Christmas is right around the corner and most of us want to capture the sparkle in the children’s eyes when unpacking their presents, baking cookies together and a delicious Christmas feast or simply to capture the great Christmas spirit. Thereby, Christmas lights and darkness are making it difficult to take the perfect shots. Here are 5 tips to catch the festive highlights in perfect quality.
1. Plan Your Photo Equipment
The better prepared you are, the more fun and successful your Christmas shoot will be. Before your family and friends arrive, or you leave to visit them, check if you have enough memory cards. Are the batteries charged? Do you need a tripod or a remote control for the self-timer? If everything is packed and prepared, you are ready to go!
2. Timing Is Everything
To be sure that every facial expression is captured when unpacking the presents, the serial image setting in combination with the sports mode for moving pictures will be the perfect solution. Simply hold down the shutter button to snap as many pictures as your card will hold.
3. Avoid Direct Flashlight
We recommend: Do not use the flashlight! Many of us believe that the flashlight function makes pictures in the cosy, dark light turns out brighter. Unfortunately, most of the time this is not the case. Instead, opt for the night setting together with a slower shutter speed, which will ensure that enough ambient light is captured and create a warm Christmas atmosphere.
4. Magical Christmas Photos With The Bokeh Effect
Christmas decoration creates many opportunities for you to experiment and work with interesting effects. The bokeh-effect is one of our favourites. The term bokeh comes from Japanese and means blurred or out of focus. In photography, it is intentionally blurred parts of a photo that are created by the lens. If you want to isolate a Christmas tree bauble from the background, use a large aperture (e.g., f/1.8). This creates bright circles or other shapes that create wonderful Christmas magic over your pictures.
5. Shooting On Christmas Markets
For most of us, taking a stroll on one of the local Christmas markets creates the perfect pre-Christmas feeling. Of course, it is also perfect scenery to take a nice picture. However, Christmas markets are usually packed. Therefore, ensure that the autofocus is switched off, otherwise the camera will not find a reference point for focusing. Pictures taken in RAW mode will give you the possibility to adjust the white balance afterwards with certain image editing programmes.
Now you are perfectly prepared to capture this year’s Christmas. Try things out and have fun taking images of your special moments!
