The end of year celebrations is synonymous with great family reunions and is a perfect opportunity to immortalize your loved ones. But this exercise is not as simple as it seems… If your photos of New Year’s Eve or December 25 are generally not up to your expectations, read the following tutorial! We have listed for you 5 tips for successful family photos at Christmas.
1- Immortalize the decor before the party
During the end-of-year celebrations, the decoration of the table and/or the house is the subject of very special attention.
If you want to keep a souvenir of this decor and have the children pose in front of the tree, for example, plan to take photos before sitting down to eat.
The decorations are essential elements to translate the atmosphere of the holidays into a photo book specially created for the occasion, such as the Prestige photo book.
But, on D-Day, it’s better to anticipate and immortalize the magical settings and the beautifully laid table… before they’re gone!
2- Think about the foreground and the background
A very common mistake when photographing guests at parties is to focus only on the people, without thinking of all the shots of the image.
To make a success of your family photos at Christmas, don’t forget to:
- clear the foreground: too many photos are spoiled by a bottle or an object on the table
- blur the background by adjusting the depth of field
- Choose a plain background: portraits look best when the background is plain, so avoid floral wallpaper.
Using the Christmas tree light garlands as a background for your portraits will allow you to:
- to avoid using flash which crushes the colors and gives red eyes
- to create a nice bokeh with the Christmas lights
3- Put yourself at the right height
Another tip for successful Christmas family photos is to always put yourself at eye level with your subject.
This advice is valid whether the person photographed is an adult or a child.
But it is especially on the portraits of children that we notice this error consisting in taking the child “from above” (that is to say from your height as an adult).
To avoid distorted images when taking a picture of a child, consider getting down to their level by kneeling or crouching down.
When opening gifts, stand at child’s height and activate the burst mode of your device so as not to miss anything of the scene and the fleeting expressions on the faces.
All you have to do is sort through to keep only your most beautiful memories in a Folio photo book .
4- Put your subjects at ease
Even if you want to take advantage of the holiday reunion to immortalize your loved ones, do not chase them all evening with your camera!
If you do this, not only will you not enjoy New Year’s Eve, but you will get stiff attitudes and frozen smiles.
Another tip for successful Christmas family photos is to put people at ease and make them laugh so that their attitude and smile are spontaneous.
To succeed in your portraits of children , do not hesitate to catch them playing or to have them pose with their toys, because you get better images by surrounding them with things that make them comfortable.
5- Take care of your staging
The end-of-year celebrations are an opportunity to take wide-angle group photos.
If you plan to bring your loved ones together in the same souvenir photo, be careful of staging that are too rigid.
To avoid frozen images where the whole family is lined up and everyone seems to be at attention, place some people seated in the middle, others standing behind and the children in front.
To have your models at different heights, you can even place them on a staircase before firing. This trick will make your photo much more dynamic and fun.
If you immortalize the guests at the table, do not only take frontal photos. Also remember to take your loved ones in a row.
After the meal, enjoy a digestive walk to take photos outdoors. The light is generally more beautiful there and nature or the city in winter will offer you an original setting for your Family photographer Texas.
