I walked around my neighborhood last night to do some Christmas lights photography. What drew me out was the fog that developed because it has started to warm up a little; it was up to 32° F and the snow was starting to melt! Even though it was 32° F it felt really cold in the fog and my hands went numb quickly in my thin gloves. So, I decided to not take the time to set-up a tripod and just hand hold my camera using ISO 1600.
It took me a good 15 minutes to settle on a camera position to create the kind of compositional interest I wanted. I can’t help myself—even with something as cliche as Christmas lights—the classic compositional building blocks apply:
FOREGROUND, MID-GROUND, BACKGROUND…
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f5.0 @ 1/15sec., ISO 1600, Lens @ 24mm
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What immediately attracted me to this view was the street light’s glow in the background (I loved that hazy glow created by the fog.).
As is usual with my style I tend to build my images from the BACKGROUND—FORWARD.
The fountain, as center of interest, is in the mid-ground. Then I “placed” my foreground object, that tree on the right, to fill the void on the right.
This kind of composition is all about alignment of the various elements, which I find much easier to do when I’m not using a tripod. Even with my Canon 5D MKII I expected some noise at 1600 ISO, but the RAW files looked remarkably good and after I ran my JPGS through NICK’s DeFine 2 noise reduction they looked really nice.
Now I’m scouting some more really elaborate Christmas light displays to photograph!
’Til next week…
Author: Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman
Training site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com
Client site: http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com
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