A few weeks back one of our readers asked me to share some creative Christmas picture ideas. When I saw these pictures by Cory McMullan, I knew I wanted to try it and share it with you guys!

I think we have all tried and captured the tradition Christmas tree photos like the one below.
ISO 100, f/14, SS 4.0 sec at 18mm

Don’t get me wrong. You need to capture those traditional type photos. But why not try something fun this year and get to play with your camera and settings while you are at it.

Try something like this! I took all these with my Tamron 18-270mm 3.5-6.3 zoom lens. Make sure you have a zoom lens!
ISO 100, f/22, SS 5.0 sec – Starting at 42mm and zoomed out to 18mm

1. Set up your tripod. You need to make sure your camera is on steady ground so you are able to get straight lines and prevent camera shake since your shutter speed will be very slow.

2. Put your best zoom on your camera. I used my Tamron 18-270mm 3.5-6.3. It worked perfectly because of large focal length. I loved being able to zoom out to 18mm.

3. Slow your shutter speed WAY down. You want to make sure your shutter speed is in the seconds. Make sure your ISO is as low as possible. You may need to shoot at a very narrow aperture (larger number). This will help you to slow down your shutter speed. I liked having my shutter speed set at about 4 or 5 seconds.

4. Turn off all the lights in your house. You don’t want any other lights to affect your images. You want a slow shutter speed and if you have other lights on this may affect how slow your shutter speed can be.

5. Zoom your lens in on your subject and then slowly zoom out. For the tree shot I focused on an ornament. I hit the shutter button and slowly and I mean slowly, began to zoom out to 18mm. Sometimes, the shutter speed was not done so I would let it sit at 18mm until it was done. You want to make sure you are doing this slowly and without any jerky movements because that will affect how straight your light beams are.

6. The more you zoom out the longer your light beams. You can start at any focal length you want, however, the further you zoom in and then zoom out you will get longer light beams.

You can try it on all sorts of lights besides your tree.
ISO 100, f/10, SS 5.0 seconds – Started at 100mm and zoomed out to 18mm

I would love if you share images you take like this on our Facebook page. Can’t wait to see what you capture!

If you liked this post, you don’t want to miss these other Christmas posts:
* 16 Tips to Photograph Christmas morning
* 5 steps on how to photograph Christmas lights
* Tips to make your Christmas photos more than snapshots
* How to create beams of Christmas lights
* Christmas Tree Lights Photos: 5 Easy Steps
* Christmas Tree Lights Bokeh

This post was sponsored by Tamron USA.