Getting creative on Christmas morning
Aah, Christmas morning. As kids, my sister and I used to wake up at the crack of dawn and wait on the steps 20 minutes for Santa to figure out how to use the camcorder and make any last-minute adjustments under the tree.
Long are the days of sitting on the downstairs steps before we could come upstairs. Now, I’m in charge of capturing those ever-important moments by the tree.
Below are a few techniques I use when photographing every Christmas, that will ultimately lead to sharper, more creative photographs that will help you better remember your family’s Christmas.
Get your subjects engaged
There are two types of Christmas morning photographers. There’s the “dad photographer,” who has each person hold up their gifts and smile at the camera. Sure, it has its time and place. But no one’s going to look at those and get excited.
Instead, have your subjects get engaged with the gifts they open, and with each other. For me, I treat Christmas like any other type of event, and try to capture the emotion and liveliness it brings. If they got a really cool gift for Christmas, show the excitement that happens when it’s being opened. Have them try it on, and play around with it.
Use a shallow depth of field
While it’s important to have your primary subject in focus, you probably don’t care much about the wrapping paper thrown all over the floor. Choose a standard zoom lens that allows for a f/2.8 aperture or lower (something like a 24-70mm is great) and be sure to focus on the subject’s eyes when shooting.
In addition to using an aperture of f/2.8 or lower, get up closer to your subject. Doing so will blur the background more and make for a more creative take on the scene.
Go with a warm white balance
Especially when shooting things like Christmas trees, ornaments, etc. I use a warmer white balance. This helps to contrast the snow-covered trees outside, bringing a warmth to the interior decorations. Doing so can also help to enhance things like shadows that a Christmas tree might give off on the wall behind.
Get creative in post-processing
While I’m photographing for clients, I typically stay true to the scene. I don’t add special visual effects. But Christmas photos present the perfect time to experiment. Whether you end up with color, black and white or even a sepia look, creative possibilities are endless.
The art of the handoff
Ultimately, your family members will want some photos of you too. So before you hand off your camera to them, put it on the Auto setting.
This will get rid of any custom settings you might have setup for yourself and instead will make the camera do the work for them. You’ll still have to instruct them on how to properly focus the camera, but but putting it on Auto, you should get a lot more usable photos. If your camera doesn’t have an Auto mode, try putting it into Program mode.
Christmas photos can be a ton of fun if you go about it in a creative way. By playing around with angles, depth of field and different post-processing effects, you can turn out photographs that will be as memorable as your favorite gift!
