‘Tis the season to be jolly . . .

Christmas Table Setting

but that can be difficult when you are a photographer! There is nothing more complicated than harsh sunlight, early evenings, and thousands upon thousands of little Christmas lights to mess up your photographs, which can be really upsetting when you are trying to capture those wonderful memories. Christmas photography really is like no other time of year, and that means that you will need to throw out (almost) everything that you have learned about photography up until now! There are some really great ways that you can bring the seasonal time of year to your camera – this is how I am doing it:

Tips for snowmen
There is nothing more cute than snowmen, especially those built by children. If you want to get some brilliant photographs of snowmen, then make sure that the sun is behind you if possible. You don’t want too much glare right into the camera, especially when it will bounce off the snow. You may need to use a custom white balance to ensure that not too much light gets into your camera, but enough goes in to make your snow white! Remember that footprints in the snow will come up quite sharp, so be aware of that as you make your snowmen.

Tips for family gatherings
It can sometimes seem almost impossible to get a great photograph of your entire family during the Christmas season, because there is always someone that blinks! A great tip that I think is underused at this festive time of year is the sports setting on your camera. This was designed to capture rapid movement, but it is also a great way to gain a variety of photographs over a few seconds. There will almost certainly be one with everyone smiling, and that can be the one that you end up putting in the family album.

Tips for falling snow
Snow falling is so incredibly romantic, but like many things it is an absolute pain to try and capture with a camera. How you want your photograph of snow falling will really depend on what you will do. Some people will want to evoke the feeling of a snow flurry, and that means that they will leave their camera’s shutter open for a long period of time. This will take in many different snow flakes, and they will be very scattered. Others, on the other hand, will want a very detailed image of snow flakes, and so they decide to have a very quick shutter speed which gives your camera only a short amount of time to capture a few flakes.

Tips for Christmas food
Christmas has some of the greatest food of the year, all served up in one meal, and if you want to get some photographs of Christmas food, then you have a huge amount to play with. You could have the food candlelit, with that wonderful glisten on the turkey and on the Christmas pudding. You could also decorate your table and set it up for some fabulous photographs by putting tinsel, holly, or any other Christmas decorations on the table for effect. A great way to create a fun Christmas food photograph is to put your camera on a tripod. Take a photograph of the table empty, then full, and then after most of the food has been eaten! These photographs will look great together.

There you have it! Some of my best Christmas tips. I hope you have fun using them, and I wish you all a very happy Christmas!