Any hints for taking pics of Christmas lights?

In the next couple of weeks, I may have chances to take pictures of
local "Cavalcade of Lights" at a couple of places.

Question 1) Should I even bother... Panasonic FZ5, ISO 80/100/200/400,
and a mini-tripod, assuming I can find a place to rest the tripod. Max
exposure time is 8 seconds. The battery is rechargable lithium-ion.

Question 2) Assuming the answer to 1) is "Yes", what are the best
settings to use? I don't normally go past ISO 100 due to noise (but see
item 3 below). But I may have to in order to get a half-decent
exposure. And probably f/2.8 (the max), again in order to get enough
light. What's the recommended white balance? Etc, etc.

Question 3) Assuming I have "high ISO noise", what's the best way to
get rid of it using Gimp and/or ImageMagick? This'll be *IN ADDITION TO*
binning. I've found that taking a 2048x1536 ISO 200 image and feeding it
through ImageMagick's "boxfilter" produces a 1024x768 image with noise
level similar to an ISO 80 shot.

--
Walter Dnes; my email address is *ALMOST* like
Delete the "z" to get my real address. If that gets blocked, follow
the instructions at the end of the 550 message.

Walter Dnes (delete the 'z' to get my real address) wrote:

NOTE: the best advice I can give you is to experiment. There are many
many ways of producing great photos of the lights. Play around and see. I
strongly suggest picking a night after a rain when the streets are still wet
or maybe even after a snow. It can add a lot to the results. Play with the
idea of people in the photos. Try underexposing from what the camera
recommends a lot underexposed, like 2-10 stops.


In the next couple of weeks, I may have chances to take pictures of
local "Cavalcade of Lights" at a couple of places.

Question 1) Should I even bother... Panasonic FZ5, ISO
80/100/200/400, and a mini-tripod, assuming I can find a place to
rest the tripod. Max exposure time is 8 seconds. The battery is
rechargable lithium-ion.

No problems there.


Question 2) Assuming the answer to 1) is "Yes", what are the best
settings to use? I don't normally go past ISO 100 due to noise (but
see item 3 below). But I may have to in order to get a half-decent
exposure. And probably f/2.8 (the max), again in order to get enough
light. What's the recommended white balance? Etc, etc.

There is no one best setting. I suggest you try a wide range. Make
each exposure a full stop or more different than the last. You will need to
go manual or force over/under exposure.


Question 3) Assuming I have "high ISO noise", what's the best way to
get rid of it using Gimp and/or ImageMagick? This'll be *IN ADDITION
TO* binning. I've found that taking a 2048x1536 ISO 200 image and
feeding it through ImageMagick's "boxfilter" produces a 1024x768
image with noise level similar to an ISO 80 shot.

Set a lower ISO. There are some software products that claim to help.


--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

Joseph Meehan wrote:
Walter Dnes (delete the 'z' to get my real address) wrote:

.. Try
underexposing from what the camera recommends a lot underexposed,
like 2-10 stops.

Make that underexposed and overexposed.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

You may or may not find this NYIP article helpful:

http://tinyurl.com/9vkm3

Paul B.

Walter Dnes (delete the 'z' to get my real address) wrote:
In the next couple of weeks, I may have chances to take pictures of
local "Cavalcade of Lights" at a couple of places.

Question 1) Should I even bother... Panasonic FZ5, ISO
80/100/200/400, and a mini-tripod, assuming I can find a place to
rest the tripod. Max exposure time is 8 seconds. The battery is
rechargable lithium-ion.

Question 2) Assuming the answer to 1) is "Yes", what are the best
settings to use? I don't normally go past ISO 100 due to noise (but
see item 3 below). But I may have to in order to get a half-decent
exposure. And probably f/2.8 (the max), again in order to get
enough
light. What's the recommended white balance? Etc, etc.

