Photography: Christmas shots

It’s nearly Christmas and so there are lots of new things to point your camera at. I’ve bought some new filters, a warm filter, soft focus and a 4 point star filter. I used the 4 point star filter to take this shot of the town Christmas tree.

Noddy Holder

I’ve been to two official Christmas Lights switch-ons now. The first had crowds of people to watch Gareth Gates do the big switch on and on Friday it was Noddy Holder (of Slade) who switched on the Christmas tree lights at the Manor hospital in Walsall.

Some cameras have ‘night’ settings. That’s for when it’s dark, it’s not dark in this picture! You can get quite good pictures without the night setting, this is without the fancy filter too. You might need to adjust your picture a little in editing.

These three young ladies were raising money for prostate cancer research at the Manor hospital Christmas Lights switch-on. It looked quite light, but my first shot was too dark and so I used my flash (speedlight).     The picture is still a little dark, that’s because the camera was fooled by the light shining in through the window. In this situation, try a different angle or zoom in more and use a flash.

 

Here is Noddy sharing the limelight with Pete Smith, the mayor and young Jayden from the children’s ward who is in hospital with a broken leg. I was able to get closer and so the flash gave me better skin tones, but in many of the pictures the skin tones have too much red.

This shot shows that I zoomed in and used ‘spot focusing’. to get the subject in focus and not the background. I wasn’t close enough and had the press pack photographers in front of me, but compensated for the dark skin tone in editing. I hope the press pack won’t be at any other events for a while  so I might be able to get closer next time. I did obtain permission from the organiser to take photos in the hospital. Hospitals are different from other events, because of patient privacy and confidentiality. I was careful about who I photographed.

You can see in this picture the effect of spot focusing more clearly. Noddy is in focus, but the people in the background are out of focus. Try to capture expressions in your photos, rather than a cheesy grin! Posing is OK, but candid photos tend to be more interesting.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts in the comments box. You can also follow me on Twitter. You can also check out my articles on A Zillion ideas. I’m getting more guest writers on there now. If you would like to become a guest writer or have photos featured just send me an email. I will help you with writing and photography. Today I’m helping a student in Hong Kong with writing. One of the students that I have helped graduated last week with a BSc to go with her BA so maybe I’m doing something right!

Advertisement