Tips for Shooting the Best Photos at Family Events

By Autumn Lockwood

Holidays including Easter and Christmas and events like birthday parties and reunions are great times to try and take pictures of your family and friends. Among the best photos in your collection (those which you've got on display in picture frames on the desk or mantel) were likely taken during a family social gathering. The ideas that follow will help you to grab the best pictures possible at your next family get-together.

Be Sure to Plan In Advance

Make sure that you learn how to work the camera to its fullest capabilities. Get out your camera's owner's manual well before the event, and figure out how to use many functions that the camera comes with. Most people use only one or two of the most popular functions of their camera, although new cameras can do almost all of the hard work for you. Make certain that you charge your batteries before the function, and take an extra battery pack or extra set of batteries with you. Make sure that your memory card has got sufficient space for the pictures that you're planning to take, or take an extra memory card with you, too.

Tell Your Family's Tale

Whatever the event, when you take your pictures you are able to tell a narrative in regards to the people and the party that made everything special. For instance, if you're attending a reunion that takes place during the period of several days, you are able to document your departure from your home, your arrival at a venue, the people that attended the event, and sets of people at the event, such as all of the first generation, second generation, and so forth.

Simplistic Backdrop

Although you will have a variety of things happening at once at the function, the backdrop of the pictures must not feel busy. Pick an uncluttered backdrop and then concentration on the subject of the photograph, and this will give you a strong and memorable photograph. Position your subjects, when possible, against a non-moving, non-distracting, plain backdrop. Inversely, moving your own body around a few feet one way or another can occasionally remove distractions from the background.

Get a Number of Candid Shots

Lots of people, particularly in a group setting, are inclined to take tons and tons of staged or posed shots, with their subjects staring directly at the camera. But the truly magnificent pictures, the ones that you'll be framing in elegant picture frames and displaying on the fireplace mantel, are those candid shots that demonstrate the subject's personality.

If you do just a little bit of planning, preparation, and forethought, the images that you take at your next family gathering will be truly fabulous. Actually, you may be surprised by how well your photos turn out - and decide that they are worthy of displaying in beautiful picture frames throughout your home or office.

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