Christmas is almost here!!! As the most exciting and creative time of the year, there must be something you would like to capture and share during the festival. Still feel distressed about how to take special and splendid photos for your family? Here are some tricks to make your Christmas family photos stand out.
- Casual but coordinating photos
The attractive photos are always those with the most relaxed and casual atmosphere in which family is just themselves rather than the specifically posed ones. When taking Christmas family photos, make sure the whole scene is relaxed and comfortable. The simplest way is to stay active and ready for all the family activities. Keep your camera up for some great reactions you can anticipate, such as the open-gift moment and the party time. Another essential factor to get awesome photos is to express a coordinating feeling. In the Christmas celebrating environment, family members could wear coordinating clothing but not the same. The classic Christmas sweaters or pajamas is perfect. To make things a little special, you can also choose some neutral colors with one or two complimentary colors running through. The coordinating atmosphere brings more style and class to your family photos.
- Bokeh photos with Christmas lights
Bokeh Christmas lights shots seem to be trendy in Christmas, which can be seen every year on the social media. You may think that taking bokeh photos is quite complicate, but it turns out to be relatively simple. All you need is a camera lens with a large aperture. With the largest aperture of your lens, the Christmas lights become little balls in the out-of-focus background. To get a better effect, you should have a subject focused in your photo, it can be your family member, your pet or something else you would like to show. You would be surprised by the pop image and the beautiful Christmas lights.
To make things a little special, you can put the light in front of your subject. Thus, your subject will be partly covered by the bokeh lights, different from those with lights behind. You can also have different shaped bokeh, such as star, hearts, or any other you like. All you need to do is to create little cutout to mask your lens. Another easier way to change the shape is to try different apertures. The larger the aperture is , the rounder the ball is. A slightly change in aperture may result in different shapes. You may have hexagonal or octagonal shape based on the blades of your lens.
- Use burst mode
As a gathering festival, photographic opportunities are all over Christmas. There are certain moments that are filled with facial expressions and series of festive events. The food preparation, the putting-up of decorations, the wrapping and opening of gifts, the table setting, the celebrations.....When shooting these activities, you should switch your camera to burst mode or continuous shooting mode. By using the burst mode, the camera takes a lot of shots and captures everything of the joyful and unique moments. You surely can get some excellent photos showing the natural but perfect expressions. Do remember to pick a focal point to highlight the subject. You also need to fill your frame with the subject. You can adjust your zoom or move yourself a little closer to the subject. These two little tips will have an immediate impact on your photos.
If you expect your Christmas to be recorded in a totally different but special way, you should try time-lapse photography. It would be the most wonderful and impressive video you have ever had for Christmas.
Firstly, you should choose a proper place to settle your camera. The location should not be disturbed by the passer-by and capture the scene you want to show. You can also use a web camera with your computer if you do not have spare camera. Then, set the interval between each shot with an intervalometer. The interval time depends on how long the recorded event is and how long the video you would like to have. The frame rate of video is usually 24-25, that means a second of video equates to 24-25 shots. If you want a 10-second video, you may need to take about 250 images. Therefore, you should set the interval time according to the time length of your event. Make sure there is spare battery and large memory card. After all shots are done, you can use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to edit them into video.
- Recommend camera settings
Here we also have some specific camera settings for your super Christmas family photos. However, there may be slight difference with various cameras, you should make an adjustment when you try these settings. When taking photos of outdoors Christmas lights, ISO can be set on 200, shutter speed 1/4, aperture F/16, no flash. For the Christmas lights and ornaments in the house, you can use the ISO of 100, shutter speed 1/8, aperture F/5.6 with a flash. When shooting close family photos, ISO can be 100, shutter speed 1/10, aperture F/3.5 with a flash. As for group portraits, the ISO is 200, shutter speed 1/160, aperture F/13 with a flash.
Hope you enjoy today’s special tricks for your Christmas family photography. Wish you have a wonderful Christmas!!!
Image resource: Unsplash
If you like this blog, please share it!
If there is any other idea about vinyl photography backdrops, please contact us！
Join our Facebook Group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/foxbackdrop for more discussion and discount information.