Smooth Sailing Family Photo Day Tips

Pre-Planning and Coor­di­na­tion is Key

It’s not always easy to get the per­fect can­did shot, so why would I even begin to think a group photo can be coor­di­nated and smooth sail­ing? I must be nuts, right? Nope, it can be easy 1 — 2 — 3 “say cheese” to have your per­fect Hol­i­day fam­ily pho­tos. The only trou­ble you’ll have is choos­ing which one of your favorites to use for cards.

Sched­ul­ing the Per­fect Shoot Time

A good plan­ner knows they have to sched­ule around everyone’s life. This means you’ll need to start early enough to accom­mo­date daily rou­tines, espe­cially around the hol­i­days. Many com­pa­nies have hol­i­day par­ties and these can start early in Novem­ber and member’s of your fam­ily may have one or two to attend. Then you have naps and meal times to con­sider, be sure to con­sider these when plan­ning. Every par­ent knows you can­not get a sleepy cranky child to be pleas­ant and sit still to boot. Imag­ine? Lit­tle cranky pants Betty Sue with a sour puss on. Or worse, crying!

What to Wear?

Yep, you prob­a­bly want to con­sider this one care­fully. Do you want a theme to go on your Christ­mas Cards this year? Or, just dressed up? Will you dress down? I’ve seen some really won­der­ful fam­ily pho­tos with broth­ers and sis­ters dressed in medium blue jeans (not too dark and not light) with black tur­tle necks on. Really great photo.

Posi­tion­ing and Posing

How will every­one be posi­tioned? Will you have them all pose a cer­tain pose? You could do the tra­di­tional fam­ily photo with every­one stand­ing and sit­ting in a uni­form group. Or, maybe you want some­thing a lit­tle more casual and just want them to stand together sort of hap­haz­ardly just being nat­u­rally happy.

Theme Any­one?

The word theme comes to mind for me here. Do you want a theme? Will you have a spe­cial back drop, like a fire place, Christ­mas tree, out­side next to some­thing spe­cial, etc.? Just be care­ful what­ever you choose isn’t too busy; it’ll take away from the photo. Of course, not hav­ing a spe­cial theme doesn’t mean your pho­tos won’t be beau­ti­ful and per­fect. Some­times less is more.

Dif­fer­ent Angles: Move That Cam­era Around!

Get out the tri­pod or be pre­pared to boss your des­ig­nated pho­tog­ra­pher around! Make sure your pho­tog doesn’t get lead feet and stuck in one spot. Make ‘em move around to get all those spe­cial shots you’re going to just fall in love with. Don’t for­get, you may want to blow up one or a few and hang them up on a wall.

Keep the Cam­era Handy and Ready

Be ready to snap those spe­cial moments. Can­did shots can be the most spe­cial and make the best images for your Christ­mas cards. Who says you have to group every­one together for that one per­fect pic­ture? Why not have a col­lage of images in one? Spe­cial cap­tured moments of those you love to share with every­one on your card list.

Tip: Think of all the pos­si­ble things that could go wrong. Expect it. Come up with a pre­ven­tion plan and head it off, have a great photo shoot for your Hol­i­day Cards.

Regard­less if you’re a bit of a photo expert or a novice (like me) to a down­right extreme begin­ner, Shutterfly’s Fam­ily Photo Day web­site has a really great down­load­able toolkit to make it eas­ier and add a lit­tle flare to your pho­tos. Dur­ing the Hol­i­days Shutterfly’s goal is to inspire cre­ative fam­ily pho­tos early enough for hol­i­day cards. So, get to plan­ning and get your cam­era ready!

What do you think? Will you be plan­ning a fam­ily photo day? How do you plan to pull it all together? I hope you’ll come back here and tell me about it. I’d love to know how you planned it, pulled it off, and if it was smooth sail­ing for you.

Dis­clo­sure:
This post is part of a Global Influ­ence cam­paign for Shut­ter­fly. To thank me for my par­tic­i­pa­tions, Shut­ter­fly will pro­vide me 50 free cards. I will receive no other com­pen­sa­tion and all tips and opin­ions are my own.