How to Take Photos of Kids in Front of the Christmas Tree

Taking great pictures of your kids by the Christmas tree can be challenging. This week I tried to figure out how to take better pictures of my kids in front of our Christmas tree. I’ve put together some tips and things to try to get the kind of photos you want.

1. Turn off Your Camera’s Flash

No matter what kind of camera you have, and what your lighting conditions are, nothing will take the magic out of your Christmas tree photos more than using your camera’s built in flash.

2. Pay attention to the Background and Foreground of your Photo

No matter how good your photo is, it’s still going to look like crap if there’s a bunch of junk cluttering it up. (Like in the photo above…)

At least clear a path.

3. Practice First With a Doll or Stuffed Animal

Stuffed animals are much more patient subjects than children. Be sure that you have an idea of what you want to do before you involve your kids. You’re probably still going to have to make some adjustments. Kids move around a lot more than inanimate objects so you may have to increase your ISO and reduce your shutter speed (more on that on point 10) but at least you’ll have a starting point.

You’re going to have a limited timeframe so you might as well make them count.

4. Keep Your Camera Steady

Unless your room is really well lit, you’re probably going to be dealing with a lower light setting. To get a good exposure you’re likely going to have to use longer shutter speeds (so your camera takes a longer time to take the picture) This is going to make it important to keep your camera steady so that you’re not getting movement from camera shake. If you do capture any movement, it’s better for it to be because your kid is moving not you.

If you have one, you can use a tripod, but you can also use the ground, a stack of books, a table etc. You may also want to consider a remote for your camera (surprisingly affordable) or the timer on your camera (probably only useful if you can get your kids to stay still-ish).

I’m pretty sure that tree is not actually moving.

5. Shoot Low to the Ground

If you have small kids you may even want to lie on the ground to get a better angle.

6. Put Your Kid a Few Feet in Front of the Tree

It’s natural to want to put your kid right in front of the tree but you’ll typically have better shots if you move them a few feet away. You’ll be able to see more of the lights on your tree and you’ll be able to manipulate the aperture to blur the background if you want to.

7. Stand Back and Zoom in

Another good strategy is to also increase the distance between you and your child. If you’re farther away, you’ll be able to zoom in which will blur the background which is great for portraits and give the Christmas lights a pretty look.

8. Use Something to Help Keep your Kid From Moving Around

This is important for two reasons – 1. to keep the tree in the background and 2. to reduce motion blur. For older kids, bribery can be a good tactic,, younger kids may benefit from a mark on the floor for where you want them to be. For babies, your best best is going to be an unfamiliar object that you don’t mind being in your shots.

This tree was the perfect distraction.

9. Try to Light up Your Kid’s Face

Depending on the lighting in your house and how much your kids move around, you may want more light to get a good shot. One thing you can try is getting some natural light on your kids face. I tried this below, but my tree is too big for me to move around and my window is right beside the tree making it difficult to get the tree in the background and the sunlight on my child’s face.


This does give a interesting look.

The other option, and the one that will give you the most consistent success, is to use an external flash with the flash pointed at a wall or ceiling. This will light up your child without taking away the beauty of your tree.

 
Taken with external flash pointed at the wall.

10. Pick Your Camera Settings

Using the above strategies, you may be able to get great pictures just putting your camera on the no flash setting.

If you have a DSLR and want to play around here’s what I found helpful:

1. Set your camera to Shutter priority. This will let you manipulate how long light is allowed to hit the sensor. A longer shutter speed will tend to make your christmas lights look prettier but it will also capture more movement from your kids.
2. Set your ISO and shutter speed. You want as low an ISO as you can get away with and the longest shutter speed.
3. You’ll probably want to start with an ISO of at least 400 and may need to bump it up to upwards of 1600 if your kid is moving around a lot.
4. Start with a shutter speed of about 1/2 a second. If you’re getting good pictures try lengthening the shutter speed, if you are getting blurry pictures decrease it.
5. Play around with the ISO and shutter speed settings. Increasing the ISO will allow you to use a longer exposure (longer shutter speed). (For more depth on how these are inter-related you can see my post on How to choose what professional mode to use).

