I rushed out into the cold, winter night. Blue hour was quickly slipping away. But before it did, I wanted to capture the amazing display of Christmas lights that my brother had put on the house!

The contrast between the lights on the house and the darkness around the house was incredible!

What exposure should I use? Should I expose for the Christmas lights on the house, or should I expose for the dark landscape surrounding the house? 

If I exposed for the Christmas lights, all the surroundings would be very dark.

If I exposed for the surroundings, the Christmas lights would all wash out, like this:

What should I do?

The answer isn’t as straightforward as you might expect. As I edited these photos today, I contemplated at least 5 aspects that would alter the way I would respond to this question. Here they are:

1. Time of Day

If I’m photographing in normal daylight hours, the ambient light is going to be so bright that I will hardly see any difference between the background and the Christmas lights. They’ll hardly appear to glow at all.

If I am photographing in the dead of night, when the sky is perfectly dark and there is no ambient light at all, then the contrast is going to be very high. I would have no choice but to expose for the Christmas lights.

But if I can find a time of day right in between, when it’s not daylight, but it’s not perfectly dark either, then I would guess that would be the best time to photograph Christmas lights.

2. Amount of Detail in the Lights

The exposure I decide to use may depend on how much detail I want to see in the Christmas lights. 

Below are two photos that are composed identically to one another. One is just slightly brighter than the other. But take a look at the amount of detail in the Christmas lights in the darker one.

3. Ability to Edit 

Looking at the comparison above, you might be more inclined to underexpose, to get as much detail in the Christmas lights as possible. But, depending on the photo editing software you have, you may be able to bring back some of those highlights.

Below are the exact same two images as above, only tweaked in Lightroom a bit.

Not all editing programs are created equal. And not everyone wants to take time to edit photos in a detailed way, so what exposure you choose for Christmas lights might depend on your editing capabilities.

4. RAW vs JPG Image Quality

I do not have a comparison to show you for this one, because I do not shoot in JPG very often, but when bringing up the idea of “pulling back highlights” in editing, the question of the image quality setting on your camera must also be brought up. When photographing in JPG, be careful. You will have much less flexibility in pulling out detail in highlight areas than you would with a RAW file. If you intentionally overexpose a scene planning to bring back detail in the highlights in post later, the recommendation would be to shoot in RAW. Here’s an article that explains more about the differences between RAW and JPG.

5. Size of the Subject

There was one final factor that I thought of while considering this topic of how best to expose for Christmas light photos. The size of the subject. Or, another way to approach the same thing, how much of the surroundings you want to include in the photo. This makes a difference, I think in how you decide to expose for the lights.

In the following, processed photo, because I want to see as much detail as possible in the surroundings of the house, I’m less concerned that the lights on the house are blowing out. I’m not photographing the Christmas lights so much any more as I am photographing a Christmassy landscape.

So, not sure how to expose for photographing Christmas lights? Think about how the time of day is influencing the dynamic range of light. Decide how important it is for there to be detail in the Christmas lights themselves. Determine if you have the ability (or desire) to edit the photo after it’s taken. Check to make sure you’re using an appropriate image quality setting and then make your final choice after you’ve composed the perfect shot. 

Any other factors come to your mind when it comes to choosing a good exposure for photographing Christmas lights? Feel free to share in the comments below.

And have a Merry Christmas!

“I [Jesus] am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.” (John 12:46).