1/15 sec @ f/1.8, ISO 1600, 50 mm (EF50mm f/1.8 II)

I promise, this is the last Christmas tree picture….at least for a few days.  Unlike most days so far, I conceived the idea for this photograph before even picking up the camera for the project today.  When I did finally turn the camera on, I knew exactly what I wanted to shoot and what kind of settings I would need to use to achieve the effect I wanted.

Today I did not care about the star-bursting effect of the lights on the tree.  Instead, I wanted to showcase the reflection of the bulb ornaments.  Even with my aperture at its widest setting for my lens, f/1.8, I still needed to use a high ISO for the 7D and an undesirable shutter speed.  I try to keep my shutter speeds faster than one over the focal length of the lens when not using image stabilization.  In tonight’s photograph, I would have liked to shoot at a shutter speed faster than 1/50 sec, but I would have had to push the ISO up even higher.

I was able to achieve a decent image even with the slower shutter speed.  However, the higher ISO (1600 in this case) caused more camera noise than I wanted.  I ran the photograph through Noise Ninja to help smooth it out.