Holiday Photo Tips

Looking to make your holiday photos stand out from the crowd? Use these tips to make great photos of Christmas, Hanukkah, or the mid-winter holiday of your preference. This year and for 2014, come away with the absolute best holiday photographs you have ever created.

# 1 Compose Creatively and Get Up Close and Personal
Whether you are photographing the tree, presents, or your friends and family, getting creative with your composition certainly cannot hurt. This means paying special attention to how you organize the various elements in your photos.

There are two main concepts to keep in mind when composing the scene creatively and technically:

Off-center your main subject. Instead of placing your main subject in the center of the scene - with a lot of dead space around it - move your camera until this subject is off to the side. This works especially well if you can balance your main subject with something in the background, on the other side of the picture. For example, if you are photographing a beautiful candle, try placing it on the right with the Christmas tree (or an equivalent supporting element) blurred softly in the background on the left. This will result in a photo that both records the candle in all its beauty and does so in an artistic, creative way.
Get Up Close and Personal. Especially when you center your subject but even when you off-center it, moving in close is the one thing that will make the biggest difference in the success of your picture-taking. The simple fact is the audiences are always more impressed when the subject is huge and impossible to miss. Therefore, you want your subject to fill the frame. Say you are photographing the candle mentioned above, but don't have a Christmas tree (or its equivalent supporting element) in the background. In this case, you might want to instead move in as close as you can. Causing the entire frame to be filled with your subject will inevitably result in a photo that has true impact on your viewer.

Tip # 2 Photography Better Family and Group Portraits
The most important thing to keep in mind when photographing groups and families is this: taking a variety of photos is a must.

There is often a great deal of pressure when photographing groups. People generally complain about having their picture taken and want the experience to be over quickly. They have been trained by bad portrait photographers in the past to hate both the process and the results.

Take on the job of altering the perception of taking pictures and overcome these hurdles. You need to work quickly in order to get the job done within their limits of patience. Keep the experience as fun and friendly as possible so that all involved remember it in a positive light.

Also, having a large number of photos will give you the best chances of catching everyone looking their best.

Tip # 3 Shoot First, Ask Questions Later
Especially if your subject is a child opening a gift - or playing with a gift for the first time - you know that, within a split second, the scene can change. There is often just a few brief moments when that "magic spark" appears.

That's why it is so important to be fully prepared to capture that moment when it happens. Of course this means having your camera on hand and the batteries fully charged... After all, you can't capture the moment if you don't have your camera on you and ready to go.

Be ready to press that shutter button at a moment's notice, anticipating when the magic spark will surface, and be assertive. If you have a digital camera that suffers from a bit of a delay when taking the picture, then you will have to become even more intuitive and skilled at anticipating the moment.

Either way, shoot quickly and shoot often. Don't be shy - getting a great photo of the right moment is rewarding and well worth the extra effort.

Tip # 4 Don't Use Flash Indoors
The flip side to Tip #5 is to turn off your flash indoors, whenever you can possibly get away with it.

The flash can be a real lifesaver, no doubt about it. This burst of artificial light can mean the difference between a decent photo and a totally blurry, unusable image.

However, the light from flash units - especially from the tiny on-camera flash units found on most every camera - tend to produce harsh, flat, and cold light. This is rarely a complimentary way to illuminate your subject.

If you are shooting indoors during the day, make your portraits with your subjects standing near a window or door instead of relying on the flash. Get between your subject and the window - in other words, don't include the window in your composition, as this will throw off your exposure meter.

If you are shooting indoors at night, try to flood the room where you are photographing with as much light as you can - turn on whatever lamps you have at hand. This will help reduce those harsh, flashed-out subjects, as well as other problems like red-eye.

Tip # 5 Use Flash Outdoors
Most people think that using flash is synonymous with photographing indoors at night - at a Christmas party for example.

However, flash need not be relegated to indoor, night photography. Flash can be a big help when it comes to shooting outdoors during the day. Even in bright sunlight, forcing your flash to fire can often mean the difference between a so-so snapshot and an eye-grabbing masterpiece.

The reason is that this kind of bright day flash will fill in the shadows and even out harsh contrasts.

Try it out... next time you are photographing friends or children outdoors, turn your flash on and see if it works for you.

Try these quick and simple tips to photographing holiday pictures and watch your pictures be transformed into professional quality photos with a touch of style. Let me know how it works out for you!