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:

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

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

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

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

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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.