Top Creative Christmas Photo Ideas

Our friends over at The School of Photography are sharing some festive cheer with their latest photography tutorial as it's all about combining Christmas lights with portraits to create some fun, and very Christmassy, photos. 

Equipment Check List:

• Camera
• Christmas lights
• Flashgun or torch
• Tripod
• Set of steps or something to stand on

You'll also need a room you can make dark, a willing model and someone who can swing Christmas lights around your model for you. 

The Technique

This is slightly different to our own bokeh Christmas light portrait shoot as this technique involves swinging Christmas lights around a person rather than setting them up behind them. 

You'll need your model to be off the ground slightly and the person swinging the lights will have to stand on a step behind them. Changing how they swing the lights will alter the look of the final image so do take the time to experiment and take plenty of shots! 

"Once you’ve got your composition as you want, it’s play time! Add some bursts of flash or torch light. Use different coloured lights, add props, make funny faces and just have some fun with it by coming up with your own photo ideas!" The School of Photography. 

To ensure you get the shot you want every time, The School of Photography suggest you do the following: 

• Put your camera onto M (manual mode)
• Set your aperture to f/22
• Set your shutter speed to 15 seconds (you can increase this if you feel you need more time to get the shot).
• Set you ISO to 100 (or the lowest your camera will go)
• Put your camera on a tripod or table to keep it still during the exposure
• Put your camera onto its 2-second timer (that will help keep your camera still during the exposure)

We hope you enjoy trying out the tutorial and do remember to share your results with us over in the Gallery.