Christmas Card Photos

I was excited to celebrate Thanksgiving at

my sister-in-law Dorothy's house this year.

I wanted to photograph my niece's 4-month-old

daughter Fiona!

I brought my big white board for a background

 and took Fifi's photo:

I added a background in Photoshop Elements 8.

I explain the process more in

this blog post.

Using the white background

allows for LOTS of creativity.

Dorothy wanted me to photograph the

four generations together.

Dorothy along with,

her mother, daughter and granddaughter

We couldn't stop snapping photos!

Now everyone wanted to pose.

Here are my nieces Crystal and Andrea:

All these photos were taken in Dorothy's

backyard on a cloudy day at 50 degrees.

I brought along Santa hats.

I like natural, unposed portraits

BEST!

My nephews didn't dress for portraits,

but with the eldest Andrew away at college...

They are rarely together to take a photo.

CLICK!

A family portrait

with a hodge-podge of outfits.

I don't have any recent photos of

my mother and father-in-law.

Great time to update!

FINALLY,

I got to photograph my own kids

who are both away at different colleges.

And the true shocker...

I'M actually in a photo!

My brother-in-law Randy shot these for me.

Our family Christmas card this year:

If you'd like to try this technique,

you can use my

Free Christmas Bokeh.

Happy Holidays!

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Christmas Bokeh

Ho! Ho! Ho!

I'm here with an early Christmas present

so you can play around with bokeh backgrounds

to make Christmas cards or fun

Christmas portraits.

I created the bokeh in all the photos on this blog post.

Bokeh simply means the beauty created by blur.

I sat in my lazy boy with my camera

across the room from my

lit Christmas tree.

I set the lens on manual focus and turned the

focus ring

 until I started seeing the

bokeh (blur) you see in these backgrounds.

You can do it too, and it's FUN!!

Try setting a longer shutter speed

and moving the camera about

to get different effects like these:

I created the pastel color by simply

lightening the bokeh photo in lightroom.

You can do that in any editing program.

Take photos of your family or friends

in front of a white wall, or hang a white sheet

behind them.

I used a large piece of white paper...

then add the background in Photoshop or Elements.

I share more of the method in my

last blog post

Since I LOVE when people share backgrounds,

my early Christmas gift to you is...

FREE bokeh backgrounds for all the photos

I showed here.

Yep, they're yours to use as you please.

Click on the bokeh photos to copy the larger size:

Try experimenting with bokeh on just one

edge of the frame.

I know you will not be able to stop

creating bokeh...

because I CAN'T STOP!

For more photo ideas check out:

Jaymi's Blog

and

Paper Heart Camera

I'll share more as the season progresses.

ENJOY!

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Christmas Portraits

It all started with the above photo.

I was taking fall portraits and was thinking ahead to

winter shoots.

I asked my client, 13 year old Amber, if she would

pose for me in a furry hood so I could practice.

I had her mother hold up a white piece of

fabric behind Amber to make it look

sorta snowy:

We shot these in 80-degrees in

my sister's front yard!

We dug out hats and scarves...

We had a "winter" BLAST!

I added backgrounds in Photoshop Elements 8.

In layers, add the background, then use

the eraser to remove the background from

your subject. 

I borrowed the neighbor's baby

and had MORE fun.

Gabrielle is pretty in pink.

You can find lots of these free backgrounds

online.

The idea

Snowballed!

I made my sister pose...

And, her husband Joe pose.

Hey, why not do a Christmas card photo?

Of course, I had to Santa up my niece Megan.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Since Megan and I both love

Pink:

Then we added props...my

brother-in-law's childhood sled.

The creativity of using a white background

and adding textures, snowflakes, and props is

ENDLESS!

My own daughter Lindsay posed for me

in my favorite red coat.

I bought that for 19 bucks when I was in college

a LONG time ago.

I collected tons of hats, scarves and mittens for just pennies

from various thrift stores.  I also look for wonderful

coats, furry collars, and vests...all for just a few dollars.

Now when I do a photo shoot, I ask the client

to pick a hat from the bin and pose in front of

a white background.

They end up being my clients' favorite.

I hope this sparks your imagination

for photos this holiday season!

You can use my FREE bokeh

backgrounds by

CLICKING HERE

and

HERE

Check out other great photo ideas at:

Jaymi's Blog

and

Paper Heart Camera

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