It’s not the sharpest image but at least she’s not blurry. Here I had to bump up the ISO to 1600 to get a good image.

A few more of my favorite shots:

Not what I was trying to do, but kind of interesting.

 

Note: Aside from cropping the above images were not digitally manipulated.

Sources used for this article:

http://www.augustteaphotography.com/taking-pictures-of-your-christmas-tree/

http://www.sarahcblog.com/2011/11/how-to-photograph-kids-in-front-of-the-christmas-tree/

http://faithfulstepsphotography.blogspot.ca/2011/12/photographing-kids-in-in-front-of.html

http://ashleyannphotography.com/blog/2008/12/04/photo-tip-christmas-tree-pics/

How to Take Better Photos With Santa (and How Not to)

Even though my oldest is only 3, I have quite a bit of experience taking small kids to see Santa. Partly for my blog post where I talk about what it’s like to take photos with Santa at different  malls in Calgary and partly because I think it is just plain fun. My friends and family have kindly supplied me with some photos to round out my own to help you get better photos with Santa this year.

1. Prepare Your Kids Ahead of Time

Read your kids stories about Santa, show them movies with Santa (if you can find one with their favorite character, even better) and show your kids pictures of them or other family members with Santa to familiarize them.

Unless the photos looked like this.

It can also be worthwhile to seek out a Santa that is more natural looking and inline with their expectations.

If you wouldn't sit on that lap, why would you put your child on it?

2. Dress for the Occasion

Even if you’re going to get a free photo, consider what your kids are wearing.

This shirt of Gordie’s is really cute, but doesn’t look great in a Christmas photo.

This may be going a little too far.

At the very least, take off your kids’ coats!

You may also want to consider what you’re wearing that day… just in case.

If you look closely you can see Santa at the back.

3. Use a Partner

Especially if you are taking the photos yourself, bring someone with you so they can help you position and distract the kids to help keep them from freaking out.

Freaking out.

4. Try Backing In

If you have a really little kid, try holding them facing you and backing them into Santa, keeping their attention on you. Then back away and quickly take the picture.

Sometimes this works.


Sometimes, not so much

5. Time it Right

Arrive a bit early so your kids can see Santa from a distance before it’s their turn. Make sure they are not tired or hungry. Bring a snack just in case. Weekday mornings and evenings are usually quieter time to visit. Whatever you do, don’t go when your child would normally be napping.

Not a good time.

6. Give Them Some Moral Support

Having a friend, sibling or even a favorite toy may be all your kid needs to feel comfortable and stay focused.

Worked like a charm.

7. Be Flexible

You may be able to get a better picture by not trying to force a smile.

That’s a pretty cute pout.

You may also want to consider letting your kids stand beside Santa instead of on his lap.

Santa may be holding him back, but they are all in the picture.

8. Make use of Some Photography Tips

If you are taking the photo yourself, try setting the white balance to match the lighting (florescent or incandescent bulbs). Or you can adjust that on your computer afterwards.

Was 1982 really this yellow?

If the room isn’t very bright, bump up the ISO and hold the camera steady (close to your body, try to kneel or set the camera on something to use as a makeshift tripod). Also double check that your camera is focusing on your child instead of the background.

That tree looks great!

Position yourself so you can see your child’s face even if they are not looking directly at you.

Candid shots often show your child at their best.

Don’t forget to take multiple pictures.

So this isn’t the only photo you go home with.

9. Try Again

If your child is hesitant to see Santa the first time, don’t be afraid to go back (again) later in the day or on another day all together.

 
The first try.

Again after lunch.

10. If All Else Fails…

You can always take a family photo near Santa instead. Most malls have a Christmas display that would make a great backdrop.

This is the best ‘Santa’ photo this family has taken.

Or you could just take a picture of Santa!

Even if Santa looks a little confused.

11. Laugh it Off

Sometimes, even if you end up with a picture that wasn’t what you wanted, it can still end up being a treasured part of your family history.

That year’s Christmas card

As funny as some of these photos are, I hope this post helps your family get great photos with Santa this year. And if your pictures don’t go as planned you can always send them to me for next year’s post.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Dana Wheatley

What are your tips for taking better photos with Santa?

