That special time of year is upon us once again, when families gather together to celebrate love, spend quality time with each other, eat delicious meals and…take lots and lots of photos together.
If there’s one season when even the most reluctant photographers among us pull out our smartphones and snap a few images, it’s during the holidays. There’s something so special about seeing everyone together, especially if you have family members who live far away.
To make sure you get the best pictures from this special time, here are some tips for making your holiday photos even better.
1. Start out with some standard poses to get everyone comfortable.
Whether it’s a professional photographer or you behind the camera, one of the best ways to get a good portrait of your family is to start with some standard poses.
You know the type: everyone bunches together or puts their arms around each other, and smiles on the count of three. These could very well end up being boring photos – in fact, they probably will be – but there’s a good reason to include them.
Most people feel a little insecure when they’re being photographed, and it can take a couple of minutes to loosen them up. By starting with poses that everyone expects, you give your subjects a moment to get cozy together and start talking and laughing, which is when you’ll get the really good shots.
One last note: make sure to take lots of photos to up your chances of having at least one great shot of everyone.
2. Allow for movement and playfulness.
Portraits don’t have to be posed. Especially when you’ve got kids in the family that you want to photograph, a candid portrait often says a lot more than one where everyone’s looking at the camera.
After you’ve shot the standard posed portrait, keep your camera handy while your family mills around on their way back to whatever it is they were doing. This can be a wonderful way to get some candid shots.
Another good tip is to ask the family members you’re photographing to do something together before you start shooting. Have the parents sit down and play with the kids, or ask your siblings to have a conversation with each other. As your subjects forget about the camera, you’ll see them relax back into themselves – and that’s an important element of any good photo.
3. Look for emotion, rather than perfection.
This tip comes from Babble contributor and photographer Me Ra Koh, who photographs families all across the country. When you’re taking holiday family photos, what you’re trying to capture is the warmth and love that are present. You don’t need a perfect composition, or even perfect focus, to do that.
When deciding which shots to keep, pay careful attention to any photos that show who your family really is, even if the shots feature some imperfections. If you can feel the love shining out at you, that photo is a keeper.
4. Photograph from a kid’s eye view.
The stars of holiday photos are almost always the kids. After all, the joy that appears on their faces as they decorate cookies, open presents, or play with friends and family is a beautiful, magical thing.
To really capture their perspective, get down on the floor and shoot from their eye level. You’ll find that you get pictures that are not only more intimate, but also more interesting.
Of course, all the family holiday photos in the world won’t do you much good if you don’t have a way to display them. A Nixplay Iris digital WiFi frame will let you show off as many photos as you like – you can even send them directly to the frame from your smartphone by using the Nixplay app.
Browse our Nixplay Iris colors, as well as our other digital frames, in the Nixplay Store.
Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.