Family Photography Tips For This Season

It’s the season – the time to brush up your photography skills with some family holiday photography tips! We know that not all photographs we take come out as we want them to. Perhaps it’s the half opened eyes of someone or the messy background. A photograph is a moment in time and often times, once missed, it cannot be retaken. One problem with most photos that are taken during holidays or any other special celebration for that matter, is that they don’t always capture the special feeling of the event. Good news is, with few simple photography tips, you can turn average photographs to extra special ones.

Seasonal Family Photography Tips

Family Photograph | (c) Photo By Carlson Photography

Photography Tips 1: Frame The Background First

Most of us tend to put people first and then frame the photo. This however is not correct. Not to mention it could drive your family crazy when they have to keep smiling for 10 minutes while you adjust the frame to take the perfect photo. So when you want to capture that perfect holiday photograph, say the tallest Christmas tree, frame the tree first. Then have your family step into the frame and take the snap.

Photography Tips 2: Get Closer

Don’t be afraid to get closer to your family to take the photograph. As Roberta Cap, a photographer for Life Magazine said: ‘If the pictures aren’t good enough, your not close enough.’ When we see a beautifully decorated place, we take a photograph of the landscape leaving the family appear so small in the photograph. So don’t settle for landscape shots of Christmas decorations, zoom in and capture what matters – your family! Almost every camera has a zoom function that lets you get closer and create a much more interesting photo.

Photography Tips 3: Be Impractical

Instead of asking ‘say cheese‘, say something funny. This distraction could help to relax their faces and often loosen up the individuals who have frozen grins on their faces. This can make an average picture a perfect one. For instance, if you say something silly, people will look up, laugh out loud, grab the person beside them etc. All these actions could turn out to be a great photo moment. Try it out and who knows, this could make your grumpy granddad wear a smile on his face.

Photography Tips 4: Have Your Subjects Wear Bright Clothes

Wearing colors such as whites, greys and blacks may look nice to the naked eye but it won’t be the case on a holiday photograph. Bright colors such as yellow, orange and red ‘pop’ in pictures and grab the attention of the eye. For a little extra, you can add a hat or a scarf.

Photography Tips 5: The Golden Hour Photo

When you want to capture that perfect photograph, shoot at golden hours for outdoor pictures. The golden hours are dusk and dawn. To figure out when the golden hour will be at your destination, check out Golden Hour website.

Photography Tips 6: Candid Shots

There is nothing wrong with posing for holiday photographs but candid shots often make great photographs. For example, you can capture people while they are engaging in conversation or as they are opening a gift. Keep your camera close by to capture spontaneous moments like these. Most digital cameras have motion settings that allows you to capture people in motion without blur in the photo. Click here for a great 14.1MP Canon camera to capture those candid moments or even to give as a gift this holiday season.

Once you capture some nice holiday photos with these simple photography tips, you can share them with everyone or better yet, make the memories into a gift with digital photo frames. This will surely help to show off your photography skills that you learned from these photography tips.