If you have a not-so-good photo with Santa you’d like to share, you can e-mail it to talkinginallcaps@gmail.com.

Are you from Calgary? Check out my website about the best indoor and outdoor places to take your kids –> http://www.calgaryplaygroundreview.com

Photos used with permission

Professional Camera Modes: How to Decide Which Professional Exposure Mode to Use

Learning to Use my DSLR – Practical Photography Tutorials

When I wrote my first photography post on taking better pictures of your kids in the snow, I realized that I didn’t know how to choose which professional mode to use. This seems to be a pretty fundamental gap in knowledge so I decided I should figure it out.

It became clear pretty quickly that understanding what exposure is would be a good first step. I won’t go into a lot of detail - hopefully just enough.

Put simply, exposure is how much light is falling on your camera’s image sensor (in the past it would be how much light fell on your film). To get a clear, crisp image you don’t want too much light (overexposed) or too little light (underexposed) landing on your sensor.

Three related factors impact what your exposure will be: ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed. To get a good exposure these three factors have to be balanced correctly and making changes to one will necessitate making changes to one or both of the other factors.

ISO – This is how sensitive your camera’s sensor is to light. With film cameras, you had different film ‘speeds’ that you had to change if you wanted a different level of sensitivity. For digital cameras you can change the ISO just by manipulating your camera’s settings. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive your sensor will be to light. This means you don’t need as much light for a good exposure but the image quality is reduced when your sensor is more sensitive.

Eg.
If you are outside on a sunny day, you may want your ISO to be as low as 100.
If you are inside you may want your ISO to be 400 (more sensitive due to less ambient light).
If you are taking a low light photograph you may need to set your ISO to a very high number. (your image will be more grainy but at least you can get the shot).

In general, you want to set your ISO to the lowest number you can to get the best image quality but to get a good exposure, you need to increase the ISO in lower light settings.

By bumping up the ISO to 1600, I was able to get this photo of Nicole is a very dark room.

When you zoom in on the picture you can see the trade off of using the high ISO - although the exposure is pretty good, there is more noise resulting in image that is grainy.

Aperture (or f-stop) – this is how much light passes through your lens at once. A larger aperture will result in more light passing through and a smaller aperture will result in less light passing through. Manipulating the aperture also effects the depth of field (how much of your image is in focus).

Eg.
To get a good exposure outside on a sunny day, you would need a narrower aperture such as f/4.
To get a good exposure in a low light setting you may need an aperture such as f/22.

In these pictures I manipulated the aperture. You can see how it changed the depth of field. In the photo on the right the background is quite blurry and the focus is just on Gordie. In the photo on the right the background is more in focus and pretty distracting.

Shutter Speed – This is how long light is allowed to hit the sensor. The shorter your shutter speed, the less light will hit the sensor. The longer the shutter speed the more motion you will capture as well.

Eg.
On a sunny day you may want a short shutter speed of 1/4000.
In a low light setting you may want to capture light for a longer period of time using a shutter speed of 1/60.

Here’s an example of a long shutter speed with a moving subject. Although in this instance it was not what I had intended, it can be an interesting effect. Kids move so fast it can be helpful to shorten the shutter speed to help photograph them without motion blur.

These three factors are inter-related, so when you change one you may need to change one or more of the others to get a good exposure. For non-professional photographers like myself (and I’m assuming you if you’re reading this) it can be helpful to let your camera make some of the decisions while you manipulate the one you are most interested in. Picking the right professional exposure mode can help you do this.

P – Program Mode:

This mode would be perfect if you want to make some manipulations but have your camera do most of the heavy lifting. In this mode you can change things like the white balance, exposure compensation, ISO, and metering. This would have been perfect for me to use for my post on taking better pictures of your kids in the snow (I used the Aperture Priority Mode instead). I wasn’t trying to change the aperture or shutter speed. This can also be a helpful mode if you are going to be taking photos in a variety of lighting conditions.

In these pictures I was only manipulating the exposure compensation, to brighten up the snow. That would be a great use of Program Mode.