Question 3) Assuming I have "high ISO noise", what's the best way
to
get rid of it using Gimp and/or ImageMagick? This'll be *IN
ADDITION
TO* binning. I've found that taking a 2048x1536 ISO 200 image and
feeding it through ImageMagick's "boxfilter" produces a 1024x768
image with noise level similar to an ISO 80 shot.

Never an easy task, what with the typical viewing conditions for
holiday lights.

One approach, includung just a little exposure data to give you a
starting point:
http://www.fototime.com/inv/39ED1C21D578079

--
Frank ess
"I can't sing,
but I know how to,
which is quite different."
-- Noel Coward

"Walter Dnes (delete the 'z' to get my real address)"
wrote in message
...
In the next couple of weeks, I may have chances to take pictures of
local "Cavalcade of Lights" at a couple of places.

Question 1) Should I even bother... Panasonic FZ5, ISO 80/100/200/400,
and a mini-tripod, assuming I can find a place to rest the tripod. Max
exposure time is 8 seconds. The battery is rechargable lithium-ion.

Question 2) Assuming the answer to 1) is "Yes", what are the best
settings to use? I don't normally go past ISO 100 due to noise (but see
item 3 below). But I may have to in order to get a half-decent
exposure. And probably f/2.8 (the max), again in order to get enough
light. What's the recommended white balance? Etc, etc.

Question 3) Assuming I have "high ISO noise", what's the best way to
get rid of it using Gimp and/or ImageMagick? This'll be *IN ADDITION TO*
binning. I've found that taking a 2048x1536 ISO 200 image and feeding it
through ImageMagick's "boxfilter" produces a 1024x768 image with noise
level similar to an ISO 80 shot.

--
Walter Dnes; my email address is *ALMOST* like
Delete the "z" to get my real address. If that gets blocked, follow
the instructions at the end of the 550 message.

If anything, set the camera white balance to tungsten or you'll have a very
strong orange color cast. Even on tungsten, you will still get a bit of a
warm tone due to the lower color temp the filaments are driven at in these
lights. This may look okay. Any remaining light from the sky if it is not
quite dark will be very blue and make for a wintery cool feeling to the
shot.
John

In article ,
wrote:

In the next couple of weeks, I may have chances to take pictures of
local "Cavalcade of Lights" at a couple of places.

Walter-

Lights are bright! If you only want the lights, underexpose.

If you want the background, overexpose to compensate for the bright
light. You might use a hand-held light meter to measure a subject you
want to be correctly lighted.

As someone else suggested, you should experiment. Digital film is cheap,
and there are lots of local light displays to practice on.

Fred

On Tue, 06 Dec 2005 02:31:49 GMT, JohnR66, wrote:

If anything, set the camera white balance to tungsten or you'll have
a very strong orange color cast.

Thanks to you, and everybody else who replied. Before my usenet
download, I took a few test shots. I had left the white balance on
auto, and the orange tint was very strong. I'll experiment some more
on Tuesday evening.

--
Walter Dnes; my email address is *ALMOST* like
Delete the "z" to get my real address. If that gets blocked, follow
the instructions at the end of the 550 message.

I played around with this problem last year but only in a very
controlled situation, my own tree lights. I used a solid tripod and
took two exposures. One just for the lights with room lighting off and
another with room lighting and aux flash. Using Photoshop and the two
exposures on different layers I was able to control the balance between
the lights and the tree. Interesting experiment but maybe not practical
in a situation where you have less control.
Richard

I've uploaded a test shot to http://www.pbase.com/waltdnes/test
The original was shot as 2048x1536 tiff, and reduced to 1024x768 jpeg.
xlites1b.jpg is the same image as the first one, but with gamma boosted
a bit. Shows more detail, but starts to look more cluttered.

This was shot from the parking lot of the condo building I live in,
looking up at the balcony of one of my neighbours. I took several
attempts. This was the best one. I've copied the EXIF data over from
the original.

--
Walter Dnes; my email address is *ALMOST* like
Delete the "z" to get my real address. If that gets blocked, follow
the instructions at the end of the 550 message.