Christmas lights photo

by Rebecca
(Virginia)

I'm having trouble getting the effect I want in a Christmas lights photo. I would like a well-lighted family group, with a black background. I've experimented with all sorts of settings, but cannot seem to get the family faces well lit without too much background visible. In these examples found on Pintrest, are the photographers just using photoshop to darken the background?

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Jun 16, 2020

Darkening the Background
by: Scott

The first thing you want to do is make sure your background is darker than the area where your family is. Which I'm sure you did.

Try standing farther back and zooming in on your family. Zooming in will reduce some of the light coming through the lens.

If that doesn't work, shoot wide (zoom out) and stand much closer.

If you can adjust your shutter speed, shoot with a longer shutter speed and make sure your family stays completely still.

Also, darkening the background in editing is definitely a possibility. Personally, if I take a picture and I want the background darker than I shot it, I would edit the background darker to give it the look I want.

I hope that helps.

Thanks for your question, Rebecca.
Scott

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