How to Take Creative Party Photographs

5. Learn how to capture a brilliant bokeh effect

Whether it’s a sea of twinkling Christmas tree lights or a simple candle, the festive period is full of pretty lights that can turn into beautiful glowing globes in the background of your pictures, with the right setup. The Japanese word ‘bokeh’ is used to describe the aesthetic qualities of these out-of-focus highlights.

Blurred background highlights can be big and abstract-looking, or smaller and more clearly defined, and you can even get creative and make the blurred highlights star-shaped, heart-shaped or Christmas tree shaped – find out how in the video above.

The effect is easiest to achieve when your lens is set to your widest aperture, such as f/2.8 or f/2, which allows you to be very selective of where you’re focusing so you can make your subject stand out against a blurred background. But you can also get pleasing, blurred highlights using smaller apertures such as f/5.6. Enhance the effect by increasing the distance between your subject and the background, or standing closer to your subject.

6. Lower your shutter speed to capture motion blur

While faster shutter speeds will help you to capture moving subjects sharply, an alternative approach is to use a much slower shutter speed to create movement in the scene with static subjects.

Set a shutter speed of around 1/10 sec or 1/20 sec if you're shooting handheld, and make sure a static (or relatively static) subject is clearly visible in the scene. It's useful if your lens has Image Stabilizer, as it will help to keep your images sharper at slower shutter speeds. Some cameras have built-in IS, in which case the camera's image stabilisation will work with any lens.

If you’re using a tripod, you’ll be able to use far slower shutter speeds to achieve this effect. Trigger the shutter using a wired or wireless remote release, the Canon Camera Connect app or the self-timer mode.

7. Capture light trails on the dance floor

By controlling when your camera triggers the flash during the exposure, you can capture colourful light streaks that convey the spirit of the party in a creative way, while keeping the subject sharp. Select a slow shutter speed of about one second, and choose between first-curtain or second-curtain sync mode in your camera's flash options menu.

First-curtain sync is the default option on most cameras. It fires the flash at the start of the exposure, and records any blur in front of the subject. Second-curtain sync fires the flash at the end of the exposure, recording trails of lights and other details behind the subject.

8. Focus on the smaller details

Remember that images of festivities don’t always need to be filled with people. Focusing on the smaller details, be they baubles dangling from a tree, dinner table centrepieces or other items that encapsulate the celebration, can still be effective in conveying the mood and sense of the occasion.

If you can’t get close enough to your subject with the lens you’re using, consider a macro, such as the Canon EF-S 35mm f/2.8 Macro IS STM, Ca non EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM or Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM. A relatively wide option, meanwhile, like the Canon EF-M 28mm f/3.5 Macro IS STM (for EOS M cameras) will enable you to get close while still allowing you to capture more of the environment to give context.

Written by Matt Golowczynski