How To Take Amazing Photos With Fairy Lights

Have you ever wondered how those random people on Pinterest take amazing artsy-tumblr photos? In this post, I am sharing with you my secrets to taking amazing photos with fairy lights, and not just fairy lights, Christmas lights too! Ready to up your photography game? Just keep on reading…

Looking back on photos I took even a year ago makes me think, “What was I thinking?” Some of the photography mistakes I made just make me want to cringe, and I definitely do not want that to be you!

My photography has changed so much over the past couple months, let alone a year or two.

I’ve learned so much by just researching, reading blog posts, and watching youtube videos. This year I also took the plunge of buying my very own camera all at my own cost.

While you are probably itching for me to talk about how to take the light-portion of the picture, the background and space is highly important too, so stay with me alright?

But before we get into it, check out this video I made! It gives you lots of shots of the “bunk house”! (The password to view the video is fairylights)

 BACKGROUND

Aside from my horrible photographs in the past, I now always make sure to not only focus on the subject of the photo, but I always check to make sure there is nothing in the background ruining the photo. This could be an elastic on your wrist ruining your whole fashion outfit (totally guilty), your phone sitting on the bed in the background, or a pile of dirty laundry on your floor, LOL! Whatever it is…. I always, always like to have a minimal and clean looking background.

THE SPACE

You are probably wondering where I took all these photos… right? Believe it or not, in my friend’s shed, yep, you heard me right. She lives on a farm and she has the cutest “bunk house”. The outside was painted blue, but it’s faded over the years. The inside has the cutest rustic wood wall and vintage windows. Her and I decided to spice it up a bit, make it cozy-looking and having a photoshoot, basically what we do best 🙂

WHAT WE ADDED

Well for starters, the bed was only an air matress, tricked you didn’t it 😉 So we grabed an old white duvet cover of Emma’s which was perfect becuase it was super cozy looking but plain and not disctracting. Then we took some of her cutest pillows and laid them on the bed. There were already lights hung up on the wall so we just added one more string of lights along the pillows (we also used this as a prop). Psst. if you haven’t watched that video yet, it gives you tons of shots of the bunk house.

CLOSE UP LIGHT SHOTS

These are pretty cool, huh? For the shots where the lights were up close and taking up most of the shot, all I did was grab one end of the lights, Emma had the other, and held in the shot of the camera. I didn’t want my hand showing, so I put in on the “third line” using the rule of thirds. For some shots you could focus on the lights closer, or the lights farther, whichever look you like best. Just an fyi thought, you don’t want to have the lights directly in the center of the shot, you still want your subject in the middle, and then the lights almost “surrounding” the subject.

THE BLURRY SHOTS

Honestly, I love all these photos, but one of my favourites has to be the shot where all the lights are blurred and out of focus. I wasn’t familiar at all with Emma’s Mom’s camera, so don’t ask me how I did it, but you just have to get to know all the feautures of your camera and how it works. Point is, if you are taking some light photos, definitely try some blurry shots and see how you like them.

THE PILLOW SHOTS

Sometimes the best photos you end up with, aren’t the ones you planned for. Use random props around you to make the photo more interesting. It can also easier for whoever is in the shot to have something to pose with as well. One of Emma’s pillows has an & sign on it, so we put it between us and posed with it, it turned out really cool! I also used her deer-head pillow to put out in front of me and that shot turned out cool as well!

GET INSPIRATION

Usually, my best photoshoots are the ones I did not plan for at all, like this one in Emma’s “bunk house”. When we got the idea to spice up the bunk house and have a photoshoot I instantly went on Pinterest to search for inspiration. That being said, I never did use the exact same poses I found on Pinterest, but it’s got those creative juices flowing, ya hear me? For tumblr photography inspiration check out my Pinterest board! I also have tons of other great boards on there and I would love it if you followed me! (I post the blog post graphics on there too so you won’t miss any posts!)

Also, shoutout to Emma’s sister who took the pictures of the two of us and dealt with our dramtic singing and ridiculous dance moves in between shots 😂

Now that definitley wasn’t all photos, trust me, there were a whole lot more, but I’ll spare you the time 😉

So now, hit up the comments! Are you going to try these tips? Let me know!