It’s winter! The air is colder, the days are shorter… but it’s also a great time of the year, where family and friends come together to have and share great times. It’s also time for some family portraits. These 3 easy tips will save you from shooting mugshots and give you great family portraits you’ll love to share and reuse for Christmas cards, update emails, and even to create great keepsakes for the holidays or other occasions.
Tip #1 Get closer, get back, and close again.
The key to successful portrait (and to great photo combinations for Christmas cards) is to vary how much of your family members you’ll show. So, try getting close (head shot), and then try a waist-up shot, and then a full body shot. The key here is variety. Once you’ve tried out several angles, pick your top 2 for a great Christmas card!
2 extra tips at play here: try looking for textures (so look for brick or old walls, rust on old shops, etc) and don’t center your subjects. It’ll make for more dynamic shots.
Tip #2 Reindeer see, reindeer do.
Find it hard to get small children to pose in family portraits? Don’t worry, this tip is easy: if the kids don’t pose like the adults… get the adults to pose like the kids. It’ll make for fun, personal and original family poses.
Tip #3 Use the winter window light
Winter actually comes with less aggressive lighting throughout the day, so you’re less limited on when you can take your family portrait. If you decide to go indoors for your family photos, gather everyone closer to a window, where natural lighting is more flattering. Bonus: more light means less risk of pictures being blurry.
And remember: just because Christmas is 1 day in the year doesn’t justify taking just 1 shot. The key to getting everyone to look good is to take the shot at least 3 times. That’ll prevent the inevitable blinking, looking away, scratching, to show up in the final family portrait.
Extra tip: don’t want to share all the shots? Enable Selective Share on your Eye-Fi card – you’ll be able to just share the best online, and backup the rest on your computer (automatically and wirelessly of course!).
