If you take your own Xmas card pics...

UBMyBaby

what do you use for your backdrop? 

Your own tree?  a mall display?  outside?

I'm going to take my own pics in the next couple days so I can order my cards, but I feel like my backgrounds are kind of lame...Our tree is pretty but I don't know how it will show up on a pic...maybe too busy.

 And how in the world will I get them both to smile at the same time AND look at the camera?  Yikes.
 

 

crazynervous

Last year I just had the tree behind us and made it a close up of us. Mostly head and shoulders so not a lot of the tree showed.  This year I uses a white sheet and a couple small evergreens around us and it was a more full body shot.  I don't like this years as much. I think because it is too much going on.  I had my brother come and take this years and a neighbor take last years. I recommend someone else taking the pic even if you aren't going to be in it so you can keep everyones attention.   Hope that helps.

Jen2004

My friend is a photographer, so she does it for me.... We do it in B&W with a backdrop... nice and simple.

mom2binKC

OK, I am totally a novice at photography, but I have been experimenting with settings on our camera and have gotten some nice results by using the "portrait" mode (usually marked "P" on the camera).  It seems to work best for me if the subject (DD) is several feet from the camera, and she's pretty far from the background.  For instance, I took some fall leaves pics outside, and she was standing probably 10' from the colorful shrubs, and I was about 5' from her, zooming in just a bit.  The result when I do this is a nice, focused close-up of DD, with a kind of fuzzy background.  That might work well in front of the tree--so that you get the green and red of the tree and ornaments, but it's not so busy.  Here's this year's Christmas card pic:

The other thing that worked well was to use a black blanket as a backdrop.  I draped it down the wall and onto the floor, so it was behind and under DD.  Used lots of indirect light (in a room with natural light and lots of windows), but no light fixtures on.  This was last year's Christmas card pic:

This one was particularly challenging because of working with the Christmas lights, but without those, it would have been much easier, and I think the plain background is nice.

Good luck!

shopgirl78

I take lots of Christmas portraits with my camera but I don't make my own cards for this holiday for the reasons you state above.???I do my own for everything else but not Christmas. ?I don't know if my family would rather have the cheesy JC Penny photos or mine. ?

UBMyBaby

Oh these are good ideas!!!  I'm off to check my camera for settings and to see what I can come up with. Thanks gals!

mrsterry

I usually just use our Christmas tree as the backdrop.  This year I used my mom's fireplace.  Getting everyone to look at the camera AND smile at the same time is a bit challenging, but it can be done.  You just have to be ready behind the camera to capture it (and all of the outtakes leading to it).

Good luck....it is fun after all of the frustration subsides (and usually only after you know have at least one usable picture).  lol