From our Photofocus family to yours, we wish you a very, merry Christmas. We hope you will spend time to enjoy the holiday season safely with your loved ones. And of course, with a camera in hand!
Don’t forget to share your favorite holiday photos with us!
To help get you started on your Christmas photos, here are some great tips:
Have a very macro Christmas - Have you ever grabbed your camera and macro lens at Christmas and captured the tiny, beautiful and sparkly details of your Christmas decorations? Capture the spirit of Christmas in macro — beautiful colors and details. Capture memories of each Christmas to preserve or just share. Get in close Get in close and grab the detail, the lights on the tree make a stunning bokeh. Put your camera on a tripod and capture some slightly longer exposures of all the twinkles and color. Put your own unique spin and flare on it. From my family to yours, I wish you a safe and merry holiday season!
Easy Christmas setups for no-stress family photos - I love Christmas photos as much as the next person, but sometimes less is more. A playful, subtle approach to Christmas photos will get you what you need for your family Christmas cards and give you some shots to update the photo album at the same time. Plus, it’s an easy activity to entertain the kids and enjoy some low-pressure holiday fun! Find some evergreen foliage and decorate it with baubles Nothing says Christmas like evergreen foliage. I live in Australia, and in our local botanic garden, we found these stunning ground cover evergreens, flourishing beautifully in the summer heat. With a cheap packet of baubles (or ornaments) and a rug, it took just a few minutes to set up this spot for my Christmas bub. An ancient, giant pine tree will look just as Christmassy as a perfectly conical one (and where I live, you have to special order that variety!) so look for the foliage rather than the tree. Who says it has to be a pine at all? This ivy archway gives the lush greens and was just as fun for my little guy to decorate. Finding the magic of the season is easy with no fuss and minimal props. Have fun with it, and your kids will too. After all, that’s what Christmas is all about!
Portrait Tips: Build a scene with Lume Cubes & holiday lights - Holiday lights are so cool. If the tree didn’t dry out and start dropping needles, I think I’d petition my wife to leave them set up all year. They just give such a terrific mood. It’s because they have a warm tone and because they are so spread out they make a very soft light. Plus, when they are in the background of the photo, they make really cool bokeh bobbles. I wanted to utilize these lights in the background, so I needed to build the light in the foreground so that it wouldn’t overpower the twinkle in the back. Here’s how to do it. Use a tripod These lights aren’t very bright, so you’re going to need to use a tripod to ensure you get a sharp picture with a slow shutter speed. This one ended up at 1/60s. The tripod will also help you compose your picture more perfectly. With a child sitting on a chair, the camera is quite low to the ground, and without a tripod, your back will get tired and you’ll have a hard time getting the framing just right for each shot. Use a long lens I used a 56mm lens, which is like a 112mm lens on a full-frame camera. It’s great because it makes the tree look like it’s filling the whole room. The subject is about six feet in front of the tree. If I used a wider lens, she would have to be closer to the tree to make it fill the background, and the camera would be closer to both. When the camera is closer to the background lights, it makes the bokeh on the lights look less awesome. I used the Lensbaby Velvet 56, which makes the best bokeh on the planet and it gives the soft glow to the whole thing, which is just what I wanted. I use continuous lights by Lume Cube You could use flash for this, but it’s much harder than using small lights that are always on. I used two Lume Cubes. If you use flash, your camera will have a very difficult time focusing on your subject’s face because the room is so dark. Also, you’ll have a hard time getting your flash dark enough to match the lights in the back. You could also try a dim lamp or a flashlight. If you use LED lights, make sure they don’t scan during your exposure, leaving you with light and dark bars; if you see bars, use a slower shutter speed — probably under 1/60s. Read more on that here. Lume Cubes are formatted so they won’t scan at any shutter speed. Use a gel Whatever lights you use, you need to make sure that they match the color of the lights in the back. If you used a flash without a gel, it would give a very white light and it wouldn’t keep the warm and gentle mood of the orange lights behind. Use a Color Temperature Orange (CTO) gel to match. The Lume Cube Air comes with a warm gel diffusion cover, and that’s what I used here. Use the wrong white balance Because these lights are all colored to match a tungsten light