Photographing holiday lights and candles is one of the most magical experiences for any photographer, offering the chance to capture the festive glow that fills homes, streets, and hearts during the holiday season. From twinkling outdoor decorations to cozy candlelight scenes, holiday lights provide endless creative opportunities. Whether you’re photographing a beautifully lit home or the gentle flicker of candles, mastering a few key techniques will help you elevate your photos and bring out the warmth and charm of the holidays.
Here are 10 tips to help you photograph holiday lights and candles like a pro.
1. Master Low-Light and Night Photography Techniques
The beauty of holiday lights is best captured when darkness sets in, so knowing how to handle low-light conditions is crucial. Techniques used in night photography will be your best friend when shooting holiday lights, both indoors and out. Start by using a tripod to keep your camera stable and avoid blur, especially in longer exposures. A remote shutter release is another valuable tool to prevent camera shake, ensuring your images are crisp and sharp.
Since you’ll often be dealing with long exposures, it’s also helpful to familiarize yourself with your camera’s manual settings—particularly aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Adjusting these settings manually will give you greater control over the exposure and help you avoid overexposing the lights or underexposing the surroundings.
2. Plan Your Shots for the Best Light
Timing is key when photographing outdoor holiday lights, and the best time to shoot is often during the “blue hour”—the period just after sunset or just before sunrise. During this time, the sky still retains some color and ambient light, which can add depth and context to your images. If you’re photographing a home, for example, the soft light can help define trees, rooftops, and other surrounding elements, preventing them from blending into the darkness.
In contrast, shooting too late in the evening can result in a photo where the lights appear to float in a sea of black, losing the detail and richness of the scene. Urban environments, with their ambient light, are more forgiving for late-night shooting, but for suburban or rural areas, the blue hour offers the ideal balance between the glow of the lights and the soft remaining daylight.
3. Turn Off Your Flash
While it may seem counterintuitive, turning off your flash is essential when photographing holiday lights. Flash can overpower the delicate glow of the lights, either rendering them too dim or washing out the entire scene. When shooting outside, your flash will likely not be powerful enough to light the environment effectively, and indoors, it can ruin the mood of a candlelit room or Christmas tree.
However, if you do need to light a scene, such as when capturing a fully decorated tree, use an external light source with more control, or bounce the flash off the ceiling to create a softer, more flattering effect. For most situations, though, the natural light of the holiday decorations is what you’ll want to capture, so keep your flash off.
4. Set the Right White Balance
Holiday lights come in a range of colors, from cool blue LEDs to warm incandescent bulbs. Adjusting your white balance will help you manage these different tones and ensure they look natural. While many photographers prefer shooting in RAW format and using auto white balance to adjust the color tones later in post-processing, you can also manually set your white balance based on the scene.
For warm, incandescent lights, a lower Kelvin setting (around 2500K-3500K) will help maintain the warmth, while a higher setting (4000K-5000K) works better for cool LED lights. Play around with your camera’s white balance options to find the look that best complements your scene and your creative vision.
5. Get Creative with Star Filters
To add a magical touch to your holiday light photos, try using a star filter. These filters create starburst effects around points of light, giving your images a dynamic, festive flair. Star filters come in a variety of styles, offering different numbers of points (such as four-point or eight-point star effects). Experimenting with these can transform your photos, making the lights appear more radiant and captivating.
While many modern lenses are designed to minimize starburst effects, attaching a filter designed specifically for this purpose will give you that desired “twinkle” effect, amplifying the holiday mood.
6. Try Unique Lenses Like Lensbaby
If you’re looking to inject some fun and creativity into your holiday photography, consider using specialty lenses like those from the Lensbaby lineup. These quirky lenses offer a variety of artistic effects, from dreamy blurs to surreal bokeh. Whether you’re using the Composer Pro, Velvet, or Spark lenses, Lensbaby’s unique optics can add a playful, whimsical touch to your holiday light photos.
The tilt-shift capabilities of some Lensbaby lenses also allow you to manipulate the focus in interesting ways, giving you creative control over which parts of the image are sharp and which are blurred, perfect for emphasizing the glowing lights against a softer background.
7. Play with Bokeh Shapes
Holiday lights and bokeh (the out-of-focus areas in a photograph) are a match made in photography heaven. By creatively manipulating the shape of your bokeh, you can add an extra layer of charm to your images. One way to achieve this is through the Lensbaby Creative Bokeh Optic, which allows you to swap out plates to customize the shape of the bokeh—think stars, hearts, or even snowflakes.
For a DIY approach, cut out shapes from cardboard and place them in front of your lens. The lights in the background will take on the shape of your cutouts, adding a fun and personal touch to your holiday photos.
8. Bring Your Own Lights for Light Painting
If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, bring some of your own lights to create light paintings in your holiday shots. Light painting involves moving a light source—such as a flashlight or LED light—during a long exposure to create patterns or write messages in the air. This technique is especially fun for holiday photography, as you can “write” festive greetings or create colorful swirls of light in the frame.
Consider using multi-colored lights or keychain-sized flashlights to add different hues and tones to your image. You can also try the Luxli Viola 5″ LED light for more precise color control, or experiment with larger, app-controlled lights to create dynamic scenes.
9. Watch Out for Light Flicker
When photographing holiday lights, especially LED or fluorescent ones, you may notice an unwanted flickering effect in your images. This happens because these lights often cycle on and off rapidly, much faster than the human eye can detect, but your camera might capture them mid-cycle. To avoid this, use a slower shutter speed, which gives the lights time to fully illuminate during the exposure.
Some modern cameras have anti-flicker settings that can help reduce this effect, but using a slower shutter speed remains a reliable solution. Be mindful of this issue, especially when shooting indoors or under artificial lighting.
10. Embrace Creative Freedom
Holiday lights offer a perfect opportunity to unleash your creativity. There’s no right or wrong way to photograph them, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Change your lenses, play with zoom and focus, and even intentionally blur the lights for abstract, artistic effects. You can also use techniques like light painting or bokeh manipulation to make your images stand out.
The key is to have fun and inject your own style and personality into the shots. Whether you’re capturing the glow of a holiday tree, the flicker of a candle, or the twinkling lights of a winter wonderland, embrace the opportunity to create something truly unique and magical.
Photographing holiday lights and candles can be a fun and rewarding experience, offering countless opportunities to experiment and get creative. What tips have you discovered for capturing these festive scenes? Let us know in the comments below, and happy holidays!
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