Five Questions: Holiday Lights, Metal Prints, a Southern National Park and More

‘Tis the season of giving. You’ve given us questions, and we’re giving you answers. Unwrap below.

This special holiday installment of our “Five Questions” series features inquiries about photographing Christmas lights, choosing a surface for metal prints, Congaree National Park, Irix and Sony lenses, and how Lightroom affects raw data.

If you have any questions you would like to throw our way, please contact us anytime. Questions could be about gear, national parks and other photo locations, post-processing techniques, field etiquette, or anything else related to night photography. #SeizeTheNight!

1. Dashing Through the Holiday Lights

Question:

I’m hoping you can solve a mystery for me and my photography students. When they created a zoom-blur photo of holiday lights, some streaks were solid and some were dotted. None of the lights appeared to be blinking. So does this have to do with the cycling of new LED lights? The exposure times were 1 second or longer, which I would think would be long enough to compensate for flicker. What’s the solution to get solid lines, if we can? — Kathy E.

View fullsize

This is one of the photos Kathy E. is asking about. Click on the image to view the photo larger and see full the effect. © 2022 James Steele. Nikon D7500 with a Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 lens. 1 second, f/11, ISO 200.

Answer:

The intensity of LED lights is controlled by increasing or decreasing the frequency of their flicker. What you’re seeing is a result of that.

We almost never see this effect with photo/video lights because the manufacturers know about shutter speeds and they keep the frequency much faster than any shutter speed that photographers would conceivably use. However, with cheap light sources, like Christmas lights, the manufacturers don’t care; the lower refresh rate of the LED pulsing will be captured by the camera.

So, in short, the lights were blinking—faster than the eye could see, but not the camera’s eye. If you see that some lines are dotted and some aren’t, that means that the lights were cycling at different rates—some fast enough for the shutter speed, and others too slow.

To keep the lines from becoming dotted during a zoom-blur, I would try zooming more slowly during a longer exposure. (Stop down everything, and maybe even add a neutral density filter.) That way the light will have more time to burn into the pixels while they’re pulsing during your zoom. — Matt

Note: For more about how to photograph holiday lights, see Gabriel Biderman’s post “Seize the Season.”

2. Metal Mettle

Question:

What finish do you recommend for metal prints of astro photos from Bay Photo Lab? — Alan A.

View fullsize

When hanging a metal print opposite a window, consider avoiding a high-gloss surface, as the window light will cause glare. High-gloss prints are best hung at a 90-degree angle from a window.

Answer:

This is a very subjective question with answers that depend on two main factors:

1.       What is your personal taste?

2.       Where will the print hang?

I feel that most of my night images benefit from being printed on a more luminous surface. For metal, I tend to print on high-gloss surfaces. Lance prefers the mid-gloss option. My wife prefers my work printed with a satin finish because glare really annoys her. So as you can tell, personal taste can vary from person to person!

However, understanding what each finish can bring to your space—and how it’s affected by your space—is also key. If you are going to hang a print directly across from a window, then satin might be your best option as you’ll want to have minimal glare. I tend to hang most of my prints at a 90-degree angle to the windows, where even high gloss shows little to no glare.

Bay Photo recently announced their Performance EXT coated metal surfaces, which have additional coatings to extend print life in direct sunlight or outdoors. This addresses another important factor: Most of my images are in a bright room, and my oldest Bay Photo metal prints are 5 years old and show no signs of fading. I recently replaced some metal prints from another printer—those were around the same age but were starting to fade. I have not used Bay’s EXT coating yet, but I advise considering it if your prints get direct sunlight.

If you are new to the metal game, I suggest getting a sample pack made in a smaller size before committing to a surface you are unfamiliar with. Bay offers sample packs in 4x6, 5x7 and 8x12 inches with either standard coating or EXT.

