This is How You Take More Exciting Holiday Photos

Posted by CraftFoxes Staff on Oct 26, 2019

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Holiday photos are always fun, but they often repeat the same pose – standing up and smiling “cheese” in front of the Christmas tree or behind the Hannukkah menorah or alongside platters of food at Eid al-Fitr. With a little DIY ingenuity and easy photo skills, you can create a stunning slideshow or video.

Here are tips for holiday photo themes and projects. These can help you rethink your photos and get a new perspective on traditional holiday shots. Then you can share them with an online Christmas card maker, in albums or on social media.

Look Beyond People

We tend to focus on people in our photos. It’s logical and traditional approach. To break out of this habit, consider other subjects, such as food, related to the season: steeping Easter eggs; just dipped apples and honey on Jewish New Year; and frying paneer fritters on Ramadan. Outdoors pics are also great when the natural setting connects with the holiday like autumn leaves for Halloween and snow-scapes at Christmastime.

Define a Theme

Choose a defined theme for your photos, which can be inspired by a personal cause or hobby. Digital Photography School has a nice list of creative ideas to use as a starting point.

Tell a Story or Sing a Song

Most celebrations have a narrative: the dreams, hard work, flubs, fixes and big moments. Make a series of pictures that illustrate the prep, execution and clean-up of a holiday, along with the associated activities. For example, does your family make its own Christmas tree decorations and gift tags? Show the process through a series of four to 10 photos that you can collect in an online slideshow.

A seasonal song can also be a fun starting point for a holiday photo project. Think about choosing a favorite tune and then taking a set of photographs that match its lyrics, mood, or both. You can use family and friends to pose accordingly, with you as “the director.” The final product can take the form of an online photo album with the music added. This idea is great not only during the holidays but any time that you want to do more with a beloved tune beyond simply listening to it.

Make a Collective Collage

Today’s smartphone cameras are so easy to use, even kids have them. That’s why a simple but memorable holiday photo project can be to recruit friends and family (keeping the number reasonable, of course) in making a collective collage.

Imagine the possibilities: You might ask everyone in your group to photograph holiday decorations in their neighborhood or home. If you’re prepared to make an adventure of it, lead the group on a field trip and have your friends take photos of holiday scenery. The challenge here will be narrowing down the choices, so it might be a good idea to ask each participant to limit the number of photos they submit to the project – like five each.

Turn that Photo into a Statement or a Gift

Taking the picture is often only part of the fun. Todays cameras often include a range of interesting visual effects that will put a new spin on that seasonal photo. You can experiment with different looks on the same image by cropping and filtering the pictures in your collection. Black and white is always great for a dramatic effect, but it’s worthwhile to experiment with numerous filters.

For example, the Blush app (available for Android phones) can add rosy cheeks, but plenty of other photo software has similar options. Don’t forget camera modes. Square, portrait, and manual modes can add fantastic dimensions — even to images that seem ho-hum. The panorama, for example, setting can capture an entire outdoor scene (it might take a few attempts to get the shot right).

Don’t Forget the Presentation

Consider using a special type of presentation for your holiday images. Mounting your photos onto various materials like wood, glass, wax and other textures is easier than you think, and creates a really cool effect, as shown here.

Of course, if you want to let others in on the excitement, pick an online photo sharing platform (like BeFunky, for instance) that lets you present and distribute your holiday photos. With the right choice of photo presentation application, adding personalized holiday text (here are some examples of Christmas card messages) and sharing your holiday project photos doesn't have to be complicated.

Thanks to SmileBox for supporting this article.

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