Let’s talk about Christmas lights for a second shall we. As photographers, we love them. We can’t get enough of them. My heart rate goes up a little when I show up at a job and I see Christmas lights. Now don’t go thinking they are just for the holidays either. A lot of times reception venues will string the classic white strands throughout a room to provide a little ambiance. It makes for a great background. As photographers when we shoot a couple of the dance floor with an open aperture – say 2.8 – the miracle of the twinkling light is obvious. The lights are out of focus, blurry and bigger. Voila, a beautiful background.
But Christmas gives us another option before we ever get to the reception. A well placed detail shot of say the wedding rings, some earrings, bracelet can have the same effect. Just use the family Christmas tree as your background and you immediately have a much more interesting ring shot. It’s always a challenge making ring shots and detail shots better. Twinkling Christmas lights might be the easiest way. Now if only we could convince people to keep Christmas trees up all year long we’d really be onto something.
Here are a couple shots we took this weekend.
