Photo tips for the Christmas market - capturing magical moments

Well it's that time again: large Christmas trees are set up on market places, festive stars shine above shopping streets and the towns open their Christmas markets. Many a gray city turns into a glittering Christmas wonderland and picturesque old towns exude even more wintry cosiness. The mood at this time of year is something very special – you would love to capture it as a photographer. The many small lights make your fingers tingle to create a great Bokeh therefrom. Gingerbread hearts, mulled wine cups, hot chestnuts and illuminated streets ... So many beautiful motifs!

But you often come home from a Christmas market visit and you are only half-pleased with your picture haul. The shots are underexposed, restless, jittery or seem to be flat, the motifs are boring and in the photos nothing looks as magical as it was in reality. In this article, you will get a few tips and ideas on how to best retain the atmosphere of the Christmas market with the camera.

Festively lit cities have the most beautiful atmosphere at dusk. The glorious blaze of light comes into its own in the blue hour or at night. However, the darkness on the one hand, and the bright lights on the other hand provide the photographer with a number of challenges. The best equipment for this light situation will be given under point 7. Here some general advice regarding the camera settings:

Even though it is tempting, you should use the built-in flash with restraint or not at all. Foreground motifs will be shown flat and one-dimensional, the beautiful warm atmosphere is flashed out of the photo. Rather use the available light skilfully and increase the ISO slightly if necessary. To what extent this is possible without getting photos which are too noisy, depends on the type of camera. Small pocket cameras often reach their limits at ISO 400, DSLRs and mirrorless system cameras deliver up to ISO 2000 depending on the sensor, and furthermore a good image quality.

If the ISO margin is exhausted, an optical image stabiliser helps to give sharp images even with a longer exposure time. Alternatively, of course, a tripod can be used, but this is often impractical in dense crowds. At the latest during long exposures over several seconds (see below), it cannot be avoided. If moving subjects are to be in focus, the exposure time must not be too long. On the other hand, a long exposure time can be used deliberately to make the movement of the motif visible in the image and thereby obtain a more dynamic, more vivid picture.

The exposure should be based on the fairy lights and lamps, not the darker background. A slight overexposure of bright image areas can still contribute to the enhancement of mood lights, however, it should be avoided to overexpose these completely. In general, taking photos in the RAW file format presents itself in order to have more leeway with respect to exposure adjustments when reworking.

The automatic white balance would like to filter out the warm light mood from the photos. Formally, this is correct, butwe would indeed like to show precisely this warmth. Therefore also here: shooting in the RAW format. This way, you subsequently have all the options to adapt the warmth and the colour mood. If you cannot or want do this, you shouldturn off the automatic white balance and adjust it manually.

A nice gimmick to remove disruptive crowds from the images or capture the movement of the carousel and light pyramids. You naturally need a tripod for this. The optimum exposure time depends very much on the situation, so that no general valid values can be mentioned here. Just try it!

Our eye has the ability to adapt quickly to individual details even in crowded scenes. If we want to capture the bustling on two-dimensional images, the eye often lacks a fixed point. The image just appears restless or boring. Especially on Christmas markets, it is important not to simply snap in the shot and hope that the mood will come across somehow. Overview photographs can and should of course be taken, but the photos will only be particularly good with a clearly exposed foreground, middle ground and background. As a foreground motif, atmospheric details present themselves: gingerbread hearts, the signboards made to look old on the kiosks, the bobble hat of the companion, a mulled wine cup or a particularly pretty tree decoration. Depending on the aperture and the distance between the lens, the foreground detail and the background, beautiful detail shots can be made with a Bokeh of light spots.

The mobile phone trick is a special trick to aesthetically combine an overview image and detail in a picture: you ask your companion to hold the phone camera on the Christmas bustle. The photographer now focuses with his camera on the mobile phone screen on which an overview of the scene is in focus. The photo itself still appears calm with a clear point of interest for the eyes, if the phone and hands are cropped well against this background scenery. For this, get close to the mobile phone and the hands and open the aperture relatively widely. The overall scene then forms a nice Bokeh in the background blur.

If you want to portray the beautiful Christmas lights in the streets effectively, the crowds and the profane neon sign of the usual shops often interfere. Here there are two possibilities for a nice screen layout: either you go to a higherlocation (tower, balconies ...) and photograph the street lighting at eye level, or you simply direct the camera upwards. Especially with images on which architecture is involved, strong lines and a harmonious symmetry are particularly pleasant to the eye.

As we have already seen in the previous points, a companion (preferably with a decorative bobble hat) is a useful accessory. You always have a foreground motif wherever you go. You can provide variation by pressing delicious food or mulled wine cups in his hands as motifs. But if you want to photograph strangers as for example the chestnut seller, you should absolutely ask them for permission. If people are not decorative or not desired in their mass, they can be wiped out with a long exposure as mentioned above. Especially when using a tripod, a companion as wingman is recommended who shields you from jostling crows. Also worth mentioning, even if it is not a direct photo tip: Christmas markets are a pick-pocket Eldorado. So pay attention to inconspicuous camera bags and always watch out!

If you want to make long exposures over several seconds, a tripod is essential as mentioned. Otherwise, however, you are much more flexible without a tripod when trying to capture the small moments in the Christmas bustle.
The lighting conditions can vary greatly, as on the one hand it is already pitch dark outside, but on the other hand the night has been turned into day by the magnificent illuminations. With a bright lens you are prepared for all eventualities, while ensuring a maximum aperture for beautiful blur effects. An optical image stabiliser, as explained above, additionally increases the scope, by allowing longer exposure times.