Christmas Family Photo Tips

Empty box, but so pretty!

Take family photos early in the day when everyone is fresh and alert.

Shots at a festival of trees -  pose with the beautiful (and empty) packages on display. :-)

Sweatshirts are comfy, but they look bulky and sloppy in photos. The fewer who wear them for photos, the better.


Don’t make everyone pose in matching outfits—though coordinating colors is nice—and keep prints to a minimum. A photo where you see polka dots, stripes, flowers, and plaid is a photo that causes eye strain. ;-)

Coordinating or matching pajamas make a fun shot. One of my favorite family photos has my husband in a red bathrobe (over pajamas) sitting in front of the tree, while our daughter and I wore red plaid flannel gowns and our son wore plaid pajamas and settled in around him.

Do not hide behind the camera. I don't care how much you fret about your weight, hair, or aging face. You are more than your outsides. Your family loves you for who you are inside, and depriving them of family photos because of your dissatisfaction with your reflection in the mirror is selfish. That’s right, I said it! Our families, for the most part, see us through eyes of love; they don't see all the flaws that make us cringe. Look. Someday, you’ll be gone. Those photos will be a comfort to your loved ones only if you are IN them.

You can't threaten someone into looking relaxed and happy. If someone is taking a photo of kids, try jingling a bell to get their attention. If you use a timer, decide where you would like the group to look, and place a wrapped gift there. Tell the kids that once you get some good pictures, you will open the gift. Ask them if they think Frosty the Snowman's magic hat is in the box. Fill the box with something that everyone can share, like candy, snack mix, or little party trinkets.

Think about taking silly pictures first. People are often more relaxed and natural after that, so you may get a better normal shot. Of course, if you have a child who would be wound up and unable to stop being silly, save the silly pics for last, letting the child know that after you get a "good" group shot, you will take a silly shot.

Distract children who don't want their picture taken by giving them a small toy. They may not look at the camera, but they also won't pout or cry and ruin the shot.

That’s all for now! Christmas breakfast is calling my name. May you all have a warm and wonderful family Christmas.

Take Advantage of Free Photo Editing Ops

Now is a good time to think about ways to use your photos for the coming Christmas season. Why? Because for the time being, PicMonkey.com allows you to use all their editing tools for free, no registration required!

[Update: It was bound to happen. Sometime before the Christmas season 2012, PicMonkey began charging a monthly fee to use some their "Royale" features. Non-royale features are still free, though.]

Possible uses for your photos include turning them into Christmas cards or postcards, including a print inside store-bought or handmade cards, inserting one or more into a computer-created Christmas newsletter, creating gifts tags, or even turning them into ornaments to hang from a tree or garland! 

Your photos don’t have to be perfect for these projects as long as they are in focus rather than blurry. Too dark or too light can be adjusted. Dull can be brightened. Red eyes can be corrected. Cropping can remove things that detract from the picture. There are many, many tools and effects to make an ordinary photo extraordinary!

If you want to add text to your photo, look for one that has a fairly solid dark or light space. Photos that demonstrate “the rule of thirds” are great for this. In the example, my daughter’s composition features me in the left third of the frame, leave two thirds for my message.



This next example features a Christmas scene without people, an option if you didn’t get any family photos that you feel like using, or you have a collection of Christmas items that you love and want to share with family and friends! As you can see, this one also featured a dark space that was perfect for text.


Don’t forget to add the photographer’s name and date in one of the lower corners of the photo!

This photo has no text but would make a pretty card. I had fun taking this indoor shot and playing with two special effects available: frosted edges and snow. This means you could take a family photo this summer and “winterize” it with frosted or snowflake edges and even a snowy overlay. 

While you’re at it, you might consider some photo gift ideas while this free photo editing is available. It’s not too early to start stocking your gift closet! Any photo center offers mugs, calendars, keychains, t-shirts, throws, and more, all personalized with your photos. Or, budget-minded folks may choose to enlarge and frame their special prints, like my daughter did when she made this one and added a Bible verse. It was a big hit!

There are so many fun and fancy options for making your photos pop! While they are free, check it out! And, if you know of other free photo editing sites online, please leave a comment and let us know. 

A Brenda Christmas Slide Show

Photobucket allows you to create slideshows of your holiday activities! Here is mine for the month of December!

