Normally I consider Christmas lights something better to look at than to photograph, but thought I'd try a few shots tonight. Any thoughts on best exposure techinque? [The decorations at the Chicago Botanic Garden are particularly nice this year. I think it would look best in most cases just showing the bright lights, and not much of the surrounding buildings or things partially illuminated by the lights. So, basically thousands of little points of light on the bushes. Bush's thousand points of light?]

I'm not much of an expert when it comes to night/low light photography.... wish I had some advice to give. Have fun!

I am thinking you will need a tripod and a real slow shutter speed. Experiment, do you have a "B" setting where you control the shutter manually? If you do I would try a variety of timed exposures. A shutter release cable wouldn't be a bad idea either. If you are using 35mm use a faster film (400-800 asa). Good luck, hope to see the results! Brenda :)

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=453224&Start=73&Artist=TwistedMindDesigns&ByArtist=Y

There is a lot to consider when shooting low light. 1) Tripod... this is a must unless you want light trails. 2) Consider the film speed... If you use a faster speed the exposure will be shorter but you will get a grainy shot. 3) Any zoom you use will add to the exposure time and also run the risk of a shakey shot. 4) try to use a plunger, even with a tripod when you push the shutter you run the risk of shaking the camera. Especially if you shoot in "Bulb" mode and time it, (depending on the type of camera you have) you have to either push the shutter to activate and again to release... or on other cameras you have to hold the bulbwhich can shake the camera. 5) try not to get too close to the lights... use a wide shot. If you are too close with a long exposure you will get burnt colors from the lights before you get light from surrounding area... (make sense or am I confusing you?) Anyway, here is a link to a shot I took in Trinidad from a balcony. There are a couple more in my gallery but with this shot I used: Nikon F-65 Tripod Bulb setting-timed at 40 sec. Fuji 35mm film (all I could find there) 200 asa 3.5 aperture. Mostly it is guess work. Decide what film you want to use then go from there, just open your lens aperture as wide as you can then take a few shots... for example: one at 30 sec, one at 35, one at 40... just like bracketing. The more you use your camera at night the easier it gets... Hope this helps

Only thing I can add is that I've found a few things that worked in the past: 1) Shoot just after sunset, but before total darkness. Especially if there is going to be any sky in your shot. 2) Unless you have an extremely still night, shoot with at least 400 ISO speed film. You want to avoid really long shutter times. The reason, if there is any breeze or vibration at all, the individual lights will not be sharp. 3) Take extra batteries if it's cold. Battery life is compromised in a colder climate. Using the above with tripod I probably shot at f/5.6 -> f/8 for anywhere from .5-4 seconds on most shots. If shooting film, where you can't check histograms, I'd definitely do as TMD suggests and bracket. -=>Donald

I sort of reinforced my notion that holiday lights are better seen than photographed. This one using a cross-star filter I think is pretty neat. I varied exposures from "normal" to "-1.5", and really did not see much difference.

Another one.