How to Take Glowing Chanukah Photos Using Your Phone

You know those beautiful photos of angelic children standing by the menorah? 

You can capture those memories of your own angelic(?) children with just a smartphone camera!

This technique works best on the later nights of chanukah when there is more light. Before you start, make sure to eliminate clutter from the area of the image. Make sure all surrounding lights are off. If you have a street light near your window, try to position a window shade to block as much of the incoming light as possible.  Clean the angel child’s face. Straighten a yarmulke or brush a ponytail (try to eliminate static and flyaways), because this is all about the profile. 

Once there are 2-3 candles lit, focus the camera on the child. That’s the little square on the “camera” screen. Once you tap the focus, a small sun will show up near the square. 

 

 

Tap that sun and slide it down until the only bright spots in the image are the candles and the child’s face and there’s just a glow on the areas around them.  

 

A clearer example of adjusting the exposure slider:

 

 

Keep refocusing, adjusting that sun (that’s the exposure) and snapping new angles and moments. You never know which one will be the winning shot. 

 

Once you’ve chosen your favorite image, it’s time to do a quick edit. 

 

Go into photos, choose the image and select “EDIT” from the top right corner. 

 

 

I like to straighten and crop before doing the rest of the editing. 

 

 

After cropping, go into the “light adjustments” panel. On the current iOS, that’s the first option on the left. (On an older iOS you’ll have a dropdown and you’ll choose the option that says LIGHT.) 

 

Select the CONTRAST option. 

 

 

Adjust until the darks get darker and the brights get brighter. Keep an eye on the skin tone and don’t push it too far or that will start looking muddy. 

 

 

After that select the VIGNETTE option. 

 

 

This will darken the edges of the image. Again, don’t push this too far so that it’ll look like a picture frame. Just add enough darkness to bring attention to the child and the flames.

 

 

And that’s it! You now have perfectly angelic children, in a perfectly clean house, and serenity lives on forever! Or at least that’s how you can have it in your memories…