This is a guest post from Yesh – a writer and digital marketer by day, and a technophile by night. He’s not a pro but loves to take photos with his old, but trusty Canon 600D.
Isn’t the holidays an exciting time to bring out the photographer in you and start shooting those perfect moments? The holiday season is just around the corner. There are bright lights, colorful decors, and the festive feel in the air. It’s a great time to pull out your camera or smartphone and start taking pictures. But how do you photograph the holiday season and capture the heartwarming feelings that come with it? It’s not that hard to do. Here are some tips that can make your holiday photographs truly stand out.
Good and adequate lighting when taking pictures is not only applicable during the holiday season but for any occasion as well. But for the holidays, there are candles, colored lights, or a lit fireplace as new light sources. It’s a great time to play with those lights and take full advantage of them. You’ll be surprised at how your pictures will turn up.
You can try capturing portraits of your family and friends by candlelight for that added drama. Or you can wrap your cute younger brother in Christmas light for that adorable snapshot that you can post on Instagram. It’s a great time to try different things this season so don’t be afraid to experiment, especially with the different lighting available.
It’s so easy to point your camera at a subject without much thought about the angle. Anyone can do that. But no matter how stunning your subject may be, if the angle is not quite right, you won’t be able to convey its beauty in your photographs.
So, before you photograph the holiday season, make sure that you try different angles first. It’s not only fun; you’ll be surprised at the various outcomes of your subject when you take a picture from another perspective.
The most important thing here is that you try and get out of your comfort zone. Stop taking those standard and safe angles. Go low, go high, experiment with the distance, and so on. There’s so much that you can do when it comes to the angle that you choose. Lastly, have fun in the process!
The holiday season is also the time when there are tons of surprises and fun reactions from family and friends. It could be while opening presents or a surprise visit to one of your best buddies. You would want to capture those candid moments. It’s one of the best times that should be immortalized in photographs.
To do that, you can take your smartphone and then turn on the camera’s burst mode feature. Just keep on pressing that shutter button. You’ll have tons of fun later when you look at the moments that were captured. You can then pick the shots that really got everyone’s holiday spirit.
You don’t have to stage every scene during the holidays to get the perfect pictures. In fact, it’s much fun to look at photographs that tell stories. Choose subjects that will document the details of the holidays. It can be the messy parts, the joyous moments, or even your little sister throwing a tantrum while wearing her itchy Christmas sweater. It could be anything!
Take the time to just hang around in the kitchen while your mom and grandma prepare Christmas dinner. There will be lots of lovely moments while they cook and bake your family’s favorite Christmas delights. It will be messy but it will definitely be authentic as well. Oh, and don’t forget, don’t just stand around taking pictures! Lend a helping hand as well!
When you revisit the pictures you have taken, you’ll have so much fun laughing at those imperfect moments that you have captured. Print those pictures and add funny captions to go with it and place them in an album just like the ones in MILK Books so that everyone in your family can enjoy the photographs you shot.
These are just some of the tips that you can try this holiday season. As you can see, it’s not that complicated to photograph the holiday season. What matters really is that you, your family, and your friends have lots of fun while doing so.
You can use your camera or even just your smartphone. A smartphone’s camera already has so many features that you can experiment with. The holidays are the best time to try them out. Don’t worry about the outcome yet; just enjoy the process.
Always remember to experiment and step away from those boring and safe angles. Have fun and always be on the lookout for those endearing moments this holiday season. Do you know other fun ways of capturing the holiday spirit? Feel free to share it in the comments! We’d love to know!