Photographing Outdoor Christmas Lights

Hoping to try and take some photographs of the many great outdoor christmas setups outside in my city. My gear is a D7200 with the Nikkor 50mm AF f/1.8D, I do have a tripod that could be used. I tried doing this last year with a D50 and the same lense handheld but it didn't work out so well. Looking for some tips on settings, I am comfortable with the camera and shoot mostly landscapes; wildlife etc during the day but have not done much night shooting. Thankyou for any tips or help.

Paul

Is this the type of photo that you want to take?
f/4.0
1/13 sec
ISO 1250
No flash
I shot this hand held D7100 18-140. There are a few more on my Flickr page.

Yep, that looks real nice. I noted your settings and will start with these.

Since you're going to use a tripod, I'd stop down a bit from f/4 and lower the ISO. So, maybe f/8, ISO 100 and whatever shutter speed you get when you dial in the other 2. Use a cable release if you have one and mirror up.

Managed one a little while ago.

D7200
Nikkor 50mm AF f/1.8D
f/2.5
1/25
ISO 100
Handheld
No Flash

I would certainly use a tripod, cable release or delayed release for these type of shots.

Not many people can do hand held shots at shutter speeds of 1/13 sec like the @SteveL54 example above, you need rock steady hands or have the camera leaning against something.

For night shooting holiday lights, where crowds of people are often an issue, it's monopod to the rescue!

You'll gain a huuuge degree of stability over hand holding without one, but without the big "footprint" and all the setup time a tripod requires.

Horoscope Fish said:

For night shooting holiday lights, where crowds of people are often an issue, it's monopod to the rescue!

You'll gain a huuuge degree of stability over hand holding without one, but without the big "footprint" and all the setup time a tripod requires.

Click to expand...

True. Early on I wished that I had brought the mono. I was leaning up against a light pole when I took this. There were a few that just didn't make it.