Starburst Photos - Before You Pack Up Your Holiday Lights

Photos taken with a Kodak Easyshare digital camera

Before

After

Years ago, when I had a Canon EOS film camera with changeable lenses and filters, I learned a trick for getting the starburst effect on lights without purchasing an expensive filter. I used to use that trick all the time, but over the years, I got new cameras, moved on to digital, and forgot about the wonderful things filters can do...until I was talking with the designer of a book cover for a book I recently edited. I told him how much I loved his artwork, especially the nightscape with the starburst street lights. When he said that people have gotten away from filters, the light bulb went on in my head. 

I remembered that old trick, and I wondered whether it would work with a digital camera. You can see that it did in the above photos. Here's the trick:

Stretch a section of sheer hose or a sheer scarf across the lens! It's as simple as that! You'll get a slightly foggy effect with the lights transformed into stars. The closer the shot, the better. I tried photographing my tall Christmas trees full-length, and while the lights were bigger, the star effect didn't quite happen.

Try this with your camera and amaze your family and friends with photos of your holiday lights. They'll wonder how you did that! But it can be our little secret. ;-) 

Photo Ornament Ideas

Hi there! Have you gotten started organizing your photos yet?

Photo ornaments can be such fun gifts to receive, not to mention make! If you have a Hobby Lobby or other craft store in your area that posts coupons, now would be a good time to start collecting the supplies to make your photo ornament crafts. If you wait until the holiday season, you're less likely to find a coupon or to be able to use what you find -- not to mention finding the time to make the craft when the whole world is doing the holiday hustle-bustle! It just makes sense to work in advance.

I found the instructions for making a shaker ornament (with fake snow inside) here . The example uses a graphic of a snowman, but I think this would be awesome with family photos in place!

I love snow and snowmen and have a whole tree's worth of snow-themed ornaments. This pattern for a snowman photo ornament is something your children could make. If you're anything like me, you'll want to make some too. :)

This Christmas photo ball ornament involves cutting a photo into strips, which seems so wrong, but makes an awesome, lightweight ornament!

Excuse me while I go work some digital photo magic on my laptop. I've got some photos saved there that I want to use in my Christmas project!

April Album Antics

Happy Spring Fever, everyone!


Oh my, the pollen has left a fine, yellow-green coating on everything, including my dear daughter's allergic nasal passages. We want to be outside enjoying the sunshine, but perhaps a better idea is to stay indoors and work on Christmas ideas. 


This month, the burning question is this: where are those holiday pictures that you or your relatives took during your December festivities? If you don't have a collection of photographs placed in an album, scrapbook, or otherwise saved (online in a slideshow? Saved to a CD?), this is the month to tackle the task! 


Years ago a friend of mine lost five years' worth of digital family photos when her computer crashed. She had never gotten around to printing or saving them. The pictures are gone for good.  It's so easy to put off printing or otherwise saving your photos once you've uploaded them to your computer, but your computer isn't a good storage device for precious memories! You need a backup plan! Currently, I upload my photos both to a laptop and to a desktop computer. I then create albums online. I try but don't always succeed in printing my favorite photos several times a year. I think doing this monthly is ideal, but that's not something I've been able to do. I need to follow my own advice!


Having my mom here at Christmastime helps me be more diligent with my photos. When she spends Christmas with us, I always upload and edit my photos and make her a special photo album to take home. If I ever lost my photos to a flood, fire, or crash, I know I could call my mom and get those albums and make copies of those photos! Online I use Photobucket to upload photos and create slideshows. I also make albums in the photo section of Walmart.com when I use them to order prints. They save the albums as well. I'm sure there are many other online options; these are just the two I have the most experience with.


So tell us where your Christmas 2010 photos are right now! Still on a camera? On your hard drive? Sitting in an email sent by a friend or family member who took the photos? Or have you already taken steps to protect them or place them in albums?


Bonus April Photo Tip: Use those photos in fun Christmas crafts! Choose photos to use in photo ornaments or other Christmas craft projects. (I have some ornaments found in a consignment store that need photos added, and I have a banner with spaces for Christmas photos as well. You might make gift tags featuring photos of the recipients' faces -- then little children can help pass out the gifts by connecting the face on the tag to the face of the person in the room!