Best way to shoot glowing snowman?

[KobraCarry]

I'm a newbie and just purchased a Rebel XT. I have a plug-in glowing plastic snowman in front of my house that I'd like to try and do some macro work with. I'd like to shoot at night so I can capture the glow. What settings should I try so that I don't have to use flash and end up washing everything out and taking away from the glow?

Thanks!

[Gordon]

what sort of lens do you have ?

Do you happen to have a tripod, too ?

[KobraCarry]

I have a tripod. I have a 18 - 50, 20 - 80, and 70 - 300

[thrumyeyes]

You could create an HDR photo http://www.vanilladays.com/hdr-guide/

[Gabby498]

Mike, it is difficult to give exact settings so this is guesstimation only. Choose the lens that gives you the best perspective. The wider the angle the more the snowman will stand away from the background, the longer the lens the more the snowman will be related to the background.

Set up on a tripod, frame the image as you want it. Set your camera for 100 ISO, f/8, at three seconds. Depending upon how bright the snowman is that may or may not be close. Check your histrogram and check the blinking blown highlights.

I am guessing that the snowman is not going to underexposed at that setting but if it is just increase the time, leave the aperture at f/8 if possible. If you see a large area of blinking blown highlights on the snowman then decrease your shutter speed to 2 sec, still blinking decrease to 1 sec. Within a few shots you should be able to get a good exposure on the snowman.

Regarding the glow, that might not be so easy and still get proper exposure. If there is a mist or fog in the air you should get an excellent glow. If the air is clear you probably will not get any. If you overexpose the snowman you will get flare that will appear to be a glow but you will probably loose all detail in the snowman itself. Since you are doing this on a tripod you might consider doing two images, one with good exposure and one with flare and then combining them in post processing. But it will look more natural if you have some sort of precipitation in the air when you take the photograph.

[Gordon]

I'd shoot it on a longish exposure - 5-10 seconds. Focus on the snowman then switch your lens to manual focus. Start the shot, then about half way through, turn the focus on the lens, to make it out of focus - you'll get half focused/ half blur which will give an interesting glow. You could combine that with zooming the lens as well. I use this a lot for neon to give more of a glow to it.



Or just shoot it out of focus the whole time

[L Stegall]

Another tip - try shooting this before it gets totally dark. When shooting at dusk, you get that beautiful dark blue sky instead of just black.

[brad]

Exactly what Lisa says.. if you shoot it while there is still some light in the sky, it adds more drama..

(From Grand Prairie's annual display, shot for the city)

[johnastovall]

Like this? M8, 50/0.95, f/0.95, ISO640, 1/320