Whether your family is big or small, you can achieve a stylish look for your family holiday photos. Of course if you have a theme like Ugly Christmas sweaters, that’s easy and doesn’t require much effort. BUT if you want something more elevated and less cheeky, here are a few savvy style tips to achieve it.
- Scout out a location that has at least 4 different options for backdrops.
- Choose 4 colors and have everyone wear 2 out of the four colors.
- Try to stay away from prints unless someone has 3-4 of the color choices in their printed piece.
- If you decide on wearing prints, make sure you go by the 3:1 ratio, meaning for every 4 people in the photo, only 1 can wear a print.
- Finding a professional photographer can be hard to decide and/or costly. In this case use whoever owns the newest iPhone or smartphone, buy a tripod with a phone adapter and bluetooth remote, we like THIS ONE.
- Set your phone and tripod up and have everyone get into frame. Take a few test shots to make sure lighting is good if outdoors. You can either set your phone’s camera timer or shoot with the remote. Just be aware of the remote in your hand, try to hide it while in the photo.
- If shooting outdoors, never shoot with the sun behind people, always in front.
- Have some of your family standing and sitting to create some depth to your photos.
- Shoot in at least 3-4 different spots and mix up the family members in each spot.
- After choosing the best photos out of the bunch, run the photos through the newest version of Adobe Lightroom CC for your smartphone and use a warm tone Preset to give your photos a crisp, smooth and professional autumn look.
- Most of all, make it a fun occasion and enjoy!
Below my immediate family (sans our spouses) and I visited the pumpkin patch at Bates Nut Farm to take some Fall family photos. I brought my tripod and took photos from my iPhone X. The results are frame/wall worthy. What do you think?
