As the holiday season approaches, thought we’d repost our ‘party snapshot’ tips from last year!
This is our original article (to see the version published in US Weekly scroll down to the bottom).
HOW TO TAKE THE BEST HOLIDAY SNAPSHOTS :
1. PREPARATION.
This includes everything from charging your batteries and clearing your memory cards to identifying your subjects, knowing your camera and scouting locations and lighting. Put some thought into the shots you’d like to capture – googling images always helps to fuel creativity – and make a shotlist so you don’t forget anybody, anywhere or anything that sparked your imagination. Doing your homework allows you to be more relaxed and present in the moments, a relationship that will show through in your photographs.
(shotlist : individual shots of each person, different combinations of group shots, areas with good lighting or textures for portrait shots, details of ornaments, the food and drinks, creative ideas, inside/outside, make sure you weasel yourself into a photograph too.)
2. PERSPECTIVE
Get close! Don’t be afraid to get intimate with the details that matter. Give the photograph a focus by honing in on what caught your eye. Play around with different angles, standing above people or crouching down to a child’s eye view. Be creative with zooming in and out on the same shot. It’s okay to take a lot of photos but switch up the perspective to avoid repetition. Don’t be scared to experiment especially when it comes to digital media there is no such thing as mistakes.
3. LOOK VS FEEL. CANDID VS CONTROLLED
It is so important to shoot candidly and capture the essence of a moment. These will generally be the ‘golden’ shots that you almost feel uncomfortable taking credit for. A good set of photographs needs its share of these but don’t forget that when you are looking back in 10 years a boring closeup of your uncles face could mean more to you then it did at the time. So try and balance your candids but don’t be afraid to control your environment to pose the shots that aren’t coming together. You need to know when to be assertive and when to go with the flow.
written by Maui Maka Photography
published in US Weekly
See the PUBLISHED ARTICLE HERE
Maui Maka 