Taking Picture-Perfect Family Holiday Photos
No family gathering is complete without the family photo. It's your one chance to capture that special moment in time.
There's a lot to consider: where to place everyone, the settings to use on the camera, how to get the best lighting, and more -- to keep from blowing the big shot.
On "The Early Show on Saturday Morning," Yvonne Berger, an instructor at the Digital Photo Academy, shared the key considerations for snapping the perfect family photo.
In terms of where to place everyone, simple is better. Everyone always runs to pose their family in front of the Christmas tree, and while it's nice to show it, if the photo is too busy, it will take away from the people. If they want to stand in front of tree or fireplace, that's OK, but just be aware of what that background is. You want to make sure it doesn't look like the tree is coming out of Dad's head, or a ball ornament out of Mom's shoulder. So if you want to do that, just be aware. Simple is better, but if you're stuck on the tree, that's fine, but take a moment to readjust ornaments and place everyone so that the photo doesn't distract. When you pose everyone, you don't want people to be all over. There should be a rhyme and a reason.
As for where to put the kids and how to focus them: Bribe them! You know, it's difficult for anybody. The other thing I would do -- some of the cameras have different auto focus features on them. You can set it to focus so that, if you have small kids, it will lock-focus on them.
In the exposure mode, if you have a little kid who's running around, you're better off in a scene mode. Natural instinct would be to put the camera in portrait mode. But if I have little ones moving around, you're better served on a scene mode called sport, because that accounts for action - the actions of the kid.
In terms of lighting, you'll be indoors, but one of the things that happens with indoor flash is that it's a very harsh flash. Looking at many photos, you'll see that, if our tree or lights are in the photo, that flash blows it out, because that indoor flash is too strong. A lot of cameras enable you to do a slow sync flash, and that changes way the flash and ambient light work together -- it will give you that warm light and not a blown-out with harsh flash.
The other thing would be something called color temp or white balance. All cameras have that - it controls how the light looks in the room. But often, the photo will turn out looking too warm or too cool. You want ask yourself, does it look warm or cool? If it looks yellow, that's not necessarily good. So you should go into the camera's pre-sets and pick out a setting that looks appropriate for your photo.
When you take a picture with a digital camera, it locks in the focus and takes the picture. But if you're going to be in it, you'll set the self-timer, but then you have to run and be in the photo. Lots of new cameras have a remote. They enable you to hold the remote in your hand so you're not running back and forth. That's a major tip: If somebody wants to get in the picture themselves, that's a way for them to look natural, because they're not running into the photo anymore.