Shooting Tips for the Festive Season

The festive season often brings with it plenty of photo opportunities, whether it’s family pictures, picturesque winter landscapes, or Christmas markets; the merry period is an ideal time to capture beautiful memories, and whilst the weather may let us down over winter, there’s no reason why your images have to suffer!

To make sure you capture stunning pictures this Christmas, photographer John Clements has rounded up his top ten tips for shooting over the festive period:

1). Prepare equipment before the season gets into full swing. Ready flash units, charge batteries, format storage cards etc.

2). Shoot less but better quality to avoid an enormous post-capture workflow.

3). Capture more formal portraits earlier than later. As we’re all probably quite familiar with, people's attire and general demeanour can somewhat deteriorate as the day goes on.

4). Keep a camera and flash to hand for those magical unscripted moments and consider leaving both switched on in standby modes for a quick reaction.

5). If no suitable ceiling is available, then a large FlashBender from Rogue attached to your flash still allows light from a more pleasing direction.

6). A speedlight is the most wonderful tool at any time. For ease of shooting, consider bouncing upwards into a neutral surface, which in turn gives a wider spread of light and more flattering people shots.  

7). Keep a festive season visual diary - the pictures that can be taken throughout the season truly tell the story.

8). Don't forget daylight; outdoor portraits under winter sunshine conditions backlighting a subject, filling in from the front with flash can look wonderful. Perfect for that seasonal walk.

9). Enjoy being the photographer. Don't have too much equipment as it gets in the way! You'll be amazed at what you can achieve with one camera, lens and flash.

10). Raising your ISO allows handheld shots without flash to remain discrete and helps speed up flash recycling times if one is attached. 

Happy shooting and Merry Christmas!