5 simple tips for photographing the festive season

1. Light is missing: open or flash

One of the characteristics of family and company meals is that the light is lacking often : it’s dark outside, we sift the light to better see the garlands that shine, … It’s very nice all that, but what a puzzle to have enough light ! They couldn’t have done Christmas in July, could they ? 😛

Seriously, this light, you’re gonna have to get it find somewhere. First of all, take advantage of the times when the lights are on to make your life easier. But the rest of the time, you have both hardware solutions :

• Use a bright lenssuch as the 50mm f/1.8 for example, or any other lens that opens at least to f/2.8. This is enough to properly expose your images. And if you don’t have one yet, ask for an optic that opens to Santa Claus: you can use it at New Year’s Eve! 😉
• Use the flash. Yes, I’m saying that. Just so we’re clear, I find the camera’s flash generally addled. Besides, I wouldn’t advise you, what am I saying to you? forbidden to use it to photograph the Christmas lights, which would ruin necessarily the image. On the other hand, for portraits why not, as long as you use a broadcaster or a reflector on your flash. Something else to buy? No, there are two ways simple to broadcast or reflect a cheap flash 😉

2. Pay attention to the white balance

No matter how much light you get, you will have to manage a dominant colour. Artificial light from light bulbs is yellow-orangeand the light of the garlands goes from blue to red, through green, etc … In short, your images will often have a dominant of colors. warm. It’s part of the atmosphere, and I wouldn’t recommend it. very much to seek to eliminate it altogether, it would take away all the charm Christmas snapshots! But if this dominant is a little too present for your taste, you’ll have to go through a white balance adjustment. I would strongly advise you to take care of that when you do the RAW development of your files, but if you’re allergic to computers, consider doing some tests to set the best white balance on your camera before the party. But keep in mind that conditions can change overnight, so check regularly that you are always satisfied with your settings!

3. Enjoy the Christmas Lights

And yes, these lights bother us a little bit because they are not very strong and force us to find ways to expose the image well, but you can also by take advantage to make very pretty pictures that do justice to the atmosphere. fairy tale of Christmas. I think there are two very easy ways to show them off:

• By losing them in the bokehThe small diodes of your Auchan garlands are transformed into small fuzzy circles of all colours. Enough to give a little magic to your backgrounds with ease.
• The decorations of your city can also make beautiful pictures. But be careful not to fall into the trap into which everyone falls: don’t wait until it gets dark. to take pictures of your enlightened city. Indeed, at this time of the day (5:30pm what ^^), you will never be able to have both the lights and what surrounds them properly exposed. So you need to arrive earlyaround sunset, to take advantage of the weak daylight that persists. You will also enjoy an intense blue sky that will magnify your images!

4. Don’t miss the big moments!

Party nights are punctuated by moments that we like to keep as souvenirs, like opening presents, and that’s why we photograph them. And in moments like that, people (especially the children) often adopt expressions that one wishes to keep. So in those moments, don’t hesitate to shoot in burst mode ! This is often the only way to get LE taken at the right time, with the expression of surprise fray of joy of your daughter/small sister discovering her cute new toy after tearing off the wrapping paper with the voracity of a lion devouring a live zebra 😀

Another way to capture these very spontaneous expressions, whether in children or even adults, is to go down the drain. Someone who knows he’s being photographed doesn’t behave the same way, and that doesn’t make good pictures. You can walk away using a telephoto lens hoping that the person doesn’t see you, but also take oftentimes clichés: after a while, people get used to the sound of the trigger and end up with theforget. And it’s there that you’re going to be able to capture spontaneous moments. This advice is really very important when you want to get pictures… spontaneous.

5. Don’t forget a few simple rules of composition

I will keep repeating that the basic photographic advice (exposure or composition) applies here too, but I would like to stress two points in particular:

• Fill in the frame. All too often, photos of the festive season are taken from a little far away or not zoomed in enough, and therefore the frame is filled withdisturbing elements the look (especially at Christmas, with the decorations, other people, etc…). All of this distracts the eye from your subject and weakens the impact of your image. So get closerwith your feet or with your focus, but… fill in the frame with your boudiou topic! 😀
• Bring yourself up to date with your subjects. I am thinking in particular of children Mostly, especiallyIf you’re like me, don’t take pictures of them from your full height (especially if, like me, you already tend to outgrow adults :D). Get down to get you to their level. You can’t imagine how much of a difference it is huge.

Here, I hope these tips will help you to have a Christmas photo album that holds up! 🙂. And in bonus trackdon’t forget two things that are valid in any context but even more here :

• Get off the beaten track. It’s even more important at Christmas because… all and sundry takes pictures of holiday parties. Stand out from the crowd by photographing differently be creative in your compositionsattach yourself to the detailsdo some macro why not! Which doesn’t stop you from photographing Aunt Jeanine! 😉
• Drop your device for two minutes. Well, yeah, it’s a family party anyway, take advantage of it as differently as the device in your hand!

Do not hesitate to share your tricks in the comments…or ask your questions there. And remember to subscribe to the newsletter to discover the next articles! 😉

And don’t forget to share the article! 🙂