Sweetheart ~ In which I experiment with Fairy Lights

Hey guys!

I use 'fairy lights' (Old yellow Christmas lights XD) in a lot of my indoor photography.

You can see them in my doll house, and more notably in my photoshoots.

I think, if used well, they can add a lot to a picture. 

So, I guess this is kind of a 'tips and tricks' for using Christmas fairy lights in photography.

If you are looking for more ideas like this, definitely look on Pinterest because that's where I got these ideas. :)

This is the first, and in my mind, most successful time I used my lights.

I did this shoot indoors, right under a big window, on a cloudy day, which caused the camera to pickup the glow from each individual light.  

I also used the tick where you take one of the lights and hold it up against the lens just enough that you can see it in the corner. I love the look it gives to an empty corner of the photo.

This was the second time I used the lights. 

I like the product so much the first time, but this time I was a little disappointed.

Without the natural light from a window, the lights gave all the pictures an orange hue instead of nice little orange dots.

Now, this was before I knew very much about editing. If I reedited this shoot, it might turn out better.

Third times a charm?

Sort of.

This time I had more natural light, but I also had a super light background.

I think I also had the lights a bit too close so again they didn't really get that nice glow.

Eeeeh, just a touch of the glow that I was looking for.

With these next ones, I was experiment with different light placements.

I this one, I held a single light up to the lens.

Here I held the cord in front of her... I don't really love the look.

In this shot, I held them off to the side, behind her to create some depth.

This one is my favorite. I like the depth of field in it. :) 

I really like the textures in this one, but the fairy lights are virtually invisible. 🤦‍♀️

This was just for fun. 😋

Without lights.

With lights.

As you can see the lights completely change the exposure, giving it a more red/orange hue. I all so put the lights behind a thin bed sheet, to diffuse the light a little. I kind of like the glowy feeling it gives.

This fourth time, I used a different kind of light. 

Some of the shots came out pretty cool, but they took a lot of editing.

I think because I was right outside, the sun actually took over the lights glow, so it didn't show up on the camera.

These ones are my favorite.

For these, I turned off all the lights in my room, and blocked all the lights from the window. I love how the florescents didn't mess up the colours. 

The lights were the right distance back, so they blurred really nicly.

I was going for a nostalgic, cozy vibe, and I love how it came across!

And finally the most recent.

I was very disappointed with the orange haze in these shots.

On a few of them, however, I was able to edit it out. 😁 

So that's it. I hope you enjoyed.

And I think the moral of this whole posts is if you're going to include lights in your photography, you have to know how to edit.  Well that, and the best place to use them is indoors with soft natural light. 😉

Now my hands are going to go into withdrawal from typing 'light' too many times.

Light!

I mean, bye!

~ Megan