Have you ever wondered how to get the lights on your tree to ‘sparkle’?
The trick is all in your aperture setting!
Below I took a picture of my Christmas tree using several different apertures. I included 100 percent crops so you can see the transformation of the lights.







You can see at f/11, I get a clear starburst from the lights aka ‘sparkly’ lights! These were all shot at 16mm, but the same principles apply with any lens. Below are examples shot with a macro lens.



Other tips when photographing your tree include:
Pull out a tripod!
Look at my shutter speeds. It would be impossible to hand hold my camera without getting motion blur.
Check your histogram.
This was one of those situations that my camera meter wasn’t accurate. According to it, I was overexposing by two full stops!
Use more light.
If you want portraits by a ‘sparkly’ tree, you are going to need another light source. With f/stops this high, you will need extra light and most likely a high ISO to speed up your shutter enough to prevent motion blur.
Change your metering.
When taking pictures of kids decorating the tree, meter off of the spot you want properly exposed (and remember to check your histogram and blinkies). This is usually the face or maybe a hand hanging an ornament.
Play with your white balance.
A warm white balance can give your image a cozy, Christmas feel. While a cool white balance will give you a wintery, Christmas feel. Of course you can always convert to black and white as I often do!
Awesome tips! Thank you. Can't wait to try! 🙂
Awesome tips!! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Thank you for taking the time to tell us how to better shots of our Christmas Tree! Now I want to try this out!
such great tips, Stacey!!!
Do you have any other lights on in the room while taking these pictures or just the lite Christmas tree?
Diana-I didn't have any lights in this room on, but this room adjoins to the kitchen that is right behind me. Those lights were on so this room was dark, but not completely pitch black. I hope that helps 🙂
Great tips! I can't wait until tonight to pull out my tripod!
Great tips and images, Stacey! Thanks so much for taking the time to share this (and your beautiful tree!) with us!
Wonderful, Stacey! I never knew the effect of the f-stop on the lights!
great tutorial, stacey!!
Thank you Stacey!! Hope to get our tree up this weekend!
Thank you so much for this! I have been dying to get some good shots this Christmas.
Thanks Stacey. This came just at the right time. Can't wait to try it.
This is soo fabulous. Thank you for taking the time to create this article. Happy Holidays to you!
Just what I needed. Your tutorial was very informative step-by-step.. I am a newbie and this will help guide me through capturing the shot. Thank You!!!
Thanks for sharing! Will try this out on our Christmas tree! 🙂
Very cool tip thank you
Oh yeah, shes got it nailed ! Thats good advice for those looking for beautiful Christmas images………….most especially the night shots.
Great tips! Thanks, Stacey!
I have a question..last year I saw a shot I think here and the room was dark but the tree was lit up and kinda glowed..what piece of equipment was used to achieve that?
Thanks! I had no idea a smaller aperture would equal sparkly lights!
Thank you, Stacey! Such awesome tips! 🙂
Just took this one tonight in our home in CT! Fresh fallen snow and the new lights my husband just bought. They are LED lights. At first I did not like them, Im used to the golden glow, but after seeing this tonight I’m in Love!
Thank you Stacy! This is something I am going to try for sure this year!!
awesome post!!!!!!!! I didn’t even know what I was missing! I don’t have a tripod yet but I have tall kitchen chairs and many huge textbooks. I love with the images of my home I was able to create. Thank you for sharing your knowledge
These are some really nice shots, I wish my Christmas shots looked like this. Thanks for the tips.
Thanks so much for the tips! Love the shots I got of our tree this year
Here is one I took of one of my trees the other day.
Look at those starbursts!
I have been wondering about this topic. Thank you!