Take Your Own Family Photos This Christmas

This year, I’m sure you are planning to send out a Christmas card. I love getting Christmas cards to hang on my walls during the holidays, but it often makes me think of how costly they are! Many people not only buy cards online (sometimes up to $3.00 a piece!), but also hire a professional photographer to take their Christmas pictures. Today I’m going to teach you how to take your own beautiful holiday family photos and save tons of money!

Your Camera’s Magical Timer

First, you’ll need a camera. It doesn’t even have to be fancy. It just has to be more than 5 megapixels, your phone would probably do. What’s more important is the you have the camera stationary and you arrange good lighting to get a quality photo. I have a really cheap point and shoot I used this year.

Next, you need to find your timer on the camera. Often, this requires you to set the camera in “Program” mode where you can change many of its settings.

When you’re in program mode, you’ll be able to use the timer function of your camera. Most have two and ten second timers, mine even had a double timer. It counted down ten seconds, snapped a photo, then three more seconds and it snapped another photo. It worked wonderfully!

The Correct Picture Lighting

Now that you have your camera and timer figured out, you need to choose the right lighting. I like outside photos because it is easiest to get beautiful, natural light. Here’s some rules:

• If it’s a SUNNY day, you must take photos in all shade.
• If it’s a CLOUDY day, you can take photos anywhere outside.
• If it’s INDOORS, you should arrange opposite a good lighting source (a big window with the curtains wide open).
• If it’s INDOORS, you should probably take the photos on a cloudy day.
• NEVER use flash.

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Taking Family Photos

Next, set up your camera on a steady surface at eye level. I like to use a ladder since each rung gives me a different height for the camera angle. This year I used a five gallon bucket turned upside down. Hey, whatever works.

Take your family photos against a uniform and attractive background. I took my family to the farm I grew up on and snapped photos in front of old, rusty wooden doors. If you’re indoors, hang up a flat white bed sheet on the wall. Snap a few practice shots to see how the lighting looks and position a sample person in the frame.

Props Make It More Professional

My last tip is to have a few cute props in the photo. Other years I took pictures of my kids in Christmas clothes or pajamas, but this year I opted to have everyone dressed in neutrals. The prop that brought in some Christmas cheer was the Santa hats each of us wore. You could also add some poinsettias in the background or have everyone hold onto a wreath.

It’s also better to get all your pictures done on the same day, in the same clothes. Christmas cards that have family photos from throughout the year can be cool, but they don’t look as professional because they lack uniformity.

Time to check out some of the results!

Of course there were bloopers, especially when working with a two year old.

Like not smiling…

And happily doing his own thing…

Ha-ha!! But, in the end, I have beautiful family photos to make Christmas cards with that didn’t cost me a penny. I did not edit these photos beyond adding my website watermark; the lighting makes all the difference!

I plan to have my cards printed at Shutterfly.com because I have great coupons there. In the past I’ve used yorkphoto.com and I’ve also heard Tinyprints.com is a wonderful choice for a card that’s really unique.

Here’s what my cards will look like this year:

Doesn’t that look great!?

Thanks for reading! I hope you’ve been inspired to save some money and take great family photos for Christmas this year all by yourself!