Christmas Tree Bokeh: Tips for Pretty Blurred Background

Simple Photography Tutorials for the Holidays

I love holiday photos! As soon as our tree was up, I couldn’t resist. The ambiance, energy and especially the magical lights make my heart swoon. Do you love sparkly Christmas light photos, too? Here’s 3 very simple photography tutorials filled with tips to get the blurred bokeh that every mamarazzi dreams off!

Ayudita (tip) 1: Shoot during the day, if possible. I didn’t follow that rule with these photos. These photos were taken the night we put our Christmas tree up as a family. To see examples of Christmas bokeh shot during the day, check out these photography tutorials from earlier this week. As you can see, the Christmas lights make beautiful bokeh even in the bright day. I promise the lights show during the day! Shooting during the day will help give you photos that are tack sharp. Even still, rules are made to be broken. The holiday photo below stole my heart because my toddler was just so excited to decorate our family tree. She had so much fun, and this photo reminds me of her joy and enthusiasm.

Ayudita (tip) 2: Use proper camera settings. First, turn off your flash. Then in manual mode, with a prime or fixed apertures lens (I use a 50mm 1.8), drop the aperture (meaning, put the number in front of the /F) down. For those with a kit lens, or with variable apertures, use the Av mode (Aperture Priority) and set the F Stop to the lowest it will go. It’s not that hard, you can do it! Take that camera off full auto!

Ayudita (tip) 3: Position your subjects at least a few feet away from the tree. Most parents want to position their kids right next to the tree, but that will give you Christmas lights that remain in focus, not blurred. Create a gap in visual planes by placing your kids, in front, but a few feet away from the tree. In the photo above, Alina’s “pony” was standing about 9 feet from the tree.

Ayudita (tip) 4: Shoot close! Once your beauties are a distance from the tree, get super close! You know that point at which your camera won’t take the picture because you are too close to your subject and it can’t focus? Go there, then back up a bit. I’m probably just a few feet away in the photo above.

There you have it! 4 super simple tips to get your pretty blurred background of glittery Christmas lights. I’ll be playing with bokeh again this week, so look out for a few more photography tutorials very soon.

Happy blurring!