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Five Tips for Better Holiday Photos
This season is the stuff that cameras are made for: holiday lights and decorations, brightly wrapped presents, kids anxiously darting around the tree. Your camera is probably getting excited just thinking about the opportunities you're going to give it in the next few days. So as you get ready for the veritable Olympics of personal digital photography, consider these five tips for taking better pictures. Also, if you're shooting outdoors, don't forget my advice on winterizing your camera. And since you'll be taking a lot of pictures indoors, be sure to review my tips for taking better pictures of people and how to get better results in difficult lighting.
Finally, before I get into the nitty-gritty of this week's holiday photo tips, I want to wish each of you a warm, safe, and happy holiday.
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1. Set Your White Balance
There are few lighting situations trickier than Christmas morning, with a cacophony of lighting sources competing to confuse your camera. There might be morning light streaming in your window, but also overhead lights, decorative bulbs on the tree, and perhaps even a couple of candles to truly give your camera's sensor a coronary. Your best bet? Set the white balance manually using a white sheet of paper before the festivities begin. Check your camera's user guide to see how to adjust white balance.
Another option: shoot in your camera's RAW mode, so white balance won't matter. You can adjust the white balance afterwards, on your PC. You'll get better results, but it's more time consuming. Read "Fix Your White Balance" for some more pointers.
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2. Fire and Forget
If your camera has a time lapse or intervalometer mode, you can set it on a tripod in a corner of the room and let it take a photo every minute or so. There are two cool reasons for trying this.
First, interval shooting might allow your camera to snap some interesting moments you'd have missed if you were trying to open presents, enjoy the festivities, and be the family photographer, all at the same time.
Second, you can use your camera's automatic abilities to take the few hundred photos and then turn them into a stop-motion movie. Especially neat if you have young kids, a stop motion video can be an awesome remembrance of this year's holiday. You can combine individual photos into a movie using Windows Movie Maker; see "Make a Stop Motion Movie, Part 1" and part two for details.
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3. Pass the Camera Around
Not enthused about leaving the framing and timing of your holiday photos up to the camera? Then break out of your standard routine and pass the camera around the room. Let everyone take a few pictures to give you a break and to get some different points of view. You can even make a game of it; each person has to take five photos, for example, and pass the camera to the person to their left. If your camera has a beefy memory card, you should have room for hundreds of photos.
You do have a big memory card, right? Remember that you can get an 8GB CompactFlash card for as little as $20.
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4. Shoot Holiday Lights
Make sure you photograph the tree in all its illuminated beauty. You should steady your camera on a tripod, since this is the kind of photo you'll want to take at night.
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5. Get Up Close and Personal
If you ask me, closer is always better. I generally like shots that are tight and emphasize the subject, rather than wider angle photos in which the subject gets lost in the background clutter. This is especially important in holiday photos, because there is a lot of clutter to get lost in. Zoom in tight for your people shots, and look for subtle details to capture up close even when shooting still life shots, like the tree, ornaments, and presents
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