They say holiday prep starts earlier and earlier each year, and there’s good reason for it. Presents and decorations aside, there’s a lot of thought, time, and energy that goes into creating and ordering holiday cards for the season—you can never start too soon! To help you create the best holiday card photos to send this year, we’ve pulled together some tips to consider when creating your cards.
1. Pick a photo card service
While this may seem out of order, we recommend choosing a holiday card service before taking the photo for your card. Selecting the right service upfront will help you determine the timing involved (since some companies have faster turnaround than others) and give you an idea of the type of layout you’ll want to use for your shoot.
So which service is the best for holiday cards? We found this nifty site that rates thetop ten photo card services/sites to use in 2014, which includes the pros and cons of the top ten companies.
2. Make it personal and authentic.
Not sure what kind of photo to take? There are hundreds of ideas online that you can you draw inspiration from—some funny, some sweet, and some that are totally weird (we’re looking at you, Awkward Family Photos!).
Whichever pose, background or theme you choose, make sure the photo reflects you and your family. You’ll want to capture your family’s unique personality so it might help to sit down as a group to discuss ideas. Anything that goes too outside of the box may feel forced—no matter how great those other photos look on Pinterest.
3. Prepare for the shoot.
For those who are taking the photo themselves, you’ll want to do a test shoot before gathering everyone around to say “cheese.” Is the lighting ok? Is the background too busy? Will you or your family need makeup? (Remember: a little powder to reduce shininess or blush to add a bit of color can go a long way in photos).
If you need some tips on how to enhance your shoot, check out our recent article oncamera specifications. This article explains the basic camera spec terminology and offers tips to help you select the right specs to take an incredible picture.
Need a clever idea?
For those who celebrate Christmas, the 25th falls on a Thursday this year—which means #tbt (also known as the “Throwback Thursday”) will be trending on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Get ahead of this trend by sending us your old Christmas photos so we can work our photo scanning magic get them digitized in time for the season!
No matter which service, theme or photo you take, don’t forget to be creative and have fun!
