9 tips to make this year’s Christmas photos better than last year’s

Once again, Christmas is just a few days off. Grown-ups are fuzzing around to get everything done and kids get more and more butterflies in their bellies. And even though it may not seem that way just yet, everything will be ready and the calm Christmas mood will be upon you. You’ll have a great time with friends and family, and of course you will want to capture it all with your camera. Take heed to these tips, and your Christmas photos will be even more interesting than those you shot last year!

Christmas Shopping HBW, by Photocillin on Flickr

Watch the background

Christmas time is decoration time. Often loads of it. This is of course an important part of creating the right Christmas mood (good), but it can also generate very fuzzy backgrounds for your photos (bad). Be sure to take your background into account when shooting, to avoid elements in your background that takes too much attention from your subject.

Move closer to your subjects

If the background is fuzzy, consider moving closer to your subject. More often than not, a photo will improve by removing the surroundings and filling the frame with your subject(s).

Christmas-time is bokeh-time

Day 4, by Phil Peck on Flickr

In no other time of year is your home so filled with various light-sources. Candles, the Christmas tree, stars in the windows etc. And why is this great for photographers? Because this is great for bokeh!. Being aware of your background will enable you to use these lights to best effect creating great bokeh in your Christmas photos.

Don’t take only posed photos

When you look at Christmas photos, they often include people looking straight into the camera (“Say cheeeeeeese!”). In gatherings like these, I usually prefer that people are not posing, as this often looks unnatural. I want my photos to capture the mood as it was, not how it was staged. Candid shots are great. Capture the intense glee the kids show, instead of the unreal calmness when they are posing.

Use a tele for kids

Speaking of kids. They have an uncanny ability to notice that someone is taking their picture (“Can I see, can I?”), so why not try and make it more difficult for them? If there is sufficient light, try using a tele lens so that you can get more distance to the kids and perhaps get some really nice shots of them playing.

Get down on children-level

Let’s not leave the kids just yet (after all; they are the most important part of Christmas, right?). Too many photos of kids are taken downwards. Get down to their level. This perspective is a lot more pleasant and interesting. Or even better; get lower! Photos of kids taken from below creates an unusual perspective that will add an interesting twist to your photos.

Cross-process some of your photos

Unique, by pixelprints on Flickr

While this isn’t really a tip that will help you take better Christmas photos, it will make your Christmas album even more interesting if you choose to cross-process some of your photos. Cross-processing adds an interesting “old style” feel to your photos.

Try to avoid flash

If you own one (or can borrow), go for a fast lens like a 50mm 1.4 or 1.8. This will enable you to take a lot of your photos without flash. If you use the built-in flash, most photos will have hard shadows and unnatural lighting. And a quality flash won’t help you much if it isn’t used right. To capture the warm, cosy Christmas mood, it is better to shoot without a flash. A fast lens (and a little higher ISO) is your friend!

Capture the details

As I said earlier, Christmas is very much about decoration. Which means details details details. Many of these details can be interesting subjects if you use your creative vision. Photos of details will add a nice touch to your Christmas photo album (you do print some of your photos, right? They don’t all just stay on your hard drive…?). Well, they look great in digital albums as well, of course

I hope these tips will help you take better photos this year! Do you have some tips on your own? Please share them with us! And if you’ve taken Christmas photos that you are particularly satisfied with, do share them in the comments section.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas!

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Morellen

"To capture the warm, cosy Christmas mood, it is better to shoot without a flash. A fast lens (and a little higher ISO) is your friend!"

I've got a 50mm 1,4 lense, but I find it so hard to shoot good photos indoor :( They are out of focus and far away of what I expected the 50mm lens could do. Need more hints and ideas on how to use it :)

Marius Waldal

It IS difficult, but possible. You need to be a lot more aware of where you're shooting when your lighting is sparse. Look for light sources and try to position yourself so that your subject gets as much light from it as possible.

My rule of thumb #1 for conditions like this is to never go below 1/100 in your shutter speed. You MIGHT be able to hold your camera still enough to shoot with slower shutter, but keep in mind that your subject will also move. 1/125 is safer.

Use this as your starting point and adjust ISO and aperture based on this. Depending on your camera, ISO800 may be fine (with a Canon 7D, you could even get away with ISO3200 without too much noise!). If your camera is OK with high ISO, let the aperture be your last adjustment. Going as wide as 1.4 gives you so narrow depth of field that you risk large parts of your subject being out of focus because it is outside the depth of field rather than because of motion blur.

Also, be sure to shoot in RAW, as this enables you to underexpose at least one (sometimes as much as two) stops, which you can "bring back" during post-processing.

Lastly, set your camera to continuous mode and shoot 3-4 frames of every shot. Chances are one of them will be sharper than the others.

I hope these tips will be helpful in your next low-light session! And DO practice it in situations where you don't really need the photos :-)