I look forward to creating these pictures with my boys each year. This is now the 3rd or 4th year I’ve done these in the second house. If you are curious about how I created these pictures, you can watch me shoot and edit them here.
How to: Tree Light Pictures
1. Wait for night (this was hard for me. You can tell in the picture with both boys that I didn't wait for it to get super dark.)
2. All of the lights off except the tree. I used a lamp across the room to cheat a little and give me a little light.
3. Camera in manual mode with the following settings as a guideline:
Aperture all the way open (mine was f 1.8)
Shutter speed slowish (mine was 1/250)
ISO super high (mine was at 5000)
>>> NO FLASH! <<<
Shameless plug - I teach a basics of photography class that will teach you what all of these thing mean :)
4. Snap way! Who cares if they're technically perfect - have fun with your kiddos. The picture of Landon above... he was calling our tree a gum-nut. I'm not even sure what that means but he thought it was hilarious and made for a cute picture.
Full disclosure, I did edit my final pictures just for personal preference.
You can also do these types of pictures during the day for a different, but still fun, look.