Finally, if you are new to using Bay Photo, be advised that they offer a 25 percent discount on your first order. — Gabe

3. Photographing Congaree

Question:

Have you ever photographed in Congaree National Park in South Carolina? It is only a few hours’ drive from my house and I’ve been thinking about going there, but I’m not sure if the park offers many good landscape opportunities. — Arnie

View fullsize

Congaree National Park boardwalk loop trail. © 2016 Chris Nicholson. Nikon D3s with a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. 1 second, f/11, ISO 800.

Answer:

I’ve been to Congaree several times. It’s a very pretty park, but it’s primarily forest. (Floodplain forest, in particular. More on that in a bit.) As you may already know, forest photography is challenging because it’s very much about making compositional order out of natural chaos. So if you’re into that type of challenge, then Congaree can be amazing. (It’s also good for spider and snake photography.)

There are some other compositional elements to work with, but most take some effort to get to: the Congaree River (which needs to be hiked to), several ponds (which need to be hiked to) and Cedar Creek (which should really be paddled). The one exception is the 2.4-mile boardwalk trail that starts (and ends) behind the visitor center; that trail is an easy way to get around that section of park, and is an attractive subject as well.

My personal feeling is that aside from the annual show of synchronous fireflies, Congaree is better for daytime photography than nighttime, and it’s better still in overcast light or fog.

The park is probably at its aesthetic best when it floods, which happens about 10 times per year—the caveat being that those conditions drastically minimize how much of the park you can access. But even with the restricted access, the reflections of the forest in the floodwater can be ample fodder for photography. — Chris

4. Sony vs. Irix Lenses

Question:

In one of Lance’s presentations he recommended the Irix 15mm T2.6 Cine lens as the best for capturing the Milky Way. I am now using a Sony a7R IV camera body with two different lenses for night shooting: the Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM and the Sony 20mm f/1.8 G. What is the possible improvement I might achieve with the Irix lens? — Ed H.

View fullsize

The Irix 15mm T2.6 Cine lens.

Answer:

I’ve looked at your photos, and you do not seem to have a problem focusing, which could have been one reason to switch.

Of the lenses you mentioned you already own, both have some noticeable coma, but neither to a catastrophic level. Stopping down the 20mm to f/2.5 should clear it up nicely. Coma on the 16-35mm will vary across the focal lengths, and with it being an f/2.8 lens, you’d likely need to stop down to f/4 or more to get rid of it.

If you need something wider, or if further testing of the 16-35mm tells you that you need to stop down to f/4 or smaller at 16mm, then the Irix 15mm will probably be a little bit better. Other advantages of the Irix are that it’s a touch wider, and it’s easier to focus and to keep in focus. I like to stop down the Irix to f/3.2 to get rid of its minimal coma.

If those advantages don’t resonate with you, then stick with your two Sony lenses. What you have seems to be working. — Lance

5. Raw Permanence

Question:

When importing, does Lightroom add edits or adjustments? If so, is there a way to import raw files as shot in camera? I was told by another photographer that Lightroom always applies filters or edits on import, so instead of importing directly into Lightroom, she moves images from a card to an external drive, and then imports to Lightroom from the external drive, thus preserving her original in-camera files. — Christie

View fullsize

Answer:

Your friend is partly right and partly wrong.

Yes, Lightroom applies some standard edits. These are the same types of edits that Canon software would apply when importing Canon raw files or Nikon software would apply when importing Nikon raw files. Most of them are under-the-hood stuff, such as sharpness, noise reduction, etc. These are basically the same types of edits that are applied to a JPG when it’s produced in-camera. They don’t really change the look of the image so much as refine it to compensate for imperfections in how the image data was captured.

If there is a change in how the photo looks after importing, the likely cause is that the profile Lightroom is applying in the Develop module doesn’t match the in-camera profile you used when shooting. Immediately upon import you see the camera-generated JPG preview, and then very quickly Adobe updates this preview with their interpretation of that file based on the Lightroom profile that’s being applied. In some cases, this can drastically change the look of your photo. (You can read more about this, and how to fix it, in our post “How to Make Your Lightroom Rendering Look Like Your Camera Preview.”)

