Merry and bright: Christmas street portraits at night

2 days ago 5

By now, cities are already lit up nicely for the most wonderful time of the year. What better way to make the most of that holiday glow than shooting Christmas street portraits at night? If you haven’t done so in a while, now may be a great time to get into it again. For inspiration, let’s revisit this Christmas night portrait shoot that Pierre Lambert did in Chicago back in 2018.

Lambert had the great idea to do his Christmas street portraits with a bit of lifestyle shots. Aside from all the bright Christmas lights everywhere, there were plenty of beautiful shop windows that were perfect for these. They also gave his model more opportunities to interact with the environment. Likewise, these elements allowed Lambert to experiment with different compositions and scenes to depict Christmas in the city.

Of course, when you have lots of bright and colorful lights, including bokeh in the portraits is a must. As such, he was shooting mostly wide open at f/1.4 or f/2.8. It was also great that he was able to bring a portable light source in case there wasn’t enough light to illuminate his model.

Got some tips and tricks for Christmas street portraits to share? Drop them in the comments below!

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Posted on December 24, 2024

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Joy is a film photographer, writer, and visual storyteller based in Manila, Philippines. She is drawn to conceptual portraits and surreal imagery, which she also strives to flesh out in her own work. Her photos have been featured on Flickr and several independent film photography blogs and magazines.

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