10 Tips For Taking Awesome Christmas Morning Photos
Christmas morning can be a really hard time to photograph - there's usually a flurry of activity, less than optimal lighting, plus of course you're trying to be involved in the day too!
So today I have 10 tips for you covering everything from camera settings, to lighting to practical advice that's going to help you create awesome memories of your Christmas morning.
Simply watch the video below, or if you prefer to read, then keep scrolling as you can see a full transcript of the video too!
You can find all the links mentioned in the video underneath too!
Grab your Manual Mode Cheat Sheet here!
Links & Resources Mentioned in Video:
"Why are my photos grainy (and how to fix it) "
"How to Get A Blurry Background in Photography"
Sigma 35mm Art Lens (Canon Version but also available for Nikon etc)
Interval Timer (This is for my camera, find the version that fits yours)
Tip #1 - Be Prepared
So the first tip I have for you is to make like a boy scout and be prepared.
You want to make sure that you have your battery fully charged. If you have a spare battery make sure that's fully charged as well, and have your memory card cleared of photos and ready to go. (Again, if you have a spare card, have that cleared and ready to go too)
I also like just make sure that I've got the right lens on my camera that I'm going to use that day, that it's cleaned and ready to go, and I also have my camera set with the ball park camera settings I think I'm going to need in the morning. That way in the morning all I actually have to do is grab my camera and start shooting because I pretty much got everything prepared the night before!
Tip #2 - Use a Wider Angle Lens
The second tip I have for you is to make sure that you're using a wider angle lens. That's one with a short or shorter focal lens, so something like a 35mm or even a 24 mm on a full frame camera is ideal.
It's just going to allow you to capture more in the frame and you generally want that with this kind of lifestyle shots. You want to add context by keeping in more of the surroundings and you're probably gonna want to capture more than one person in the frame at any one time as well.
It's also just easier to crop in a little bit if you want to tighten up the shot, so I always tend to use a wider angle lens and for me that's my Sigma 35mm.(If you have a crop frame then something like a 24 mm is probably going to be ideal for you)
Tip #3 - Hike Up Your ISO if needed!
Tip number three is to hike up your ISO number if you need to.
Now I know many people are scared of using higher ISO numbers, especially if you're using a crop frame camera but it's far better to use a higher ISO number and then just deal with the noise and processing than it is to try and keep your ISO as low as possible, and you end up with having subjects blurry because you've used to slowest shutter speed, or you haven't had enough depth of field to get everything you want in focus.
Also, don't be tempted to use a lower ISO than you need and underexpose, and then try and bring that up in editing. You're just going to end up with even more noise!
Plus remember lifestyle images like this don't have to be absolutely perfect so don't be scared of using that higher ISO if you need to. I'd much rather risk a little bit of noise in the image and then have one that is out of focus!
We also have a video on dealing with noise and grain in your images, that's going to be really good for you if you are intending taking photos on Christmas morning when it's still a little bit dark.
Tip #4 - Shoot in Manual Mode
Now tip number four is to shoot in manual mode. That's going to give you the control over your aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings that you need to take images in usually what is kind of tricky lighting - especially if it is darker outside and you have less natural light coming in, and you’r working with artificial lights and lights from the trees. It can be a really tricky time to photograph, so make sure that you're shooting in manual mode if you possibly can!
If you're not yet sure about shooting in manual mode, what settings you might want to use, then be sure to download the manual mode cheat sheet we have for you. It's completely free!
Tip #5 - Watch Your Shutter Speed
Tip number five is to watch your shutter speed and make sure that it doesn't drop too low. Now, if you are still on auto mode or Aperture priority mode, you'll find that your camera very frequently gives you too slow shutter speed as an absolute minimum. Make sure that your shutter speed is it over 1/125 as a minimum (assuming you are photographing a person!)
If you're photographing a child, then you're going to want to double that at least 1/250.
So do you make sure, as I said before, if you're shooting in manual mode, you'll get full control over the shutter speed that you use. If you're still an aperture priority mode, then try and let more light in through your other settings just to make sure that you're keeping your shutter speed nice and high so you don't get motion blur in your images.