A – Aperture Priority Mode

In this mode, you manipulate your camera’s aperture while your camera handles the rest of the exposure settings. This will allow you to change the depth of field or how much of your photo is in focus. This is particularly great for photographs so your subject is in focus but the background is blurred. You can also use it to make sure that everything in your shot is in focus. You would likely want this mode while photographing landscapes, portraits, architecture, close up photography (think food or flowers) and wildlife.

S – Shutter Priority Mode

This mode is similar to Aperture Priority mode but in this case, you manipulate the shutter speed while your camera handles the rest of the exposure settings. This mode is best to use when your subject is in motion. You can use it freeze the action by setting it to be quick or to show motion by leaving it longer. You would probably want to use this mode if movement was a big aspect of your subject or the photo effect you want. This can also be highly useful for photographing kids!

M – Manual Mode

In this mode, you have the most control, but it’s also the hardest to use. At this stage of my photography I don’t want to use this mode and if you’re reading this I’m assuming you don’t either!

A Word About Scene Modes

Your camera will probably also have a number of pre-set Scene modes. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with trying them out too. Those modes use all the same principles I discussed above – pre-selected to try to create the best exposure for that kind of setting. Eg. the night mode will use a wide aperture to let in a lot of light at once and a longer shutter time, the action mode will use a quick shutter speed. There’s nothing those pre-sets can do that you shouldn’t be able to do yourself.

Learn Along Assignments:

1. Experiment with ISO

1. Take your camera into a setting with not much light.
2. Put it into Program Mode
3. Set your ISO to a really high setting (like 1600)
4. Try taking a picture. (Make sure you are keeping your camera steady)
5. Now set your ISO to a lower number (like 400).
6. Compare your results

2. Experiment with Shutter Speed

1. Pick an subject that is moving. (Like your kids!)
2. Put your camera into Shutter Priority Mode
3. Try taking pictures at different shutter speeds
4. Compare your results

3. Experiment with Aperture

Note: this is the hardest one to play around with. My camera will let me set my aperture to settings that don’t work well with my lens. I will be doing a tutorial on using the aperture setting in the near future.

If you would like to play around with it before that here’s what I recommend:

1. Set your camera to Aperture Mode.
2. Somewhere on your lens it will say something like 1:3.5-5.6G. Start by setting your aperture to within these numbers to start.
3. Select an subject that is in front of a busy background. Making sure there is some distance between your subject and the background will make it easier to see the effect.
4. Take photos with different aperture settings.
5. Compare your results

4. Let me know how it went!

 

Resources Used for this article:

http://digital-photography-school.com/iso-settings

Nikon D3200 From Snapshots to Great Shots by Rob Sylvanc

Taking Better Indoor Pictures–Positioning Your Subject

Learning to Use my DSLR – Practical Photography Tutorials

Despite the snow and cold weather, the sun was strong, so I thought I’d take a look at one of the things you can do to improve your indoor pictures. One of the most fundamental aspects of photography is lighting. Although you can get some interesting effects by taking your photograph into the light, typically you want to yourself with the strongest light source behind you and your subject facing the light. This applies to any kind of camera, not just DSLRs.

Taking advantage of some natural lighting can make your photos much better without having to make any adjustments to your camera. However, if you try to take a picture of your kids right under a bright window the resulting photograph is less than awesome.

Sometimes positioning the light behind one shoulder can be really pretty.

But I found today that the light was just just too bright. So I moved Gordie so he was facing the window.

Without using any kind of flash, he’s well lit and the colors are great.

Here’s another example with Nicole in the center of the room. This time she stayed in the same spot and only I moved.

Bad picture with the window behind her:

Even worse picture with the window behind her:

Much better picture with the window behind me:

It can also be important to think about what your subject is wearing. Nicole looks adorable wearing this little white dress but it provides an extra challenge when taking her picture.

When she’s in front of the window it doesn’t make much of a difference:

But with her close to the window and the light behind my shoulder, the dress is a little bright.

 

If I set her back a few more feet from the window the photograph looked a lot better even though the light was still over my shoulder.

 

Just to demonstrate that this principle holds true for other cameras as well, here’s a couple I took with my iphone:

 

Showing off my new skills: