Take family photos that are frame worthy when using these tips on how to take better holiday pictures by the Christmas tree.
The Christmas tree makes for the perfect backdrop to capture fun holiday images. Heat up some hot chocolate and use that to bribe your kiddos into smiling big for the camera.
The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.
The holidays is the perfect time to pull out the DSLR camera and take magical images of your family that they will cherish for years to come. It’s easy to snap great photos when using these tips and editing the images in Adobe Premiere Elements 2020.
Steps to taking better holiday photos
- Turn off all the lights – The goal is to have the entire house dark and the only light should be coming from the tree. The lights from the tree will appear much brighter in a dark room.
- Use a tripod – A tripod to keep the camera from shaking is a must!
- Turn off the flash – No flash is needed. Turn off the flash, use the tripod and let the glow of the lights work their magic.
- High ISO – Since you will be shooting in low lighting, you will want a high ISO.
- Aperture – To get your subject to stand out, you want to use a small f stop (between 1.4-2.5) to catch the lights from the tree to give it a glow.
- Be still – Tell your subjects to stand still! Because you are shooting in low light and have a lower shutter speed, you want minimal movement.
Edit Christmas Photos
Once you have your adorable family Christmas photos, it’s time to edit them. Using Adobe Premiere Elements 2020 makes it easy to adjust the vibrance, exposure and to make other edits. You can even create videos, text overlays or add graphics.
Additional Tips for Christmas Photos
Wear cute pajamas – Dress you family in fun and festive pajamas. Add a cup of hot cocoa and let them sip on the drink while you are snapping away.
Get a good camera – I use a Nikon D7500 and it takes amazing images! My favorite lens is the 50 mm which always gives images that bokeh effect in the background.
Adobe Premiere Elements 2020 Specs
- Software Subject: Video conversion, Video editing
- Editing Type(s): Color correction, Effects, Filters, Image, Text
- Automatic Editing Options: Yes
- Operating System: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, macOS 10.13, macOS 10.15, macOS Mojave 10.14
- Compatible Platform(s): Mac, Windows
- System Requirements: 2GHz or faster processor with SSE2 support; 4GB of RAM (8GB recommended); 6.1GB HDD (Win), 8GB HDD (Mac); 1280×800 display resolution (at 100% scale factor); DVD-ROM drive; Internet connection required for product activation and content download
Adobe Premiere Elements 2020
Exploring and creating design elements in Elements is so much fun! The program makes it easy to create time lapse videos, animate skies in photos with the help of Guided Edits. Improve grainy low-light clips with the Reduce Noise effect.
Photos, Movies and More
I’ve been using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for years, and I’m excited to have this program to now help with putting together slideshows and videos to share with family.
What’s great about this program is that it’s so easy to learn with the tutorials. Easily make movies in the Quick Edit mode, and put your clips, transitions, text, effects and more with Sceneline. Highlight memorable moments with beautiful effects, slideshows, and collages powered by the Adobe Sensei AI technology.
Be sure to order your copy of Adobe Premiere Elements 2020 at Best Buy to take your photography and video skills to the next level.
