How to make your festive photography shine

Christmas and the holiday season are upon us! That means lots of presents, sweets, and festivities. But festivities are incomplete photography. Taking good pictures in festive seasons especially when there are outdoor gatherings and lots of people involved can be tricky. A lot of things are happening simultaneously, you need to be quick with your clicks to capture key moments to forever memorialize special events.
Let’s go through some tips and tricks you need to keep in mind to make your festive photography shine. 

​1.    Lights Lights Lights, Watch for Lighting Effects

You can’t have festivities without lighting effects. From small fairy lights to large strobe lights, lighting conditions can vary greatly from venue to venue. Especially during Christmas when there are lots of decorated trees just begging to be photographed. 

A Christmas tree in Warsaw, Poland by Valentyn Chernetskyi via Unsplash

​Just make sure that you keep the strongest lights towards your back, this way you won’t wash your images. Also, tinker with ISO settings and shutter speed times to get the perfect-looking picture. Remember, you can’t fix everything post-production, so making sure you get a good raw picture is also important.
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2.    Getting your kit ready

The most common mistake people make when going out to photograph festivities is to pack extensive equipment. Equipment that they may not even use all night. So make sure you only carry things you will definitely use. No use in carrying extra weight, you are supposed to be taking good pictures not weight training! 

By Aravind Kumar via Unsplash

​Substitute bigger equipment for more compact equipment. For example instead of taking a huge tripod, just pack a small monopod. Also, make sure you are wearing comfortable clothing and shoes.
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3.    Include People

Festivities are all about people and the things that bring them together. Just taking photographs of decorations and the overall scene without focusing on people will make sure pictures look shallow. 

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milano, Italy by redcharlie via Unsplash

Include crowds, include children, and include couples in your shots. These are the things that are actually the soul of holidays; people coming together. If can include these scenes in your shots, you will have captured the perfect festival photographs.
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Edit your festive shots in the Urban Jungle Photo Editor.  Available on the Apple App Store.

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