5 Easy DIY Christmas Photos - Safety First
Around this time of year all sorts of creative and festive images start flooding our social media feeds. It is really important to remember that a lot of these kinds of images are created with photoshop to keep babies and children safe.
There are so many things that might seem like a cute idea for a photo but can put your precious baby in harms way such as wrapping them in fairy lights, taping the kids to a wall, hanging a baby in a stocking or putting your baby in a glass bowl full of baubles. These images are not safe, please do not do this.
But because I know how fun it is to take your own photos of your kids in Christmas theme, here are a couple of simple ways to take a safe and special photo of your kids this year.
1 - WRAPPING PAPER BACKDROP
It looks almost like a studio photo, but here is the secret, its just wrapping paper!
TIPS:
- Choose a matt paper. Shiny, reflective paper doesnt photograph well
- You may need 2 strips of paper on the wall to make a big enough backdrop
- Try to have your main light source (i.e. large window) behind you or to the side of you
- Turn your flash off
- Sit your child around a metre in front of the backdrop so it will be a bit blurry
- If you have a DLSR set your f stop to about 3.2 to get a nice blurry background
- Get down low, on your tummy even, to take the photo at their level
- For babies, you can give them a Christmas teddy to hold or for toddlers a seat will help keep them in place for a few seconds while you take the photo
2 - CANDY CANE LOVE HEART
This one is pretty obvious, there's not much more I can say on how to capture it. It took a few tries to get the heart shape just right but we got there in the end! The girls still talk about this photo and make candy cane love hearts together!
3 - SANTA HANDING OUT PRESENTS
To add Santa into your photos without much hassle you can create a fake arm with a cheap stocking, cut the toes open, slip a white glove on (in my case I use a white exfoliating glove!) insert the arm and boom, Santa hand!
Heres a video of how it works:
4 - ADD A SIMPLE PROP
You can easily create a Christmas themed photo with a small prop such as a miniature tree, an oversized present or reindeer ears!
5 - READING A MAGICAL BOOK / OPENING MAGIC PRESENT
This is a little trickier, but a fun one to try if you're inclined! The light coming from the book or the box is just a phone, but with the house lights off and the sparkles from the tree behind, it all comes together magically! Make sure you are not using a flash or it will ruin t he lighting technique. I used the following settings to capture the image and then processed it in camera RAW and photoshop to get the finished result.
I hope you enjoy having fun creating some magical Christmas photos with your own family this year, stay safe and Merry Christmas!
