it’s that time of year again… TWINKLE LIGHTS! with the holidays right around the corner, i thought i’d post a quick tutorial on how to achieve the magical twinkle light effect that you see in the image above.
1) you must have a camera that allows you to adjust the aperture, and you’ll need a very wide opening. i shot the image above at 70mm, f/2.8, which is the widest my 24-70L lens will open.
2) your subject must be as far away from the lights as possible. the closer your subject is to the backdrop, the less out of focus and twinkly the lights will be.
3) to emphasize step 2, subject far away from backdrop, but the camera (you) must be CLOSE to the subject. this is the principle of depth of field.
4) take lots of practice shots with a stuffed animal until you get the desired look. only THEN should you plop a little one in front of the backdrop, as it can take a few minutes to figure out placement and settings, and the little ones aren’t going to put up with that!
5) feel free to clone some of the lights in post processing to give it an extra oomph. (i did!)
here’s a pull back of my set up for the above shot. aimed my speedlight (on camera) at the ceiling behind me for fill light.
i’d love to see your results! share a link to your twinkle light shots in the comment section below 🙂
Great little tutorial! Thanks for sharing : )
what fun!!! this is such a cute set up!!!
fun set up! Love the leggings!
OMG How cute is this xoxo
I love you twinkle shot. I see that I need to get moving on this, can't be without twinkle shots for the season. Thanks for posting you pull back.
I love a good pullback! Thanks for posting this!
Awesome!!! Would love to see the result!
Cool! Love how you showed the shot & then the whole set up! Very nice!