How to take photos of your children at Christmas.

Have you ever wondered how you can take better photos of your kids at Christmas?

Well, I’ve collated some of the top tips I’ve learnt over the years of photographing my own children to help you capture that Christmas magic.

Light

People often try to take their Christmas photos during the evening because that’s when the lights are twinkling and the candles are lit. But actually it’s a lot easier if you take them during the day and use natural light to frame your subject.

So, my first tip is to use natural light and lots of it!

Using natural light to photograph my son decorating the Christmas tree

Things to notice in this photograph:

I took it during the morning on the day we decorated our Christmas tree so I had plenty of natural light streaming in from the patio doors.
I made sure all other lights in the room were turned off which made the fairy lights on the tree pop and meant the rest of the room was darker and therefore not so much of a distraction.
I asked my son to put his decorations on the side of the tree nearest the patio door so his face was bathed in light and I stood with the tree between me and the patio doors so the only light was going onto his face and not directly into the camera.

But what if you do really want to capture some of that Christmas glow on Christmas Eve? Well, fairy lights can be really fun to play with and they give a beautiful, softness to your light.

So, my second top tip, is to use fairy lights.

Using fairy lights in Christmas photographs

Things to notice in this photograph:

You can see from the view out of the window that this photo was taken much later in the day and there is very little natural light.
So it was very important that I get as much light as possible onto my son’s face from the fairy lights. So I placed him as close to the tree as possible and asked him to reach into branches to find a decoration (which I’d hidden in there) which he could then attach to the tree. This bought me enough time to get the photo I wanted.
But, I also cheated a little bit! Behind the tree, is a standard lamp (which was there anyway) but as it was totally hidden from view by the tree, I was able to switch it on to give the fairy lights a stronger glow. Please note, this would not have worked if the light wasn’t behind the tree because the light would have been too strong and a distraction.

Things to notice in this photograph:

I took this when my son was about 4 months so before he wasn’t on the move!
I draped some fairy lights over the side of our sofa and then covered them with a cream/white blanket which was big enough to extend out over the carpet too.
I then lay my son on the floor in front of the sofa and I lay on the floor to take the photograph so I was down low.
The blanket softened the fairy lights and meant you can’t see the cables and wires but they give enough light to frame his little profile which is what I wanted to capture.

Leave space between your subject and the fairy lights

Things to notice about this photograph:

This was on Christmas Eve and I wanted to get a photo of my youngest in his Christmas pyjamas in front of the tree.
On this occasion I placed him quite a way in front of the Christmas tree because I wanted the fairy lights to have this ‘bokeh’ effect - which is when they go all blurry and you get these blobs of light instead of being clear and sharp.

Don’t forget that when you look back at photographs of Christmas in years to come, it’s not just the photos of people which will bring back memories.

My last top tip is to photograph the objects, decorations, activities you do which will always remind you of Christmas.

Things to notice about this photograph:

Natural light is key here again - the light was streaming in through the windows but it was quite late in the day which gives it a warmer tone.
I got down low to the table so the focus is purely on the cookies and not on anything else in the background.