Not to worry, though. These settings are not permanent.

In fact, none of the edits that Lightroom applies are permanent. They are simply a recorded set of instructions that tell Lightroom how to render the raw data when you view it on screen or export it later. Those instructions are stored in the catalog database and/or a sidecar file, not in the image file. The actual raw file never changes—only the instructions on how it should be previewed, copied or printed. And those instructions can be reset, altered, updated and reset again, all while never making any change to the raw file.

You can prove this by making drastic changes to a photo in Lightroom and then opening the raw file in another program. When you open it in, say, Nikon Capture NX-D, you won’t see any of the Lightroom edits—because, again, those edits are not stored in the raw file.

Therefore, having another copy of raw files in their “original state” is completely unnecessary—it’s a waste of hard drive space. Of course, we do highly recommend backing up your photo files, but that’s a whole other blog post. (Stay tuned.) — Tim

Chris Nicholson is a partner and director of content with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015) and Photographing Lighthouses (Sidelight Books, 2023). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

---

 UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Seizing the Season: How to Photograph Holiday Lights

The holiday festivities are in full swing, and everywhere you look—from the stores to the streets, from the houses to the parks—the world is sparkling with a celebration of lights.

All this holiday cheer warms the spirits and sends people out in throngs to experience festivals and homes adorned with sparkles and gleams. Including, of course, photographers!  And I’m one of them.

I recently braved the masses to experience one of the classic locations that brings in people from all over the world during the holidays—Rockefeller Center. It has the massive tree and skating rink on one side, and the spectacular Saks light show (Figure 1) on the other. Between both these sights runs a segmented water fountain and rows of angels.

View fullsize

Figure 1. An ethereal take on the Saks lights show. Nikon Z 6 with a Lensbaby Sol 45mm f/3.5 lens. 1/80, f/3.5, ISO 500, with a white balance of 5000 K.

Everyone was taking pictures with their phones, which do a decent job in such a well-lit space. But my goal was different. I wanted to get creative and make some photographs that might be worth hanging on the wall.

Would you like to get out and do the same, whether in a bustling place like Rockefeller Center or in the quiet of a suburban neighborhood? In this article I want to inspire you to level up to create something that goes beyond the snapshot. That’s right—we’re going to shoot some holiday lights!

Exposure Guidelines

Because you can experience a variety of conditions under the lights, the best exposures will vary from scene to scene.

Apertures play a big factor, whether you’re shooting wide open to turn the lights into a colorful blurred background or whether you’re stopping down to turn the direct light sources into star points.

Your shutter speeds will be dictated by whether you can use a tripod. Is there movement in the scene that will be amplified by a longer exposure? If you can’t use a tripod, choose a shutter speed above 1/60.

When shooting holiday lights, I let my ISOs fly and think about aperture and shutter speed first. Obviously, avoid any higher ISOs that add too much noise to the scene. The lower the ISO, the smoother and richer those colors will be. But today’s cameras tend to perform great up to 3200, 6400, and even 12800—so don’t be afraid to aim high if you need to!

Tips for Working Outdoors

Figure 2. Vallerret’s Ipsoot photography gloves.

Layering up and arriving early are key factors to successfully seizing the multitude of outdoor lights.

Make sure you are warm and comfortable, and especially protect your extremities from the cooler winter temperatures. My favorite hand-insulating combo is produced by our friends at Vallerret: the Ipsoot gloves (Figure 2) with merino wool liners. Add a hand warmer to the zipper pocket on the Ipsoot and you’ll be able to keep on clicking until the wee hours!

As for your feet, Smartwool socks and full-foot insole warmers will guarantee you can keep trudging through cold or snowy parks and hills.

