The holiday seasons bring many opportunities to capture some great photos.  Christmas lights are often a huge attraction in neighborhoods and town centers.  Here are a few quick pointers to help you get your best photographs.

Try photographing before it's completely dark. If you photograph after the sun has set but before complete darkness, you can potentially get some beautiful colors in the sky and some ambient light on your subject. This will also allow you to scout out a good spot while you can still see.

My cameras of choice are Nikon Digital SLR cameras. But you don't have to have a pro camera to take great photos this holiday season.  I recommend using your camera's manual control setting if it has one, and turning your flash off.

While photographing lights at or near dark, depending upon how much blue sky is in your frame, you may need to underexpose your image.  If you have a digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera, use the manually controlled shutter and aperture settings.  If you don't, you may have a +/- button that will allow you to have a little control over the exposure.  Experiment. You may need to adjust your exposure by as much as one stop from what your internal meter recommends.

Also, you'll want to set your camera's white balance to incandescent (or around 3,000 kelvin). Most of those little tree lights will give a beautiful glow with this white balance and the sky will turn an incredible blue.

For sharp pictures and to reduce shake and get as much of the scene in focus, it's best to use a tripod. If you don't have one, tuck your elbows into your chest or against something solid to help hold your camera still. Click the shutter as you exhale. You can also set your camera on a two-second timer so you don't shake the body when you depress the shutter.

Your shutter speed should be slow; somewhere around a quarter of a second to a full second depending upon your ISO. The lower the ISO, the less grainy your photo will be.  Try using an f-stop of at least f/5.6 (or smaller) so your scene will be in focus.  To help the auto-focus in the dark, focus on some of the lights to lock in the focus, and then frame your photo.

Try photographing below eye level and get a little more sky in the frame.  I always think photos look better the closer they're taken to the ground.

Here's a recap:

• Photograph between sunset and complete darkness to capture some great colors in the sky.

• Use manual control, turn your flash off, and set your white balance to incandescent.

• Use a tripod or lean against something sturdy when depressing the shutter.

• Use a slow shutter speed around 1/25th of a second and an aperture of at least f/5.6.

• Try a point-of-view different than one at eye level.
• Stay warm!