Who says Christmas portraits have to be posed and old fashioned? Try having some fun with yours this year. Grab a friend or two, or perhaps a selfie, and combine that with a Christmas hat and some Christmas lights. No need to go overboard.
Keep it simple
Keep it simple and quick. In this example I hung a black sheet, but feel free to use white or red. A simple red Christmas hat and some LED Christmas lights will do the trick.
If you place some of the lights directly in front of your lens you can capture some fun bokeh as well. I turned all the lights down apart from the Christmas lights, placed the camera on a tripod and snapped away!
What’s the story?
Keep to a Christmas theme, but be sure to tell a simple story. The background of this shot was my hapless Elf was trying to untangle the lights. Clearly she got herself in quite a mess. Here’s some other stories for you to explore:
- Naughty or nice
- Season of giving
- Milk and cookies for Santa
- Elf on a shelf
It does not have to be elaborate. Keep it quick and fun and add in some gold confetti or fake snow. Don’t want people in this years Christmas portraits? No problem, grab the cat, dog, lizard or any other animal you have around the house, and set them up. That is, if you can convince them to sit long enough!
Add a message
If you are turning this into a Christmas eCard (and why not), add a Christmas message. Either write on a whiteboard or cardboard and add to the shot, or place some simple text over the image in Photoshop.
Whatever you do, have some fun with your Christmas portraits.