Getting to your location by sunset will guarantee that you can take advantage of the shorter blue hour that happens in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter months. Urban city lights perfectly coordinate with the cobalt color of the sky during civil twilight (Figure 3), and that’s the time when everything is likely to fall into the dynamic range of the camera. This is also helpful in rural areas when you want to combine the twilight sky with a well-decorated home.

View fullsize

Figure 3. Even though this was shot at twilight, I needed three frames to capture the tonal range of the bright lights and the darker shadows. Fujifilm X-T1 with Fujifilm 10-24mm f/4 lens. f/8, ISO 800 and blended shutter speeds of 1, 4 and 8 seconds.

If you miss the 20-minute twilight, shooting with moonlight (not this year) or bracketing and blending the scenes with more contrast will help battle big swathes of dark negative space in your photographs (Figure 4).

View fullsize

Figure 4. The full moon definitely helped add drama (I love the tree shadow) and balance the exposure, but I still needed to blend two images to retain the highlights realistically in the luminarias. Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujifilm 10-24mm f/4 lens. f/16, ISO 400, and blended shutter speeds of 30 and 60 seconds.

Creative Tricks

As always, you can get creative in many ways. Try different kinds of compositions, different angles and shooting from different heights. Below are more fun options I love to play around with.

Lensbaby

Most people are capturing a “straight” interpretation of the scene. But Lensbabies inspire you to create a magical and mysterious spectacle!

My favorites for creating a unique look to night lights at any time of year are the Sol, Composer Pro and Twist. Each of these lenses lets you place the selective focus anywhere in the frame, making any direct light sources turn into beautiful discs of bokeh.

View fullsize

Figure 5. From left to right, the Lensbaby Sol 45, Composer Pro II 35 and Twist 60.

With both of the images below, the idea was about finessing the composition and timing the exposure with the lights. The “straight” shot with the 24-70mm lens (Figure 6) allowed me to go wider and include the flowing water. Seeing that movement led me to choose a slower shutter speed of 1/8 and then put my camera into burst mode and hold down the trigger. This helped guarantee at least one sharp shot in the bunch while also highlighting the moving water.

View fullsize

Figure 6. Nikon Z 6 with a Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4 lens. 1/8, f/8, ISO 640, with a white balance of 5000 K.

View fullsize

Figure 7. Nikon Z 6 with a Lensaby Sol 45mm f/3.5 lens. 1/15, f/3.5, ISO 100, with a white balance of 5000 K.

But I also love the look of the Lensbaby (Figure 7). The Sol is easy to use with a focal length of 45mm. It also has a fixed aperture of f/3.5. I wasn’t able to include the water fountain, but the selective focus made the scene seem like a dream!

Defocus

As photographers we’re trained to get everything sharp. But deliberately going soft can also be incredibly creative, and it can work especially well when dealing with light sources. Try manually focusing to turn the lights into big balls of color.

For the image in Figure 8, the beautiful out-of-focus highlights that the Lensbaby creates inspired me to try defocusing. The swirling bokeh of the Twist lens looked even better when all the lights from the tree were soft.

View fullsize

Figure 8. Nikon Z 6 with Lensbaby Twist 60. 1/60, f/3.5, ISO 250.

Zooming

One of my favorite techniques to employ with direct light sources is zooming during the exposure. In order to do this in a brightly lit area like Rockefeller Center, you’ll want to use your lowest ISO and stop down the aperture to f/16 or f/22. You could even use a 3- or 6-stop neutral density filter.

Why are we diminishing the light so much? So we can work with a longer shutter speed. The longer you can zoom, the more creative you can get.

For the image in Figure 9, I used the LCD on the back of the camera to compose and practice a few different compositions. The 24-70mm lens worked perfectly, as the star remained in the frame as I zoomed. With a longer lens (I also had the Nikon 28-300mm with me), I would have lost that important part of the composition at the longer focal lengths.

View fullsize

Figure 9. Nikon Z 6 with a 24-70mm f/4 lens. 6 seconds, at f/22, ISO 50.

