moved it by pushing the trigger), if you can't figure out how to turn it off find some black gaffers tape, you can find this at your local hardware store and put a strip over you flash.  Your camera will automatically choose the settings to compensate for the loss of light, thus the need for a tripod because it will automatically slow your shutter down.  For professionals you can play with your settings to achieve the results you are really looking for and don't be afraid to play around with all the components to achieve something really cool, that is the great thing about photography, not one setting is right unless of course it's totally over or under exposed and all information is totally lost, but maybe for you that's perfect.  Below are two images I captured with my Nikon D600, Wide angle 28mm 2.8, F10, .80 sec, Iso 1000.  Maybe not the most ideal setting, BUT I loved the results and so it worked for me.   Also I chose to slowly move my camera up and down while the shutter what open to create the image to the left, just play around with it.

Good Luck and remember just have fun, now onto better Christmas tree photos.