Once again, Zürich got awesome for Christmas: every street and alley of the old city shines warm lights and colors. How to capture them? A tripod, a reflex camera, a wide lens and a warm jacket should suffice, but the result might be not satisfying. Here in between the next pictures a couple of tricks:

1. Choose white balance option “Keep warm lighting colors” and be sure to save also RAW data (.NEF with Nikon).

2. You have a tripod: choose high f values, get that lovely star effect on lights and avoid vibrations due to longer exposure time

3. Keep ISO 100 if you like picture ghosts like me, go up if you prefer sharp silhouettes

4. Use a remote control or delayed shutter (2 secs are enough) to avoid vibrations

5. You need Adobe Light Room or similar for after-shooting retouch: higher exposure, higher clarity, lighter shadows, darker blacks

… et voilà, Merry Christmas pictures to everybody! How did it look without retouching? Here is the last not retouched picture. All pictures shot with Nikon D800 plus Nikon 16-35 mm f/4 – click each picture to enlarge.