This website uses affiliate links at no cost to you. Thank you.
November 19, 2013

Easy Christmas Card Photos

I know, I know respect the bird! Usually I don't even consider Christmas until Thanksgiving is over, but there are so few days in between Christmas and Thanksgiving this year, and with not feeling great, I have to get things in when I can. 


Therefore, I took Henry's Christmas pictures a little early this year. They were so easy and so cute, that I had to share! 



First, the setup. It was a simple white sheet, some Christmas lights and ornaments. The lights are taped to my fireplace and the ornaments are hung with pipe cleaners. So, all stuff I had sitting around! I used my Cannon T2i and a 50mm lens for this shoot. 


The room has a large picture window in it to let plenty of natural light in. However, the natural light washed out the Christmas lights, so I had to shut one of my (very light colored curtains) to help get this effect. 

To get the nice blurry background I had to play around with a couple things. One was my f-stop. I turned it to a f2.0. My lens could go lower, but I found that I couldn't get a clear enough picture of a wiggly toddler with it any lower. 


Second, I had to move my subject away from the background. I tried with a stool first. If the stool was too close to the background, the background wouldn't blur. Move the stool a couple of feet, and the whole effect changed. 




Getting Henry to cooperate was by far the hardest part. That required left-over Halloween candy, and bribes for Henry's ultimate treat -- a glass of juice. I took probably close to 200 pictures, and I'm glad I did, I think we got some really cute ones! 




*post contains affiliate links 



Support me

Comments

Sarah
Sarah said…
Aww! He's just too darn cute!
Amy @ No Greater Honors
I LOVE these pictures! :) You have almost convinced me to eventually invest in a better camera! :) I have to say, I love Henry's pouty lip, although I'm sure it cuter when prompted than when it comes on it's own!
Stela pattinson
Stela pattinson said…
Children are very innocent and they like doing these type of decoration on different occasions. They are cute and there designs are not that beautiful but still it look good as they do it with efforts. Fireplace is decorated nicely.Nowadays Fireplaces have become symbol of fashion and that is why constructed almost everywhere.
Michele Chronister
Too adorable!!! Those curls...Oh my goodness!!!
Anonymous
Anonymous said…
Great tutorial. Thank you.
Chelley N
Chelley N said…
Great photos! All the expressions are priceless!