Top 10 Photography Tips for the Festive Season
December 04, 2018
Written by Louise Wright
With the festive season upon us, it's the perfect time to capture some special memories.
Here's our Top 10 Photography Tips for the Festive Season, to help you get prepared, and create some beautiful images!
Have lots of memory
Empty your memory card the night before! And have a spare card in your pocket, ready to go. There’s nothing worse than discovering you’ve got a full memory card right when you’re about to take a gorgeous photo of someone special in your life opening a present you know they’re going to love. So, our number one tip for awesome photos this festive season, is to be prepared by making sure you’ve got a blank memory card ready to go at all times! You don’t want to waste time during a special occasion by rushing to delete your old holiday photos to make room for new ones.
Have lots of power
Charge your camera battery the night before, and have a spare on hand just in case! Similar to not having a memory card ready to go, making sure your camera battery is charged the day before a special event is crucial. We’d also suggest having a spare battery charged and ready to go in your back pocket, just in case – there’s nothing worse than missing a shot because you’ve run out of battery life.
Don’t be afraid to capture the moment
Often the best images are ones you didn’t plan, but were captured in the moment. These photos often show true emotion and can be really special, so we’d suggest that you don’t be afraid to capture the moment. Keep shooting all day long!
Experiment with lighting!
On camera flash or a small LED light such as a Lume Cube can really add another element to your images. On camera lighting can be great if you’re shooting indoors in a low light situation, or even if you’re shooting outdoors in the midday sun – a little pop of flash can fill in the shadows on people’s faces nicely.
Document the whole day – not just the main event!
Capture the food preparation, present wrapping, family members arriving, the feast being served – documenting the whole day will give you so much more to look back on, and will really tell the whole story of the day as it happened. You’ll also find by shooting all day that you’ll capture some beautiful memories of special moments that you may not have anticipated.
Try a time-lapse
Got an extra camera and a tripod? Why not set up a time lapse to capture all the action as the day goes by! Time lapse is a fun way to capture all the events of the day, moment by moment. Putting all of the images together after the day will give you a lovely video to look back on, and share with family members.
Shoot in burst mode for important moments
Presents being opened, feasts being served – shoot in burst mode so you don’t miss a single moment! Shooting in burst mode will mean your camera captures images rapidly, so you don’t have to worry about missing that crucial shot you’ve been looking forward to.
Take lots, delete later
The beauty of digital photography means you can shoot as many photos as you like, rather than being limited to 36 shots in the days of 35mm film. However, while it’s tempting to shoot lots of images, don’t fall in to the trap of deleting them on the back of your camera. We’d suggest avoiding this for three reasons –
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It’s hard to tell on your cameras LCD screen which images are the best, and you may accidentally delete the ones worth keeping.
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Constantly reviewing the images on the back of your camera uses up your camera’s battery quite quickly
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If you’re occupied looking at the back of the camera, you may miss out on shooting some crucial moments throughout the day
Fill the frame
From family group photos to photos of Christmas dinner and dessert, filling the frame will help take your photography to the next level. When shooting group photos, we’d suggest filling the frame at least 50-70% with your models, so that there isn’t a huge amount of empty space around everyone and your subjects aren’t too small within the frame.
Similarly, when photographing objects (be it food, presents or your Christmas tree) fill the frame with your subject – this will create much more dynamic and interesting images.
Actually, print your festive photos!
One of the advantages of digital photography is the ability to shoot images and view them on your computer or TV straight away without needing to develop them. However, we find that most people these days don’t actually do anything with their gorgeous photos other than store them on a hard drive. So we’d suggest actually making the effort to print out your photos! Whether it’s printed to frame and decorate your house with, or compiling the images into a photo book, it’s so rewarding to have a tangible way to display your images. And if you want to take it a step further, Canon have the SELPHY CP1300 printer which allows you to print images via Wifi from your smartphone, allowing you to print your images during the day, and give them to your family members on the spot!
We hope these tips will help you capture some beautiful images this festive season, and don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions on what gear you need!