From the Studio: Holiday Photo Ideas

With Thursday being Thanksgiving I thought this would be a good time to give you some ideas on how to improve your holiday photos. I used some shots from my archives for a visual aid. Some are family pictures but others I took while on the job and at someone else’s house. However all the pictures were taken under the same shooting conditions as you will be facing this holiday season. You can even discount the fact that I was using a Nikon camera with a zoom lens and a big old flash. Most cameras today can do the same job as my camera did. A lot of cameras today can do better without a flash as mine did with that flood light flash I was using. At most you might have to find a wall with nothing hanging on it. More to the point is you should crop out or zoom in until you get rid of all the unwanted stuff you see in most people’s pictures.   

You’re right about this picture. It is not an in-home holiday table food shot, but it could be. My point is that if something looks good or interesting, take a picture of it. Not all photographs work and you may have to get rid of a picture or two later. But you can’t get rid of that shot if you didn’t take the shot in the first place. Table setting and holiday decorations almost always make for great memories and few people think to photograph them.

Kids can be tough, especially the small ones. Here is the most important thing you will need to remember when taking a child’s picture. “You can not reason with them.” You can fool them, lie to them, even at times bribe them, but reasoning with a child never ever works. Having said that; here is how you can get around a few of the pit falls and get the perfect photo of that curtain climbing, crumb snatching, ankle biting, loving child you have always wanted.   

Let mom hold the baby. You can zoom in or just step in closer to crop mom out of the picture. Although there are times you might want to include mom in the picture too.

Take lots of shots of the same pose. Sooner or later you will get what you want. It never hurts to be fast when shooting this way. Oh, here is hint; once they start to cry give it up for a while. The only thing you are going to accomplish it to make it worse. Wait 10 or 15 minutes and try a new approach to get the same shot. Now to really get a great shot you may have to play with the child while trying to get their picture. It can be done. Hint no. 2, when trying to get children to get their picture taken you will need lots of patients, act like a fool, and a shot or two of bourbon helps when you are done.

As strange as it may sound when it comes to photographing kids the one thing I learned was they are smarter and better at posing themselves than I ever could be. Let the child be themselves, take lots of shots of the same pose, play with them, and you might have to get down on their level to get the best shot. Come to think of it these rules also work on the big kid too.

It is now time to get serious or speak to you serious photographers out there. You may have come to this Thanksgiving dinner prepared to take some great family photos but everybody is there to eat and have a good time. A good time to them has nothing to do with listening to you tell them where to stand and what to do. So your first job is finding a way to make it fun to have their picture taken. This means you yourself have to be fun and inventive. All the while you have to remember all those things that go into making a good photograph. That is what being a photographer is about. You have to be in charge of the people who don’t want to have anyone in charge of them and act as if you are having the time of your life doing it.

Photographing Groups: First thing I do is put a chair out facing the group. I put my camera on the chair and go up to the group and move people around so they are facing the way I want them to face and fix what is out of place. I may run back to the chair once or twice and look through the lens to make sure I have them where I want them. Then when I am ready I stand on the chair and shoot down on the group. That way I almost always get the back row. You have to keep talking to them so they will be looking at you and not talking to one another. Take a minimum of 6 shots because people are fast and will turn their heads away or blink. Keep in mind that the longer you have them standing there the better your chances that you are NOT going to get a good shot. Have fun, make them have fun, and be fast.  

Need for Props: Some props are going to come in handy. Props can be anything you find that will help you get a better picture, like a chair, a foot stool, or even some pillows can be helpful. The idea here is to have the subject’s head where you want it for a good picture. Having someone lean on the back of a chair will tilt the body forward. This can be done while he or she is sitting or standing. Placing one leg of your subject on a foot stool, again sitting or standing, will give him or her a way to lean forward by having them lean out on the raised leg.

 



Having someone stand on a foot stool raises the head for a better composed shot. The rule here is that the top of one head should be at eye level of the next person. Notice the word should? Nothing is written in stone. If it looks good to you then shoot it that way. If you want you can always do it the other way too. Then pick which one works best for you.  

If a person is too short when sitting you can always have them sit on a pillow or two to make them taller.  

But most of all do not be afraid to have some fun and try a few things that you think might reflect the personality of those you are photographing. You never know when something is going to work. That picture of the family on the couch having fun in now used as the grandmother’s facebook profile picture. They did it all just goofing around and I happened to be there to get the shot.