7 Easy Tips for Photographing by the Christmas Tree
Don't forget to move around
Merry pre-Christmas!
I’ve received a few requests for how to get great Christmas tree photos, with and without the family. So thanks for asking and let’s dive in.
Move
Many people will actually stand in front of the tree and you know what that means: a tree is growing out of their heads and we can’t see much of the tree. So my tip, and it’s an easy one, is to move to the side. You will get a much better picture, be able to see the tree and the family as well.
Lighting
Remember that it’s a challenge taking pictures in front of the tree with your phone because of all the lit lights on the tree. Your phone or big camera will be exposing for the lights and making the family kind of dark. The easiest thing to do is to light the photo with a flash on your big camera or a little LED from Aputure or Lume Cube. If you don’t have a light, move around and try to get a little window light on their faces if you can do it.
Composition
Don’t forget to photograph the entire tree. Many people will focus on the faces of the people and will crop out the top. Try not to do that. There’s a big star up there, and that is sort of the the beauty shot.
Zoom In
Once you’ve gotten your tree shots out of the way, zoom in for details. There’s a lot of story in this tree—the lights, the ornaments, the presents, focus on all of them. If you’re lucky enough to have one of those ornaments with a mirror reflection on there, go for it. I got a great ornament selfie of myself the other day at a bigger tree at a shopping mall.
Portrait Mode
Don’t forget to use Portrait mode to blur the background. The colored lights really pop when they go out of focus.
Sense of Wonder
One of my favorite shots is the sense of wonder. Get your kids right in front of the tree looking up at it, seemingly amazed, as most people are, at the beauty of it.
And if you’re lucky enough to have one of the trees with colored lights, red, blue, green, yellow, you name it, have them lit by those lights and they’re going to add some color to their face and it’s going to look really cool.
Turn off the Lights!
Finally, the flip side of lights is turn off all the house lights.
Once you ditch the house lights, the tree will look even more spectacular and colorful. You’ve surely noticed that in any of the shots you see of like the Rockefeller Center tree and other ones like that, they’re always shot at nighttime, not during the day. That’s for a reason because that’s when the tree really shines.
ICYMI: Christmas in Japan
I filmed the Christmas tree segment while in Japan for the Christmas for the Christmas in Japan episode of Photowalks. If you missed it, know that the Japanese have adopted our traditions of hanging trees, mistletoes and blaring holiday songs (in English) at all the stores and restaurants and have added one new tradition that’s all their own—eating Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas Eve.
I’ve got all that, plus some great interviews, scenery and a demo of the KFC ahead of the holiday. Somebody had to do it, right?
Programming Note
Scripps News is having a massive Photowalks marathon on Thursday, its biggest yet, with 12 episodes airing most of the day. (Yes, you can always watch the show on YouTube anytime, but isn’t it fun to see Photowalks on TV?)
In the overnight hours, you can wait for Santa while visiting Venice Beach, the top 20 Instagram Landmarks, and parts 1 and 2 of our Pacific Coast Highway series between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. ET.
Then, in the more family oriented 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET block, gather `round the TV to visit Galveston, Texas, Oahu, Paris, Palm Springs, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Cody, Wyoming, Bozeman, Montana and the San Diego beaches of Oceanside and Carlsbad, along with a replay of the Christmas episode.
Thanks as always to Matt Simon!
From Manhattan Beach, CA, home to the best Christmas tree of all, our lighted one over the Pier, have a great holiday everyone!
Jeff