The trick to the zoom technique is to hold your position at the beginning and end of the exposure so that you can freeze the subject in both spots. For example, this exposure was 6 seconds. I set the zoom to its widest position, triggered the exposure, counted to 2, then started to slowly zoom, timing the movement so there was another 2-count at the end. This helped balance the visual of the tree versus the effect of the zoom.

Black and White

When you’re shooting something that’s colorful by nature, it’s hard to think outside that color box. But that different take is exactly why a monochrome approach to shooting holiday lights can be so captivating.

I ended my night at Rockefeller Center by looking for a quieter scene (Figure 10). I loved the simplicity of the white lights covering the trees and knew it would look good in black and white. I wanted to embrace the people moving on the sidewalk, so I experimented with 1- to 15-second shutter speeds. The shorter exposures made the figures resemble ghosts walking through the scene.

View fullsize

Figure 10. Nikon Z 6 with a Nikon 24-70mm f/4 lens at 28mm. 1 second, f/9, ISO 640.

Indoor Opportunities

No need to layer up here! With your camera in hand (or on a tripod), you can celebrate your precious ornaments and indoor lighting arrangements in a variety of ways.

Ornaments

Every year our good friend and ranger at Biscayne National Park, Gary Bremen, shares his pictures and the stories behind each ornament on his Facebook page. My sister just started doing the same, and my wife Nancy can definitely spin a yarn about each one of her ornaments. Why not do the same? (Figures 11-14.)

View fullsize

Figure 11. Boots Ornament. Each shot with Nikon D750 with a Tamron 90mm macro lens. 1/8, f/8, ISO 800.

View fullsize

Figure 12. Teardrop Ornament. 1/125, f/3.5, ISO 800.

View fullsize

Figure 13. Light Bubble Ornament. After experimenting with shutter speeds from 1/125 to 1 second, I settled on 1/30 to best interpret the movement in the ornament. 1/30, f/3.8, ISO 100.

View fullsize

Figure 14. Beer Ornament. Don’t forget that holiday beers are decorative and taste great! 1/30, f/8, ISO 400.

Photographing ornaments is often best done using a macro lens. Because macros have extremely shallow depth of field, you’ll want to use a tripod to ensure you nail the focus and get a precise distinction between your main subject and the blur of the background (Figure 15).

View fullsize

View fullsize

Figure 15. Note the difference between the size and shape of the background lights when shooting at f/3.5 (left) and f/11 (right). Nikon D750 with a Tamron 90mm macro lens.

Portraits

The holidays are a time for many family photos. So get creative and use the lights as a symbolic background for your portraits.

The key to producing that colorful bokehliscious background is to compress the depth of field and have the tree lights out of focus. Use a portrait lens between 85mm and 135mm (a 70-200mm is a perfect lens), along with a flash.

For the portraits in Figure 16, I set up my camera and tripod about 15 feet from the tree. I then placed a chair about 6 feet from the lens and made sure it aligned nicely with the lights behind it. I used a Profoto A1 flash off-camera, mounted on a light stand and connected via a remote trigger. This created a pleasing light combination that helped separate the subject from the background.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Figure 16. Sandy, Brooks and Helen. All images shot with Nikon D750 with a Tamron 90mm macro lens and a Profoto A1 flash. 1/30, f/3, ISO 400.

Wrapping Up

These aren’t the only ways to be creative with holiday lights—the options are infinitely varied. We’d love to see what you come up with! Please share your photos in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

So don’t be a Scrooge this season. Get out there in the cold night air, and seize those holiday lights!

Gabriel Biderman is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. He is a Brooklyn-based fine art and travel photographer, and author of Night Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots (Peachpit, 2014). During the daytime hours you'll often find Gabe at one of many photo events around the world working for B&H Photo’s road marketing team. See his portfolio and workshop lineup at www.ruinism.com.

---

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT