How to Take a Christmas Portrait at Home

Christmas Lighting Business

If you’re using a digital camera, you should be able to take great shots no matter what the lighting situation is. But sometimes, you’ll need to take a few shots in order to figure out the right balance.

If it looks off to you, then you can set it to balance on the camera manually. Look for the settings on the camera that change the lighting in regards to indoor or outdoor, overcast or bright daylight, regular bulbs or fluorescent lights. Sometimes photos taken under fluorescent lights have a tendency to appear too washed out.

Decide what style of Christmas portrait you’re aiming for – informal or formal and then have everyone dress accordingly. Better yet, take both kinds (just make sure you remind everyone to bring a change of clothes to the shoot).

For more formal Christmas portraits, everyone can wear black tie or silver dresses if you don’t want to use reds or greens. If you have a large family or want to have a portrait that includes extended family, think up.

Christmas Portrait at Home

You climb up a few steps on the stairs and take the photo. If you don’t have stairs, use a small stepladder. Resist the urge to take the ‘family on the staircase’ photo.

No one every really looks good hunched together on a set of stairs. Plus the people further up the steps can end up looking like floating heads if the lighting is too dark.

Create a scene where everyone’s trimming the tree together. Let everyone pick an ornament to hang for the picture. That way they’re all together in the shot, around the tree, but it’s more natural looking that scooting into close quarters and standing in a still pose.

In order to get every family member in the shot and not have an MPT (missing photo taker) then you should use a tripod or other method for holding the camera.

Using the delay button will give the picture taker enough time to zip into the picture. Remember that it’s okay to be relaxed during a photo. No need for stiff, forced smiles.

If you have older teens who would rather scrub the house and skip junk food than have their picture taken, you might want to forego any posed photos and instead take ones that are teen friendly. You might even try to take some funny family pictures.