Tip #6- Turn off your flash!
Tip number six is to make sure that you turn off your pop up flash. That just gives a really snapshotty look to your image.
It tends to give red eye in your subject, it washes them out and it takes away the mood and the ambience in the room. If you have the room nicely lit by lamps and some Christmas lights, you're just going to ruin that with that blast of harsh light from your pop up flash!
So try and let light in via your other settings. I'll be giving you some tips for lighting in just a moment, but try and maximize the light as much as possible.
If you absolutely, absolutely, absolutely must use your pop up flash, then also use a diffuser to soften the light in some way. That's going to give you far better results and just kind of flashing all that light straight onto a person!
Tip #7- Use Natural Light If You Can
Tip number seven is to make sure that you use natural light if at all possible. So if you are in an area of the world where you have daylight at the time you're getting up on Christmas morning, great!
All you need to do is make sure that you have lots of natural light where the activity is going to be taking place. For example, for opening presents - have them do that in front of a window that has lots of nice natural light coming in and set yourself up so that the light is behind you, the photographer.
So you have the window letting natural light come in and lighting your subjects from the front. Now that is going to give you flat light, which we don't generally recommend for things like portraits, but remember we're capturing Christmas morning here! We're not going for the award winning photography.
Now, if like me, it's absolutely pitch dark at the time you're getting up on Christmas morning, you have no choice but to use artificial lights. So what I would recommend that you do here is not use overhead lights, rather turn on lots of different lamps in the room. It's gonna give you softer lighting and it's going to be much more flattering and give you a much warmer kind of feeling and mood than having lights come down on your subject (plus it’s really unflattering to have lights come from above!)
Finally, if you have one, it's also the ideal time to crack out the speedlight. I very rarely use a on camera flash, but on Christmas morning it’s ideal. If you're going to do this, it means you can bounce the flash away from your subject and it's one of the few times a year that I'll actually dig out my speed light and use it.
Tip #8- Set a Custom White Balance
Tip number eight is to make sure that you set a custom white balance.
Now this is is specially true if you are using lots of lamps like we just said, and you're using artificial light as opposed to natural light. That’s because your camera will frequently get that wrong, so you can set your own custom white balance either using a great card or you can use something like an expodisc.
(We actually have a video on to use an expodisc right here!)
At the very least if you don't have a white balance tool, or you're not sure how to use one, at least use the custom settings in your white balance menu. If you're using lamps you're going to use the tungsten setting, and that's going to get rid of that kind of nasty yellow color cast that you might get when using auto white balance.
Tip #9- Capture the Details
Tip number nine is to actually get close and capture some off the details of the day. You can use a a larger aperture (that smaller F number) and you can blur some of the background and focus more on the details that you're trying to photograph. That could be the expression on your child's face. It could be the present that they're opening.
So once you have some of the wider shots of the scene, get enclosed and capture some of those smaller details as well.
Tip #10- Get in the Frame!
And finally, tip number 10 is to make sure that you get in the frame too. And this is SO important for Christmas day. You don't just want it to be a bystander, the one taking photos, not really being part of the day. I want you to be in there too!
I recommend that you use a tripod and an interval timer.
And what you can do is you can set this interval timer to take a set number of photos over a set period of time. So for example, you could actually have this set to take a photo every five seconds, or every 10 seconds over a 30 minute period, and then you can just set your camera onto the tripod, have the interval timer attached to your camera and it's going to fire off a random shot every 10 seconds for that 30 minutes.
That means that you can be in the frame interacting with the people in the frame enjoying your Christmas morning, and your camera is taking care of taking the photographs for you! Now of course they're not going to be absolutely ideal doing it this way - you could have people blinking at the wrong time and so on, but I over half an hour you're going to get a couple of good shots with you in the frame and most importantly you are going to be enjoying the morning!
You can pick an interval timer up for around $20, but you can also use a simple remote timer and you can just have that set so you can just press your remote timer and fire that off when you feel like it. But this interval timer is one of the best buys I've ever had in photography, so I do recommend that you pick one up!
That’s it from me today! Don’t forget to download your manual mode cheat sheet so you can take the most awesome photos of Christmas morning!