bulb, you could use the tungsten white balance setting built into your camera. That would make white things, like the pages of the book, appear white. In this case, though, we want that warm, nostalgic feeling. So, set your white balance to daylight and then the orange lights will remain orange and warm. Set the exposure, adjust the lights Use the background lights to set the exposure. Make them the right brightness for your shot, then adjust the brightness of the foreground lights to match the mood you’re going for. If you’re using lamps or flashlights, you might have to move the lights farther away in order to make them darker. If you’re using Lume Cubes, just open the app on your phone and slide the brightness down. Where are the lights? I’ve got one light set at the subject’s face height from camera-left. It’s got a little diffusion dome on it to make it softer (and warmer). It’s a Lume Cube Air, so the magnet on the back is stuck to the metal frame on a chair — anything that makes it easier to make a picture is good, and not having to set up a light stand in the living room is very good. This is the main light on her face. There’s another Lume Cube in the book with a warm diffusion dome, as well. Take care that the book light doesn’t get too bright. It’s not intended to be a glowing magical book. Just a little fill on her face. There’s another light from behind at camera-right. This is a big continuous light that is balanced for tungsten color, too. I’m not saying you need to buy a big light like this, but I owned it, and it was already set up from another project, so I used it for a little rim light. Make pictures … Now just make pictures with your subject. Ask her to look a little this way or that, reposition the book, etc. … and make videos! Since you’re using continuous lights, you can switch your camera to video mode and get the same look to the video that you get with the photos. Making a video was actually the whole purpose of this setup, and it was the best way to convince my daughter to play along with me. I love this fun idea we made together. Another benefit of using the tripod is that you can use a remote to make pictures with your subject, too. Keep those Holiday lights out a little longer (or get them back out) and make some moody portraits for yourself. Portrait Tips come out each week, and you can see them all right here.
Five tips for photographing during the holidays - The holidays are one of the best times to have fun with your photography. Bryan Esler wrote this article about Getting Creative on Christmas Morning. Here are a few more tips that may add something different and fun to your holiday photos. 1. Think outside of the gift-wrapped box Have you seen those cardboard glasses that make your tree lights look like mini snowmen, Santas or Christmas trees? Use them as a filter! Hold or tape them in front of your lens. The results are really fun! 2. ‘Tis the season of holiday bokeh! Is it cliché? Sure. Is it pretty? You bet! Pay attention to your Depth of Field to get the best results. Experiment with lights, ornaments and of course the glass of cheer or two. 3. Go small & see details Get out that macro lens, extension tubes or try the reverse lens mount macro method. 4. Don’t forget to get outside! The lights in combination with the snow, if you’re lucky enough to have it, can make some gorgeous results. Use a tripod for best results at night, move around for different perspectives, and get up close and personal with the snow and lights. So many options! 5. Most importantly during the holidays: Have fun & play By playing you learn, you’d be surprised but just experimenting and having fun instead of getting all caught up in the technical aspects sometimes give you surprising and amazing results. I hope you try out some of these tips. If you do, please share them with us in the Photofocus Community.
Capturing the holiday spirit through festive food photos - It’s that time of year again! All thoughts turn to the Holiday Season. Whether that’s Thanksgiving or Christmas, or something else entirely. If it’s festive, chances are there are bound to be friends, family and of course, food. Capture festive food photos with all that sparkles, glistens and shines with a few fantastic ideas below. You don’t have to bring the big guns out — mobile cameras these days are fantastic too. Sprinkling Capture the action of dusting baked treats with icing sugar. Remember to use a slower shutter speed for soft dreamy effects. Or, speed the shutter up to get more action. Sparkling Add in some pretty LED lights or holiday lights for some sparkly bokeh in your shots. Slightly darker lighting helps amplify the lights. Glistening Grab a spray bottle with water and gently spray on fruit for that just-picked, farm-fresh look. Lovely natural light works well with this too. Don’t forget — once you’ve captured all the yummy food and are happy with your festive food photos, sit back, relax and enjoy it with good friends or family.
