How Do I Take a Family Christmas Photo On My Phone
This was by no means the money shot. At least we coooordinated. cut us a break, It was our first year of trying to wrangle 3 tiny humans to smile on cue and look to the camera. Read the post below to avoid some of our mistakes.
How do I take a family photo on my Iphone (or Android)? Fall is the best time to do it because it isn't freezing outside. You don't have to wear a coat or jacket for the few minutes to take a photo. It can give beautiful sunlight and change in leaves if you are photographed by a tree. T You can absolutely take fall photos on your phone and use for Christmas cards. Below are the steps of taking good family photos at home or anywhere.
Pick a color scheme.
How should I dress for a large family photo? Decide on this first so that it will make the other steps of taking the photos easier. If you love your clothes, the background won't matter as much. Afterall your family’s smiling faces are the stars of the show. If there is one color that you love /looks great on all the family members use that as a base. For example if everyone looks great in maroon, then search google for colors that go well with maroon.
In this example, I chose burgundy and navy since that is a color combination I used in the past.
Buy The outfits.
Once you decide on the colors, it then frees you to purchase outfits from various retailers that coordinate with the color theme and body types. As a suggestion, avoid loud and/or busy prints/ designs that include other colors outside of the color scheme. It could make buying a cohesive look hard. If there are prints or designs, keep them small and avoid graphic tees because that would cause people to squint and try to read the shirt versus looking at the whole picture. I would also suggest starting with the tiny humans of the family first. It's easy to find similar color schemes at Carters and then find adult options to fit in.
Take photos
Decide where you want to take the photos. The easiest place is picking a park you and the family frequent that has a nice backdrop of trees. The trees are ok with any color combo and won't clash. You can obviously select other backdrops but this will require more thought. Is it too distracting? When can I go when no one is around? If it is a private space, when do I reserve it? In my opinion, picking places other than a public park makes it tougher unless you have a clear vision and plan for executing the photoshoot well in advance.
Purchase a tripod with a timer remote to take the photos yourself. Take multiple group shots plus some other shots. Take a shot of each person by themselves and take a siblings shot and a parents picture. The reasoning for this is just in case you can't get everyone to smile at the same time and in the same direction, you can “piece” the pictures to get her in the way that the family looks best. You can take the parents photo and do a digital collage with individual photos of the kids since you couldn't get it all in one shot. This also relieves the pressure of getting the perfect shot. Honestly, I m a fan of the action shot or improtu poses/movements sometimes creates the best memories. No family is perfect.
Print Photos
Take your best shots and use a service like Shutterfly or Snap fish that have templates for holiday postcards that all you need to do is add names and pop in the photos you want to use. If you are feeling artsy, I would suggest using Canva. Canva also has templates that you can use for postcards and you can still print through Shutterfly or send to a CVS or Walgreens to print out in photo dimensions.
Mail Photos
The easiest way to collect addresses is to use a service like Minted to text a link to friends and family. They will enter in their address and if you choose birthdays and anniversary information. That information can be downloaded into a spreadsheet to use to print labels. Then print a set of return address labels. Spend a movie night placing address stickers on the cards and sealing them.
You can easily do a family photoshoot that has a great look. This is especially the move if you have monetary or scheduling constraints. The biggest tip I can provide is timing. Complete all of the steps before Thanksgiving. I suggest this so that you can get it done before the holiday season gets kicked off and it gets hectic. Also I suggest mailing a week before Thanksgiving or at least have it ready to just drop off at the post office on Black Friday. That way you're not adding to your holiday to do list unnecessarily. I have done photos before and have not sent them out because I got busy and never finished the process. GASP. Your future self will thank you.