I have had a request to do some Christmas family photos. They would like to stand in front of their house that is decorated with Christmas lights at night. They would also like to go inside to take photos in front of their Christmas tree.

I am having trouble figuring out how to expose for the family and the Christmas lights in the background.
I have two Canon flashes. I can use one on camera and one off.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for me?

Thank you!!!

Drag the shutter and gel your flash with Rosco Full Straw so the Christmas lights don't appear so yellow. It will convert your daylight flash down to around 2900°K.

You also might want to use a tripod if your shutter needs to drop considerably.

Practice at home first. Then you'll show up and be ready for anything!

+1 on Matt's advise. A tripod will be vital. If you don't have a cable release (electronic or otherwise) I've found that setting your camera to timer mode at around 10 seconds works quite well.

This is what I would do... set your camera up on a tripod, and use a cable release. I would start out at something like 400 ISO, F4 at 1/30 second. use your flashes to light the people, and drag your shutter enought to let in the Chirstmas lights. You might have to play a little bit until it is right. You will probably end up at about 1/8 - 1/15 second.

Some things to be careful of... if you shutter is slow, make sure the Christmas lights aren't casting off too much light that the subjects get blury from motion blur with a slow shutter. Make sure you are at least 2 or more stops different than your ambient light reading, using your flashes to light the people.

Make sure you use a tripod and cable release, so the camera doesn't "shake" and the lights in the background get a blur.

Here is a sample in front of a tree from a wedding. My settings were ISO 400 F5.6 1/15 shutter speed. I was using a tripod and cable release.

Kari, just curious... Did you gel the flash in that shot? I'm guessing no... but either way I don't find the the lights to be too yellow.

Also, Steve's advice of using the timer is good, but I would drop it down to two seconds since the family will get tired of waiting 10 seconds for each shot.

Ya 10sec. feels like an eternity if people are waiting. I did it a few times when I had to run to be in the photo and I seriously though I had set it for like 30sec and not 10. That was good for a few laughs.

Thanks everyone! I am going to see if I can find a cable release at a local store.

What about flash? How much? On camera?

Well, it'll certainly look better if it is off-camera and bounced off a wall or into an umbrella (outside), but you'll probably have to play with the flash compensation a little.

Practice!

This may be a stupid question but here it goes anyway...

I am looking to buy some reflectors soon. Would it be possible to bounce an off camera flash to a reflector?

I am also looking for something to bounce off of for senior portraits.
Any recommendations?

No Matt, I didn't. I was using a WL strobe bounced into an umbrella, with no gel.I have never tried it... but I don't see why you couldn't. It would be almost the same as an umbrella, except the reflector isn't curved like an umbrella. Maybe someone else has tried it...I actually have a stand and umbrella that I bought for my flash. I was planning on trying the Lighting 102 class from the strobist, but I got too busy. I am going to Zach's one light, and he uses a stand and umbrella too. Why not try an umbrella?

Jamie, you could bounce off someone's big, fat head if you want. Bounce off anything.

Here is Zack's list of recommended lighting gear at B&H.

I am actually attending Zach's One light in Houston (March)
I am sooo excited!
Anyone else going?

I am going in Detroit in April. I can't wait!

The formula for this one is easy.

Set your ambient exposure to what you need to get a good exposure on the Christmas lights and adjust your off-camera flash exposure to match the f-stop of the ambient.

Remember, flash exposure is not shutter speed Dependant (in most cases) as long as you are within your camera's sync speed. This means that if the flash exposure and the ambient exposure share the same f-stop, the shutter speed can be determined by the ambient settings.

The key is getting the exposure set for the Holiday Lights. That will take some trial and error. You might want to visit the location ahead of time, at the same time of night as you will be doing the family portraits... or take a laptop along on the night of the session, and do some test exposures of the home, and double check the results on computer.

For the ambient exposure, you need to set the F-stop at the high end of where you normally take your portraits. I'd suggest f8 or f11 if you want better depth of field. Darkness can really interfere with auto focus -- especially when the subject is back lit.

Position your subjects somewhere in the foreground where they are out direct ambient light -- someplace DARK.

Camera on the tripod, with cable release as suggested earlier.

NOW - Set your flash exposure to the same F-stop that you've set the ambient exposure to: probably f8. I'd recommend a Strobe with umbrella or soft box positioned just off camera about a foot or two, positioned to light up just the family. Watch your camera angels so you don't get a lot of the ground immediately behind the subjects. Your flash will be illuminating the ground there, and you don't need to light up the grass or snow there but not at the house.

But how do you get the camera to focus in the dark.

Take a deer light or other big flash light. Some camera's have auto focus assist mini-pops with the flash, but I like the big flashlight.

This is also a great time to switch the camera to use back button auto focus. That way you can get everyone positioned, focus with the button on the back (not the shutter release button), and not focus again until you or the subjects move.

Just a couple comments... Make sure that none of the subjects' (family members) heads are between your camera and any light sources... you get a ghosting effect and sometimes looks like something is glowing out of their head (especially if you are dragging the shutter)..... Secondly, try to compose your image without any (or very little) foreground in the viewing area.... the ground will be lit by your flash and it won't look good... post some of the pics when you're done.... love to see them....

I do this quite a lot recently... especially when is overcast and later in the evening - or in alot of shade, I use my off-camera-shoe-cord and bounce the flash into a gold reflector which then makes them look like the sun is setting and they are nice and glowy

Jonathan

here are a few shots i got last night... the wind was whipping pretty good.. hence this post!

http://www.opensourcephoto.net/forum/index...mp;#entry245595

those look great!

Great job Matt!

See, Matt's example is perfect for why I recommended gelling the flash to better match the Christmas lights. To my eye, they look too yellow. They look great, but not how one expects Christmas lights to look.

I'm nitpicking, but just trying to illustrate my point.

Set your white balance to Tungsten and gel your flashes for that. This will make the lights nice and white. Get there before the sun sets and set up. Have the family turn the lights on early for you, so you can try to take the shot at dusk. You can play around and make the sky look cool also. I also set my Custom Funtion to rear curtain sync.
Chris