How to Take Great Family Holiday Photos

Christmas is almost here, and we are amid the hectic holiday season. It’s the perfect time to get some great photos of your family members together celebrating the holiday. Capturing those candid moments of the whole family are a great way to get that perfect photo which you will love to add to your social media page to share with and can be used as a virtual holiday card.

This is a time of year that families gather around for the festivities, memorable and cherished moments with their whole family, making it the time to get some great Christmas photos and pics that could include selfies with you and your family members making funny looking gestures and standing at cool stances.

Having a great DSLR cameras will help you get better photos especially around the Christmas tree lights. Family photos around the Christmas tree of your loved ones make for a great Christmas card for your family, friends and possibly co-workers. So, it is imperative that you have a great DSLR camera as would a professional photographer, even if you are beginner in the world of photography. Not only will you get better photos in your photo sessions with your family members, but most DSLR cameras like ones from Canon, come with post processing software for photo editing. This is usually done by pairing your smartphone such as an Apple iPhone to your camera, download the companion app and you are ready to go. There are other photo editing software types available such as Adobe Lightroom. Having these features will help ensure that your photo shoot goes amazing.

Getting wonderful family portraits over the Christmas holiday and specifically family pictures around the Christmas tree with its gorgeous ornaments, and shining natural light make it a fun but possibly challenging venture. As you are dealing with harsher lighting environments due to all the natural light in the room and around the Christmas tree, you will need to keep an eye on and adjust the settings on your camera to handle these types of lighting situations. So, you will need to adjust the ISO and shutter speed with a fast shutter depress to allow for less light to hit your cameras image sensor.

When trying to have DIY setup for your holiday photos, there are many terms and factors which will contribute or detract to or from getting a great exposure. So, let’s look at some photography tips and tutorials which will help you get the best holiday photos. We will also explore photography equipment that will be of great assistance as well.

Starting Off

Tips for Holiday Photos

Establish the time of day that you want to conduct the photoshoot of your family. One of the cool times to get some great family photo is during golden hour. The golden hour or “magic hour” is the period during the first hour of light after sunrise, and the last hour of light before sunset times when the color of the sky goes from red and orange to yellow. It is the ideal time for photography because the light that exists during this period isn’t harsh, rather it is a soft light and a warm color. Be wary and adjust your camera settings to compensate for any silhouettes or just leave your camera on auto focus mode and the camera will handle all the settings for you.

You should set your camera to use a lower ISO setting for daytime shooting of your Christmas Tree or a high ISO up to 6000-8000 for evening shots. This all depends on available light sources, as you will probably be shooting in low light. When referencing ISO, a low ISO, the better. A high ISO may allow for some graininess may appear in your images.

Use a wide aperture on your camera settings of f/1.4 (f-stop) with a slower shutter speed of 1/200. This will allow for the long exposure to bring in more natural light to the image frame. If you are in a photo situation where there is an abundance of natural light than you would want to go with a faster shutter speed to ensure that you don’t get overblown or washed-out images from the excess natural light.

If you are a beginner, try using your camera in autofocus. The camera will automatically adjust the settings for you. However, like most professional photographers you may want to give shooting in manual mode a shot. Shooting in manual mode gives you a tremendous amount of control over the in-camera settings such as aperture, white balance, shutter speeds, ISO and more.

Stabilization is always important when taking photos and videos. Even though the best DSLR cameras and lenses come with IBIS or In body stabilization, there is always a chance of some shake and blur which is commonly found with handheld shooting. We recommend getting your hands on a tripod to help avoid these situations as there is even more stabilization available. A great option for this would be the Deco Photo 12-Inch Compact Rubberized Spider Tripod. With 360-degree rotation and bends of the tripods legs you can count on getting a great stable photo whether you are shooting vertically or horizontally.

One photo idea that creates not only cherished and memorable moments is getting some candid shots of your family members, as these are images that will stand the test of time and allow you to reflect on these wonderful moments. Ensure that you have great holiday gifts ranging all the way from top of the line cameras, drones which are great for taking photos if you are taking a family vacation this Christmas. While these are great photo and video taking items, especially when traveling for a family vacation, ensure that you have the fastest charger capabilities available to you for these products.

Monitor and adjust your camera flash as needed based off the amount of natural light in your shooting environment. If you have the flash set when shooting the Christmas tree lights, you may get an exposure with too much distortion of the image.

