I have been taking my own Christmas family photos from the moment I bought my frist cheapie camera and roll of film. The holiday season is my absolute favorite time of year and I love documenting it with loads of family portraits. In the beginning I stuck with more candid shots but over time I have branched out to more traditional family portraits and even do some editing now to really make the photos pop. In this post, I'm sharing my quick and dirty tips for creating beautiful family photos for the holiday season.


The very first step to taking your own family photos is to find some inspiration. The family photos that we are all used to seeing are often of models whose job it is to look good in photos. Or they are taken by professional photographers who have invested countless hours into learning about color, composition, and lighting. The great news is that because they have done all of the work for you, all you have to do is copy exactly what they are doing! It's totally fine. I promise that no one will notice that your family pic looks exactly like the one in the Target ads.


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When you see a photo that stands out to you, save it by pinning it to a new board. You can create one board for all your family portrait research (because let's be real, once you learn all of this, the family portrait fun won't stop at Christmas) or you can create separate boards for each season. As you are saving the photos, pay close attention to these points:

We have a point and shoot that takes amazing pictures, the Canon G7X, but when it comes to our family photos, I always use my DSLR. It is just a lot easier to take creative semi-pro photos with a DSLR and the price point is just not that different. If you already have a DSLR and lenses, great! Feel free to drop down a few paragraphs to find out what other equipment you will neeed.

Alright, so you have your camera and lens. You will also need a tripod to hold your camera so you can actually be in the photos. Lastly, I recommend that you buy a remote for your camera so that you don't have to walk back and forth to set the timer. It's also really helpful when it comes to taking photos that are a bit more candid, because you can repeatedly press the shutter button without having to disrupt the action by leaving the shot.

Alright, now we are ready to get into the creative side of things where we hash out the creative details of our family photos. The best time of day to take your photos is during the golden hour. This is the first our after sunrise and the hour before sunset. The sunlight at these times is all golden and diffused, making it easy to take pretty photos. Full disclosure: I have never taken pictures during the golden hour and have still had great success. The next best thing is an overcast day.

There are tons of options when it comes to where you should take your Christmas portraits. It can be as simple as taking a quick photo in your house with your holiday decor as a backdrop. We did exactly that for Christmas 2015 when I was heavily pregnant and in no mood to head out somewhere special for our holiday photos. You could also climb into bed in some holiday-themed pajamas for a cute and cozy family photo.

Another option is to throw up a quck background on a blank wall using Christmas lights and a white sheet. I haven't tried that yet but it's on my to-do list. Or use darkness and lights from your Christmas tree to create special photos like this one I took of Alexis in 2014.

Another popular option is to head outdoors for your holiday family pictures. Forested areas are an ever-popular option. Bonus points if it's a Christmas tree farm like the one that we visted last year for our family photos. This is a great option if your family usually purchases a fresh tree anyway. I love it when outings can do double or triple duty. In this case, we went to the Christmas tree farm, took pictures, enjoyed farm fresh donuts and hot cider, plus picked up a tree.

We tend to lean towards outfits that have complementary colors but don't match exactly. And we make sure to have a mix of patterns and solids. Too many patters increases the risk of the photo looking too busy. But too little pattern or texture and the photo can get boring. In our Christmas photos last year, we went with a mix of red, white, and gray. We have always managed to piece coordinating outfits together without having to go shopping so try that first before heading out to the store if you are looking to save a few dollars.

The actual process of taking the photos is fairly simple, especially if you keep your camera on auto. First, have your family get into position with your chosen backdrop behind them. Set up your tripod and take a few test shots to make sure that you like how it all looks. Also check to make sure that there is enough space for you in the photo. If you are unsure, leave a bit of extra room in the shot. You can always crop it down later.

