Outdoor Christmas lights can be one of the toughest scenes to photograph well. All too often, photos come out too dark, too light, blurry, fuzzy or just plain don’t work. The combination of bright lights and dark backgrounds can make correct exposure a challenge.

One of our neighbors puts up an extensive display of lights each year, which made it easy for us to take several photos for us to use as examples.

Here’s a few tips that will help you take better photos this holiday season.

1. Turn off the flash. Most on-camera flashes are designed to light up the area 4-6 feet directly in front of the flash, and then darken down hat is beyond that range. Most holiday light displays are more than 4-6 feet away. So what happens when you don’t turn off the flash is that you light up whatever is directly in front of you (a wall, a tree, the lawn, or people) and put the holiday lights into darkness. Your camera may complain with a bunch of beeps) about not using the flash in the dark, but this is one time when it’s best to override the automatic functions and turn off the flash.

As you can see from this photo, the flash lit up the street sign and the license plate on the car while darken down the rest of the photo.

(c) 2007 Patty Hankins.

2. Increase the ISO or film speed. A higher ISO will let you have shorter exposure times. If you are using a film camera, try using ISO 400 film. For a digital camera, reset the ISO setting to at least 200 or 400 (on some digital cameras, setting at ISO 400 or above results in very grainy pictures).

At ISO 100, the shutter speed is way too slow, resulting in a fuzzy photo of the lights.

(c) 2007 Patty Hankins.

At ISO 400, things are looking a little better.

(c) 2007 Patty Hankins.

3. Brace Your Camera. Even with a higher ISO, you’re likely to be shooting exposures longer than a person can easily hold a camera perfectly still. And any camera movement shows up in the pictures as blurry lights. The best thing to use is a tripod. If you don’t have a tripod, place your camera on a table object, like a wall or a table, and use the self-timer to take the picture. If there’s nothing available to put your camera on, try leaning against a tree or a pole to help keep yourself steady.

Here’s the neighbor’s lights photographed with the camera on a tripod.

(c) 2007 Patty Hankins.

4. Set Your Camera Before You Go Out. If you’re just planning on photographing lights one evening, adjust your camera settings before you leave home. It’s much easier to set everything in the light, when you have your manual close at hand if you need it – rather than in the dark somewhere, with gloves or mittens on (or with very cold fingers).

5. Dress Warmly. It’s easy to get cold standing around taking photos at night. Remember, photography is supposed to be fun, and it’s hard to have fun when all you can think about is how cold your fingers and toes are.

6. Take Lots of Photos. Be sure to take lots of photos of the lights, including some from different exposures and compositions. Your first shot may not be your best one. Besides, if you’re shooting with a digital camera, you can always delete the ones you don’t like.

We hope these tips will help you take some photos that will help you remember the holiday season with joy rather than frustration over bad photos.