Give your bokeh Christmas flair with this DIY lens filter - Feeling crafty? This easy lens modifier is a fun one for the holidays and only takes a few minutes to prepare. Bonus: Your kids will love it! I love shooting wide open to capture beautiful bokeh behind my subject: The blurry, out-of-focus blobs that are characteristic of wide apertures. Bokeh takes on the shape of the aperture, which is why high-end lenses are built with lots of curved diaphragm blades (the iris that lets light through the lens) to get the aperture as perfectly round as possible. In this DIY, however, we’re going to deliberately change the aperture shape, thus sculpting the bokeh into fun holiday shapes! It’s kitsch but fun: In other words, perfect for Christmas. Don’t worry, this is a non-destructive craft: No modifications to the actual lens are required, I promise. How to create bokeh shapes with a wide aperture lens You will need: A wide aperture lens of at least f/1.8, such as a nifty fifty (50mm f/1.8 lens). The 50mm f/1.8 will work well for this activity on both a full frame or a crop sensor camera. Whatever lens you choose, make sure it has at least 50mm for the focal length (longer would be even more effective). A step-up ring for your lens (a step-up ring is used to fit filters that are larger than the lens thread). The smaller diameter of the ring needs to match your lens thread diameter. If you can’t get a step-up ring, use Method 2 below instead. A sheet of thin (e.g. 2mm) black craft foam, the kind you would use for scrapbooking or card-making. Craft knife (e.g. an X-ACTO knife or similar). Scissors and a pen. Optional extras and alternatives: If you can’t get craft foam or a step-up ring, an A4 sheet of black cardboard and sticky tape will work (see Method 2 below). Hole punches in different shapes, small amount of black cardboard, and glue (for Method 3). Method 1: Shaping bokeh with craft foam and a step-up ring This is the easiest method and takes only a few minutes. Here are the steps: Trace the wider diameter of your step-up ring onto the craft foam. Cut out the circle, on the inside of your traced line. Carefully trim the edges until the foam circle fits firmly inside the wider diameter of your step-up ring. In the center of the foam circle, draw your shape (e.g. star, heart, etc.). It should be about 1 cm in size. Cut out the shape with the craft knife. With the foam circle fitted in the wide diameter of the step-up ring, screw the ring onto the end of your lens. Your lens should now be covered with the black foam, with the shape cut-out in the middle. Now you’re ready to shoot! Method 2: Shaping bokeh with a cardboard cap If you don’t have a step-up ring, this cardboard method works well: Cut a strip of black cardboard about 5 cm wide from the long side of your A4 sheet. Wrap the cardboard around your lens to make a tube. Tape it closed. Slide the tube off the lens and trace the end to make a “lens diameter” circle on the remaining cardboard. Draw (by hand) another circle around the traced one, about 1 cm (half an inch) bigger. Cut out the bigger circle. Snip the bigger circle at regular intervals, back to the “lens diameter” circle, to make tabs (see the diagram below: Cut the dotted lines). Fold the tabs inwards so they sit at 90 degrees to the circle. Draw and cut out your 1 cm shape, as in Method 1, in the middle of your circle. Tape the circle to the end of the tube using the tabs. To shoot, slide the tube onto your lens so that it’s capped by the cardboard circle. Method 3: Making an interchangeable bokeh shaper If you’re an advanced craftsgineer, you might like to try this method. Here, we make cardboard “slides” with different-shaped holes, and a “bracket” on the circle to slip them in. I like this method because the hole punches give cleaner shapes than I can cut with the craft knife. Also, you only need to make one “cap” and can change the bokeh shape on the fly. You can make this bracket on either the foam circle/step-up ring modifier (Method 1) or the cardboard cap (Method 2). Make your cap as above, but instead of cutting a specific shape, cut a 1.5 cm square in the center. Cut two 0.5 cm by 3 cm strips of cardboard or foam, and glue one on each side of the square cutout (as per the red rectangles in the diagram below), to make the “bracket.” Only put glue on the very ends of the strips (blue dots in the diagram). Cut “slides” approx. 2 cm wide x 3 cm long. Punch each slide with a different shape. When the glue is dry, push a slide under the bracket so that the punched shape of the slide is over the central square cut-out. Now you are ready to shoot, and changing shapes is as easy as slipping one slide out and another in. Next time I’ll share some tips and tricks for using your modifier. Until then, happy crafting!