Set your camera to remote shooting then head on over and take a couple of pictures using the remote. After that, you just rinse and repeat. Particularly with younger kids, it can be hard to get them to look at the camera and smile at the right moment. So you might have to take a number of photos before you get it right. For younger kids, candid shots involving tickling, walking, or tossing them in the air can work really well.

Editing your Christmas family photos can take them from nice to pro. Most computers come with some type of photo editing software. You can do a few easy tweaks on there. But if you want to take it up a notch, plus also have an easy way to catalog all of your family photos, I highly recommend Lightroom, even if you have a Mac. It's incredibly easy to use and can do amazing things to your photos.

For most of my photos, I do four things. First, I bump up the exposure a little bit. Brighter photos just look better. Second, I bump up the contrast. Third, I bump up the saturation. This brightens all of the colors in the photos. You want to be careful with this because it can quickly turn your skin tone over-tanned orange or beet red. Less is more. Finally, I increase the sharpness of the photo. This makes the lines in your photo sharper.

There are so many things that you can do with your shiny new Christmas family photos. The most obvious is to use them as the background for your holiday cards. You can print them out, throw them into frames, and use them around the house as Christmas decor. They also make a great present for grand parents. Then come next Halloween, you can recycle them into zombie portraits using PicMonkey's Zombieland tools!

Remember your favorite holiday moments forever when you create a tailor-made custom photo book. Holiday photo books are a lovely way to commemorate any special holiday or to carefully arrange your most cherished holiday photos. Whether you're celebrating Christmas, Valentine's Day, or Thanksgiving, a photo book lets you capture the essence of your most cherished family holidays.

Every holiday creates its own special memories. Every season brings a whole range of activities, events, traditions, parties and pastimes. Creating a photo book to capture the fun of a specific holiday or season can be a wonderful way to chronicle a special family gathering or a whole season of memories. Creating seasonal albums is the best way to get on top of your photos four times a year and preserve your family's activities, trips and best memories. Or choose from Mixbook's holiday themes and build a photo book around Easter egg hunts, favorite Halloween costumes, Family Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas surprises. You captured all these special moments with photos, now collect them and save them in a photo book you'll treasure.

Have you been looking for ways to get creative with your gift giving? Mixbook makes it easy. Sometimes friends or family members who live far away may feel homesick around the holidays, especially if they can't make it back for a visit. Let them feel included by creating a photo book just for them. A photo book gives you a fantastic chance to say, "I care." Personalize a photo book for a specific person or order several copies of the same book to send to friends and relatives who are far away.

If you've never made a photo book before, you're in luck! Mixbook makes the process easy and user-friendly. You don't have to be a computer expert in order to create a fantastic book that will showcase your most precious memories. Take a look at what our clients have to say about using Mixbook so you can know exactly what to expect when you create your own book.

We hear from happy families in Grosse Pointe. Loving families in San Diego. Athletic families in Petosky. Good-looking families in Sausalito. Well-adjusted, high-functioning families in San Francisco.

Looking for custom Christmas card ideas for 2023? Try Christmas and holiday photo cards! Customized Christmas photo cards and picture holiday cards make very popular family Christmas cards and business Christmas cards, too. You can create great custom photo cards online at CardsDirect. Send custom photo Christmas cards or holiday picture cards to showcase great memories throughout the year. Family and friends will appreciate seeing you and yours on your fabulous photo Christmas card designs. Customers and employees will also value the time it took to encapsulate these memories when making your photo Christmas card. Photo Christmas cards offer a highly personalized approach for sending holiday greetings to customers. Photo Xmas cards will make your business more relatable. Some companies create funny Christmas photo cards to send to clients, employees, and colleagues. Others, take a more professional approach, displaying office building photos and members of their hardworking team on their personalized Christmas cards.

While free digital Christmas cards may work for a quick salutation around the holidays, our elegant Christmas designs personalized with your unique specifications on a selection of high-quality paper types, are the Christmas greetings you want to send this year. How will you design your 2023 photo Christmas cards? e24fc04721

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