Taking holiday photos with a great bokeh effect is awesome. Hone in the focus of your camera on your subject when taking portrait family photos that will end up beautifully blurred background and will get you a gorgeous exposure focused in on every detail of your subjects.

As we previously mentioned you should utilize the photo editing companion app that you can pair from your camera to your iPhone or Android and make any adjustments you want to your image before settling on the best exposure. You can also use post processing software like lightroom or others like the built-in editing on an iPhone, to make any DIY changes to your image exposure.

Speaking of an iPhone get some amazing family photos such as selfies with your family members next to and around the Christmas tree or just candid shots from your family members hanging out and enjoying each other’s company.

Try having your family members wear holiday themed clothing such as matching holiday sweaters or even getting the yule log into your exposure. This sets up for better holiday photos with a Christmas theme.

Must Have Products

Cameras

The best way to get great family photos this holiday season is by having a great DSLR camera. Thank you to Sony for the Sony Alpha ZV-E10 Interchangeable Lens Mirrorless Vlog Camera w/ 16-50mm Lens. This camera comes packed with features that include:

A 24.2 effective megapixel APS-C Exmor CMOS image sensor and BIONZ X processor is present to get those high-quality images. The image sensor of the Sony ZV-E10 is more than ten times bigger than your typical smartphone sensor. (Please note that this may vary from smartphone to smartphone)

As this is an interchangeable lens camera, there is tremendous versatility to interchange with so many lenses such as Sony EPZ lenses. Sony GM or gold master lenses and lenses from other manufacturers. Please refer to the mounting system used by your camera, as if you decide to purchase a lens from another manufacturer a mounting adapter may be required as each camera manufacturer has their own proprietary mounting system.

There is an anti-dust resistance coating on the camera lens which helps with longevity of your product.

There is a 3” LCD flip out touchscreen electronic viewfinder or EVF which makes it even easier to focus and see your shooting area and subject all in the screen.

Weighing at just 12.8 ounces, the ZV-E10 is ready and made for easy use and portability. This is a great DSLR camera to have when taking a family vacation over the holiday season, as travelling and carrying it around should be no problem due to its ergonomic and lightweight design.

The ZV-E10 is also equipped with vlogging features seen in the Sony ZV-1 digital camera, including "Background Defocus", "Product Showcase Setting" and "Face Priority AE" along with Sony's tremendous autofocus with AI based subject focusing and tracking.

With the ability to take 4K HDR video recordings at up to 30 FPS and full HD 1080P recording at up to 120 FPS for smooth frame rates, this is a can’t miss camera for the price.

Drones

Want to get some great family photos over the holiday season as they traverse their neighborhoods checking out all the amazing holiday decorations on the streets and houses. DJI who is a class leader in drones has released the DJI Mini 4 Pro. This drone is a great way to get some wonderful cityscape still image and video recordings over the holiday season capturing the beauty of it. This drone is packed with specs and features to help you get better photos of your loved ones, landscape photography and more. Let’s take a deeper dive into this fantastic drone.

This is an extremely light weight and portable drone for ease of use, as this drone weighs in at less than 249 grams.

The Mini 4 Pro's camera, which has a 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor featuring Dual Native ISO Fusion, gets you crisp, sharp and vibrant color reproduction in your images. Shoot 4k HDR videos in 60 FPS and 4K non high dynamic range content in up to a blazing 120 FPS refresh rate. You can also get 100 FPS in slow motion 4K video shooting.

The vertical photographing and video graphing capabilities of the DJI Mini 4 Pro allows for vertical recording which is then optimized by the drone for social media and smartphone playback. So, it’s images will appear amazing when shared via social media and people are looking at the photos and videos on their smartphone’s app.

Battery life is rated at 34 minutes on the standard included battery. You can get this up to 45 minutes of battery life by upgrading to the intelligent flight battery plus. You may also want to consider having a power bank to use as a charger for when you are on the go and there are no outlets available to charge the camera.

Remember to download and use the companion DJI Fly app which can be found in the appstore on your smartphone, for even great versatility, control and post processing of images.

Conclusion

To conclude, over this holiday season if you want to get the best possible family photos, amazing photos of your family around the Christmas tree, candid shots of them hanging out with other extended family members that they don’t often get the chance to see makes for a great Christmas. So, utilize our tutorials for the best family holiday photos, and whether you are at home or on a family vacation this holiday season, you can be rest assured that you will get images that will leave long lasting memorable and cherished moments that you can look back on.

Merry Christmas!