Holiday Photos of Your Family

The holidays are coming up, and many of us will have our cameras or mobile phones out to record memories! But how do you capture great holiday photos of your family? 

Try this. Before you take a picture, ask yourself this question, and then use these tips for taking the photo.

The question: Does the environment matter? Do the surroundings help tell the story? 

If you answer yes, you’ll take an environmental portrait by including the surroundings. If the answer is no, you’ll focus only on your subject for a regular portrait and blur the background.

Examples of an environmental portrait:

Many of your holiday photos of your family will probably be environmental portraits. 

If you’re shooting a photo of your children talking to Santa, the surroundings tell part of the story, so you’ll want to include Santa, maybe an elf, and the background.

I shot this photo of our grandsons at a Christmas party for my son’s ­­­­division from the USS Harry S. Truman, an aircraft carrier in the Navy. Santa was my son’s commanding officer, but the kids had no idea! He was wearing a flight suit since he had just arrived in an antique open-cockpit airplane. 

Here’s another photo example where the environment helped tell the story. We were at the same party, and my younger grandson decided to go up the climbing wall. The photo wouldn’t tell a story if I blurred the background. 

How do you shoot an environmental holiday photo of your family on your iPhone?

Shooting with an iPhone? You’ll take the photo, focusing on your subject’s eyes. The regular or ultra-wide lens (not the zoom) is the best choice. Be sure that the flash is turned off! 

You can turn on Live photo if you want to capture the action just before and after the shot. For family holiday photos, I recommend this because it’s so much fun to see the facial expressions change. You hold down on the photo when viewing it in the Photos app on your Apple product to see the action. It’s a 3-second video. 

If you’re trying to capture the peak of action, like when your child leaps into the air, take a Burst. 

Are you shooting with your DSLR or mirrorless camera? Here’s how:

You’ll set your camera to Aperture mode with an aperture of somewhere between f/4-f/8. If you’re indoors, be sure to set your ISO to auto and avoid the flash! Cameras don’t have a Live mode option, but they do have Burst mode. On Canon cameras, it’s called Continuous Shooting. 

Tips for a regular portrait holiday photo of your family:

Let’s switch to a granddog and his family for this example. 

Around Thanksgiving each year, I’m called on to take holiday photos for Christmas cards. My second son and his wife love to include their dog, Napoleon. In this case, the background isn’t important, so I treat this like a traditional portrait and blur the background. Otherwise, the background could be distracting. 

Here’s a bonus tip. If the dog is small, ask one of the owners to hold it near their face. This will draw the viewer’s eye to the group. It makes a better composition than having the small dog at the owner’s feet.

Don’t forget to capture candid shots!

Candid holiday photos of your family are so much fun to take. Just look at the expression on my grandson’s face. He’d just met Santa and was feeling pretty excited, so a table decoration suddenly looked like a hat to him. By treating this candid photo like a portrait, I could blur the furniture and person behind him and make him stand out from the background.

When we were living in South Korea, our son and his family were stationed in Japan, and our daughter was living with us for the fall. With so many of us in Asia, we decided to take the family to the island of Guam for Christmas. Skip had been stationed there when he was in the Navy and wanted to share it with the kids. 

I captured the photo above at breakfast. Our grandson (Yes, the same one. He has some great expressions!) was wearing remnants of his doughnut, and I quickly turned it into a portrait to blur out the person in the background.

Set your iPhone for a portrait holiday photo of your family:

With the newer iPhones, creating a portrait is easy. Set your iPhone to Portrait mode and stand between two and eight feet away to take the photo. Be sure your flash is turned off. You won’t be able to shoot a Live photo or use Burst mode in Portrait mode.

Shoot a portrait with your DSLR or mirrorless camera:

With your camera, you’ll use Aperture mode again, but this time, set the aperture to the lowest number your lens will allow. Standing back and zooming in will help blur the background even more. (Indoors? Set your ISO to auto and skip the flash!) 

Final tip:

Be ready! When you’re taking holiday photos of your family, have your camera turned on and the settings chosen so you don’t miss a shot! When Napoleon’s new brother, Enzo, encountered his first pumpkin, he thought it was a dog toy. Taking the shot as a portrait blurred the background, including my reflection, and emphasized his funny look. 

Now it’s your turn.

Since you can take holiday photos of your family using your iPhone and camera, you’ll always be prepared! But don’t forget to practice the settings beforehand.

Is your second camera a DSLR or mirrorless camera? 😉 My online workshop will teach you everything you need to know about using it! Since it’s all prerecorded and online, you don’t even have to leave home to learn. Better yet, you can learn at your own pace. You can finish it in a weekend or as slowly as you’d like! https://www.carolinemaryan.com/camera-mechanics-workshops-info/

Curious about using your iPhone in Portrait mode? Here’s a post I wrote about it:  https://www.carolinemaryan.com/use-your-iphones-portrait-mode-creatively/

Do you wonder how to set the aperture of your camera? I wrote about it here. (And be sure to visit the top link, too. It will help you end your camera confusion!)  https://www.carolinemaryan.com/set-your-camera-to-aperture-mode/

I wrote more about holiday family photography (and included a photo of Santa in the antique airplane) here: https://www.carolinemaryan.com/be-your-family-paparazzi/

Apple has a detailed support article about using Portrait mode on your iPhone here: https://support.apple.com/en-mide/guide/iphone/iphd7d3a91a2/ios