One less stress: How to Take Holiday Photos

There are three types of people: those who hate photos of themselves, those who love them, and those who don’t care about them.  However, these types do have one thing in common -  bad holiday photos.  The haters hide from photos or make silly faces, the lovers are always strangely posed even during candid moments, and those who don’t care serve as props for the other two groups or end up posing for endless family portrait sessions.  How can we avoid this misery?  You can’t eliminate it completely (although you can avoid your family) but you can make the best with what you’ve got.  Try these tips for memorable, misery-lite photos this season:

Figure out how to use your camera. Obvious, right?  No.  Digital cameras have many of the same functions as film cameras, such as the options to adjust the shutter speed, flash, and other settings to suit the environment.  Read the manual!  Often, indoor photos are blown out with too much flash too close to the subjects of the photo.  If you can get the lighting just right you can lessen the impact of the flash or sometimes eliminate the flash altogether.  That way the photos look better and people aren’t as aware that you’re walking around taking pictures of them.  Take a few minutes and some sample pictures to adjust the settings on your camera.  Then, if you need to go outside or somewhere with different lighting you can readjust the settings or just set your camera back to auto.

You can be sneaky…just delete the ones that don’t work.

Candid and casual photos are a great way to deal with the haters and the lovers, because they don’t know that you are taking the picture.  Digital cameras are perfect for this, because you don’t have to hold the camera up to your face in order to take a picture.  You can be sneaky and hold it in less conspicuous ways, and you just delete the ones that don’t work.  Even if you only get one great moment captured out of ten sneaky photos, it’s no loss to you.  Be sure to adjust the quality of the images so that you can take pictures faster and less conspicuously and then zoom in on the subjects later.

Take some extra pictures during the dreaded family posing. You know, where everyone stands together and shuffles around uncomfortably while one person scampers back and forth between the tripod-mounted camera.  If you can, take some extra photos while people are laughing and rearranging themselves.  Do some smaller group shots and take as many pictures as you can while people are not paying attention.  Later, delete all of the bad ones and keep a few of the less formal family shots for your album.

It’s not going to be perfect, but you’re bound to get some good pictures and have fun taking them.  One thing that is important to remember while reviewing all of the photos that you’ve taken: if you keep bad pictures of people (like in the middle of a bite of food) they’ll make it that much harder for you to get them in pictures next time.  So, delete the embarrassing, ugly photos and share the really good ones with your family.  After a couple of poignant, flattering photos of themselves the haters will hate a little less, the lovers will pose a little less, and those who don’t care will like them just as much as they did before.