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Not sure where the most appropriate place to ask this question would be so I thought I would do it here. Could someone give me some advice on how to get the best results of my Christmas lights at night? I go all Clark W. Griswald and my family wants pictures of everything lit up.

I have a Nikon D80, and SB-400, an 18-200 VR zoom and a 35mm 1.8.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Nikon D80 | Nikon 18-200mm VR | Nikon AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8G | SB-400

Long exposure on a tripod works very well
Gordon has a tutorial video about it here
http://www.dslrtips.com/workshops/How_to_take_photos_at_night/manual_long_exposure.shtml

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Nikon D2h | Noct-Nikkor 58mm f/1.2 | Nikkor 35mm f/1.4| Nikon 85mm f1.4 |SB-600 SB-28 SB-28
" The best camera is the one that's with you" Chase Jarvis
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-You need a good balance of christmas lights and daylight. Try to take the pictures when it isn't totally dark out side but almost there. If you take the pics when its pitch black outside you'll get too much glare from the lights.

-Use a tripod

-shoot all in manual and try different exposures (you can't trust your cameras LCD)

-watch for hotspots or spots that all the white detail is gone. (like my palm trees) try to avoid that at all costs. Remember expose for the highlights, process for the shadows.

This is a picture I took for an invisible permeant LED lighting system company...



I don't have a wide angle lens right now so I had to make do with a 50mm prime and stitch several photo's together. If you can, try to fit everything in one frame.

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Canon 40D + 70-200mm f/2.8L IS + 50mm f/1.8
Manfrotto 055CX3 + 496RC2
www.thomaslowe.com