Snow! Oh man, the holidays will be here before we know it.  Soon we will be seeing all kinds of holiday pictures. Capturing the beautiful outdoor light displays can be a challenge, so we want to share our pick of  6  great tips.

1. Make sure you have turned your cameras built in flash off. Nothing will spoil a great shot faster than having the flash wash the lights out completely.
2. A natural reflective foreground can add a great touch to your photographs. Think snow, ice, or water.
3. Don’t wait until it is pitch dark to take your picture! If you wait until it’s completely dark you have a choice of exposing for the brightly lit displays and have the background badly underexposed or to expose for the background and have the lit displays badly overexposed. There’s no happy medium to find after darkness has fallen. The ideal time to make great outdoor holiday light pictures is at twilight. So the ideal time is when there’s a 2 or 3 EV (Exposure Values) difference between the holiday lights and the surrounding scene.
4. Use a good, sturdy tripod to support your camera because your exposure times will be too long for hand held shots.
5. Shooting at an upward angle will help make for a dynamic shot because you will be capturing the afterglow of the evening sky.
6. Once you have your picture framed just the way you want it, access your camera’s WB (White Balance) menu and set the WB for tungsten. All the Christmas lights have a color temperature of approximately 2900°K, the color temperature of a 100W incandescent (Tungsten Filament) bulb.