Need help with which setting to use

[Denise12303]

I have a Sony a330 and I've had it a couple of months now and am still learning how to use. I have a friend that wants me to take pictures for her of her daughter. The picture is going to involve her at dusk next to a tree with lights around it. So how would you get the effect of the lights around the tree cause sometimes when you take pictures of lights such as christmas lights they don't appear as though they look to you in real life. So can I achieve that look and what setting do I need to use to do so.

 

[Steve01]

Shoot Aperture preferred (Av) with a flash (external and bounced preferred).
You need to set the camera to have a fixed not auto flash sync speed for this to work.

There needs to be some distance between your subject and the lighted tree.

There are so many variables, but basically the flash lights the subject not the background, and you adjust the background brightness with your aperture setting.

You don't just bang out these types of shots.
Set the scene, and shoot some test shots with different aperture settings until the background looks right looks good then bring in the subjects.

Bounce or soften the flash if you can.

I hope this helps.