December 2009

By Robert Lachman

When you?re shooting your holiday photographs or videos try to complete the circle. Think of your holiday celebration as a circle and you?re going to complete each part, from start of the season to finish, getting those photos cataloged with keywords, having prints made or even a small book from the holiday season.

1. Charge your batteries. Nothing is worse than running out of power at the key moments.

2. Clear off your flash cards, move your old photographs to the computer.

3. Buy a new flash card for the camera for more photographs if you need it. They just keep getting cheaper, as the file size of the cameras keep going up.

4. Think about getting some detail shots this year to mix it up. Adding variety really makes for a nice slide show.

5. Close-up photos you might include: ornaments on a tree, candles on a table, the wreath on the door, exterior lights on the house, an overall of the Christmas tree, special holiday plates and settings, food preparation, a clock on the wall, stockings on the fireplace, gifts wrapped under the tree, opening the presents and social gathering.

6. Shoot people in groups. This one take the most work. Think of yourself as a wedding photographer moving around the room putting those groups together into two, three or four people. It?s important to shoot 3 or 4 pics of each group. Move everyone closer together and take another photo. You will increase your odds of getting a nice photo of everyone. You can remove the bad ones later when you edit. Most people only shoot one picture and move on. This is a major mistake. Increase your odds and people will give you credit for being a good photographer. Trust me, I?ve shot thousands of pics at parties or it just seems like it.

7. If you?re using a point-and-shoot camera indoors, a lot of photographers will tell you not to shoot with the strobe because it doesn?t look good. If you?re shooting in a well lit house during the day it may be fine. For the group photos, use the strobe in low light, especially indoors at night. Most point-and-shoots don?t work well in low-light situations. No reason why you can?t try both to see how it looks.

8. Most of the photo editing programs like iPhoto or Photoshop Elements do a nice job of removing red eyes. Learn this feature and your photo snapshots will improve.

9. Remember, you?re going to complete the circle, which includes doing something with the photos. It may just mean getting them into iPhoto with keywords included, making a nice slide show with a program like iMovie or Fotomagico. Don?t forget other options like a book from Apple or Blurb. Sending the photos to everyone on a photo service like Google?s Picasa is cheap and simple. They even have software to export the pics directly from iPhoto. I use it all the time and it?s a breeze. This definitely is a great option I use all the time.

10. And, the most important: BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK UP. You do not want lose your memories. Have a great holiday!