How to take Christmas Family Photos. You know you want to make them magic
Feature photo "Family Photo" © rocketvox_
I was inspired to write this after a comment left by Click in the Photography Campus forums today.
He was wondering where he will shoot the family photo on Chrsitmas day.
It made me think that most people who read this blog or do our online photography learning courses are probably also the designated family photographer.
After all, you're the one with the fancy camera, the one with the artistic eye, the one with the interest in photography...December 25 is your moment to shine.
But how to you take photographs that are not only interesting to look at in years to come but interesting for you to shoot as well?
Here's a few tips to taking Christmas family photography portraits.
Photograph with depth.
Ok technically this isn't a Christmas photo, or a family for that matter!
It's the Photo Campus crew at Calder Park where we were shooting Michael Wearne and his great course"How to Photograph Cars and their owners."
Here we had seven people who needed to fit in to the photograph, along with a couple of cars.
So many photographers when faced with this task just line everyone up and take the shot. You see it in family portraits all the time.
And it's so, so dull.
In the above photograph, Michael chose to stagger us, so as to give the shot depth and interest.
It's such a simple technique, and yet it makes an enormous difference.
When you're photographing your family this year, stagger them. Don't line them up like a firing squad!
Try putting the grandparents at the front, with everyone else 5 or so metres behind, and shoot with an aperture of around f/16 or more.
It makes for a story, not just a photograph.
Get up close and personal with your Christmas photography.
"Hope and Wisdom" © Todd Baker
One of the reasons people photograph wide on Christmas Day is to fit in all the Christmas props, like trees, tables, presents etc.
There's nothing wrong with that per se but it does mean the subject/s of the photography can become a little lost in the translation.
Don't forget to get up close and personal with your photographic subjects.
This cross generational portrait by Todd Baker reminds us that really what's special about Christmas is not the props but the people.
Note he has dismissed any distracting items by providing just a black background. You might add a Christmas hat to one of the subjects but often times that's all you need.
In this instance choose a high aperture for maximum detail and focus, and make sure your light is enough to get both faces clearly.
Think about the context you take your Christmas portrait in.
"Family Portrait" © blhphotography
This is not my family but it could have been!
Every year we had Christmas down at the beach, and every year rain hail or shine, we would head down to the beach and go for a swim or play beach cricket.
The beach for us was as much a symbol of Christmas as the tree and tinsel.
Therefore a beach shot of my family would 'say' Christmas.
What does your family do?
Play cricket?
Watch a movie?
Sleep?
There's a thought, how about a collage of everyone sleeping!
The point here, is to think of the environment as much as the people in the photograph. Those of you who have enjoyed our posts on environmental photography will appreciate, there's a lot more to photographing people than just photographing people :)
A photographic frame of reference.
I love the idea of finding environmental frames, be it a tree, a fence, a window or any other element which creates a border.
It adds a natural symmetry to the photograph and as in the case of the above photo, adds a smile as well.
Do you have a tree, window, door frame, empty picture frame or any other type of frame you can use?
If you do you might consider great shooting the same people in the same spot each year.
That way you end up with a chronological record of your family through the years.
Or why not get the people to stand in a different section of the frame each year? Mix and match their location, that can be just as much fun.
Add in pets, babies, in laws etc as they arrive and (sometimes) disappear.
It's a quirky approach to a crazy time of the year.
Photograph when nobody is ready.
"Family Photo" © Mel Kerr
This is one of my favourite techniques.
My family is totally wise to it, and yet they fall for it each year.
Photography when nobody is ready.
It's when you get the best, most natural shots.
This is a shot of my Mum and some nieces and nephews.
Mum notoriously hates her photo being taken and teenagers? Don't start me!
So I took a posed shot, and immediatelt afterwards when they relaxed and laughed about the shot I'd just taken...I snapped another one.
What resulted was a photograph that perfectly captured the spirit of my Mum and her grandkids.
Put your camera on continuous shooting if you can and fire of 5-10 quick frames.
It never ceases to make people laugh, especially of they're not expecting it.
The key point here is that environmental portrait photography is all about capturing humanity.
And that's what you want to look back on in years to come.
Not a bunch of people stiffly lined up in front of a tree :)
What do you think?
Do you have a technique you'd like to share?
Just add your thought here or put them in the forums.
I'm sure there's a heap I've missed out on.
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