December is one of those months that many photographers cherish. There’s a litany of holidays – Hannukah, Christmas, Winter Solstice, Festivus and Kwanzaa. It’s a time (again) to see family you haven’t seen most of the year. We take family portraits for Christmas cards and gifts. Family get-togethers are an opportunity to preserve memories. Christmas lights offer their own magic. Winter storms might keep many inside, but intrepid photographers are rewarded with special images. December offers a multitude of photo ops – for many of these, you just need your camera. But for others, you might need some special gear.
For those who like to stay inside
Portraits are the gift that really does last forever. A few years ago, I took high-key portraits of everyone in our family at the time. I used my broncolor Scoro 3200S with Pulso G 3200 and Siros 800 S lamps to light each portrait. My wife knew I was taking portraits but didn’t know why until Christmas morning – I had printed panos of the family on Hahnemühle canvas, protected with Hahnemühle varnish and then wrapped with Stick n Stretch. I also printed headshots that I wrapped on Stick n Stretch Hexagon frames.
If you don’t have studio lights, speedlights such as the Hahnel Modus 600 RT are great for portraits and candids. I setup a “studio” in front of the fireplace, with some holiday decorations, for this portrait of my grandson. I used a pair of Cactus CB-60 softboxes with my speedlights on stands.
The lighting in our homes isn’t the best, especially at Christmas with the tree lights. I leave my speedlight attached to my camera and like to use a flash modifier such as the Hahnel Creative Lantern to give me a nice soft light. This image of my wife and her mom making stuffing years ago is especially important to us as her mom has been gone for a few years. But the memory of this moment, and the stories from that particular Christmas, live on to this day. That’s the magic of the photograph. An added bonus is the nice catchlights in their eyes.
Christmas decorations offer unique photo ops. There are a lot of interesting details when you look for them. I used my speedlight and small softbox, similar to the Hahnel Module Softbox for this portrait of a Nutcracker keeping guard of the fireplace.
I used a similar setup for this image of our prize-winning Gingerbread house, plus some battery-powered LED lights and the Christmas tree in the background. To get that nice blur in the background, I shot this at f/2.8 with my Tamron 24-70 G2 at ISO900, 1/50s shutter speed.
For this unique Santa image, I used the broncolor UV attachment as my sole light source. Ultraviolet light causes whites to glow.
The Great Outdoors
Those of us brave enough to get outside in the winter are rewarded with a plethora of photo ops. Fresh snow is probably my favourite time – but if you don’t want tracks of others in your image, you have to get up pretty early. This image of snow-covered trees and snow on the bridge is helped by the footprints in the snow leading to the converging point. The ultrawide 10-18mm Laowa zoom makes the bridge look much wider and longer than it actually is. I may try to get up early next snow and capture the same image without human disturbance.
The ice storm from a few years ago was a photographer’s dream. When the ice started to melt on my fence, it created thousands of icicles. A few inches long, each was full of character with air bubbles trapped inside as the water froze.
I also had a thought about taking my car out, but alas it was frozen in place. This sheet of ice was in the place where my driver side window used to be. I was able to lower the window and used the ice to create this abstract image of my neighbour’s house. I guess we could call this an “Ice Filter”. I wonder if Kenko will add this effect to their Special Effects filters?
Don’t forget to bring your camera on family excursions. We laugh every year when we see this fun photo of my wife and son “cutting” a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Don’t worry – we left that tree to hopefully grow bigger. Maybe it was last year’s tree?
Oh .. Pretty Lights!
Photography is about light and December is the month that easily features the most lights any of us can find. Homes decorated in hundreds, if not thousands, of lights of every colour catch our eyes (and cameras). But what can we do to create images that stand out?
This image of my home is actually an HDR composite of nine frames, to get that ethereal glow. To create an image like this, you need to start with a sturdy tripod such as a Vanguard Alta Pro 2+ 263AB100. You don’t want your camera to move at all between exposures. Pressing your shutter button can introduce shake or micro movements in your camera – to eliminate those, I used my Hahnel HR 280 Pro wired shutter release. Exposure times ranged from 1/6 to 30s, at 3 stops between frames. I came back to this image to take advantage of the latest software – editing in Lightroom CC while using my TourBox for fine control of the settings.
We used to have the most amazing snowman, Paul – I can’t find one just the same. I played around with a few techniques. The first was to use manual focus and a fast lens (similar to the Tamron 45mm f/1.8) at f/1.8. I focused on Paul and then manually adjusted the focus closer to the camera. This turned the sharp light points into “Bokeh Balls”.
For something different, I added a Kenko Twinkle Star filter to add light beams to the brighter light points. This makes Paul look like a superstar 😉
When I went back in the house to warm up, the kids were playing with their new race track. Of course, the lights caught my eye. I shot this image handheld with an image stabilized lens and set my speedlight to Rear Curtain Sync. Exposure was 1.3s at f/4.5 and ISO400. It took at bit of trial and error to get the exposure just right. Timing was perfect – I listened for the car to hit the crossover just out of frame, exhaled and pressed the shutter. I was using Bulb mode so the shutter stayed open as long as I pressed it. After watching out of my left eye, I could see the car approaching the top of the spiral so I let go of the shutter and the flash fired.
I hope you take the opportunity to try out new techniques this holiday season. Tag us and/or share on PHOTONews social media.
From all of us at PHOTONews, Merry Christmas, Hanukkah Sameach, Habari Gani and happy holidays to all.
About the Author – Will Prentice
A portrait, fine art and commercial photographer for 30 plus years, Will Prentice is not just a contributor to PHOTONews magazine, but also host of PHOTONewsTV, owner of Captura Photography+Imaging and Technical Support/Brand Manager for Amplis Foto, Canada’s largest distributor of photographic equipment.
Will teaches photographers of all skill levels how to improve their craft – from creative photo projects to picking the right gear for their needs to flattering lighting to getting the best expressions to creating final images for screen and print. His unique style of highly detailed images with perfect tonality, wide dynamic range and stunning colour is instantly recognizable. Commercial clients rely on Will’s creative eye and mastery of lighting.
When he’s not behind the camera or in front of a class, you’ll find Will outdoors in any weather – usually on one of his bikes or enjoying time with his grandchildren.
