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5 Photography Ideas for the Christmas Season

Christmas has come around once again! As we’re starting to work our way through our advent calendars, many of us photographers will be thinking about how best to capture the season through photos. The wintery atmosphere and the presence of family means this festive period is ripe for shooting landscapes, portraits and even more. Keep reading for our list of five Christmas photography ideas to keep you occupied, and to make memories!

3 Type of Christmas Photography | Tutorial Tuesday Video

1: Lean into the winter landscapes

This December, it’s worth getting out there and capturing a series of photos that capture the wintery charm of the month. On frosty or snowy mornings (fingers crossed!), you have the perfect opportunity to take pictures that scream Christmas.

Try to capture a certain mystery – you can create some really magical photos by working with misty scenes. Trying to recreate the wonder of old Christmas films and books is nice to work towards in the British landscape, with so many classic Yuletide stories inspired by it. You can evoke childhood memories with your landscape photography simply by leaning into simple wintery scenes that take you back to Decembers gone by.

You can even focus simply on the details – leafless trees, holly leaves, frosty grass and icicles all inspire festive thoughts. Go out and explore your local landscape, and find what inspires you!

2: Christmas food photography

Food is the centrepiece of any good Christmas. Therefore, if you’re particularly proud of any dishes served up over this festive season, why not try your hand at some food photography? This surprisingly complex genre involves a whole load of creativity, which may help to keep your photography brain engaged this Christmas.

All great photos need storytelling, and food photography is no different. However, the environmental storytelling involved with photographing festive food is taken care of for you – with dishes that embody the essence of the season, and plenty of props around to combine into your scene, you’ll be provided with ample opportunity to produce some mouth-watering photos to show off to your friends, family, and more.

For food photography, you’re likely to want a fast prime lens for maximum quality, however any lens available will do. The real effort lies in your composition, staging, and lighting. It’s important to know your angles with food photography – switching between an oblique and birds-eye view can pick out different details in any dish. Furthermore, a little styling can go a long way – exercise your creativity to stage perfect Christmas dishes!

While it’s not explicitly food photography, capturing photos of you and your family cooking, baking, and sharing dishes this Christmas can make for some wonderful shots. If you’re photographing yourself, then consider setting your camera up on a tripod and taking a sequence of shots with your camera’s timelapse mode.

3: Christmas portraits

Christmas lends itself to a huge range of portrait photography opportunities, with no shortage of props and joyful expressions. Therefore, Christmas portrait photography results in memories to last a lifetime.

One important thing to try this Christmas is to take some candid portraits. As such a busy time for family and tradition, there’s likely to be plenty of opportunities to picture your loved ones enjoying the season. However you celebrate, capturing memories of your festive traditions is a great way to produce some heart-warming Christmas photos.

Using props like tinsel, lights, Christmas jumpers and even costumes can result in some amusing portraits. Make use of what you have lying around to take memorable photos this season… If you’re looking to get more involved with your portraits, consider purchasing a Christmas backdrop for some interesting shots.

For perfect Christmas portraits, using subject recognition autofocus is essential. Whether you’re shooting candid portraits or posing for family photos, it ensures you’ll never miss a moment by locking onto the face of your subject. Incorporating standard embellishments like bokeh into your portraits is important, too. To lean into a warm, cosy vibe, try adjusting your white balance to a warmer setting.

4: Take advantage of Christmas lights

Christmas lights provide the perfect opportunity to capture some stunning photos. Firstly, string lights can be incredibly powerful as sources of bokeh in your photos. By including them in the out-of-focus areas of your shots, you can make your photos feel truly glamorous, and give your photos a professional appeal. With this, you can get increasingly creative – for example, dangling string lights in front of your lens adds bokeh circles that frame the subject of your shot.

Christmas lights are also brilliant sources of warm, artificial light. This makes them perfect as flattering portrait lights, which can be held, hoisted up and directed anywhere. Their versatility allows for a huge amount of creativity when lighting a subject, whether they’re visible in your composition or not. 

Lastly, Christmas lights are everywhere! When the daylight drops, you can explore your local town or city and shoot urban Christmas scenes. The perfect time to do this is during the blue hour – in the hour after the sun sets, the sky is a deep blue, which contrasts the lights perfectly but avoids any issues with dynamic range by providing just enough natural light to the surroundings. 

To get the perfect glow effect from lights in your surroundings, consider setting up a long exposure with a tripod. With the moving lights of cars, and the brighter stationary Christmas lights dotted around, you can put together a mesmerising festive scene.

5: Christmas card photography

Christmas cards are a brilliant opportunity to share a bit of festive joy this season, which are made priceless by a custom photo card design. Sharing photos of your family or simply a wintery, festive photo that you’re proud of on a card is a great way to engage with photography and take part in the Christmas tradition.

Try to make your image memorable with a bit of humour, and include seasonal subjects and props that evoke thoughts of the season. For example, if you’re taking a group photo, consider an immediately recognisable backdrop, like your Christmas tree. When photographing for print, you’ll need the best image quality you can get, so shoot RAW, clean your sensor and ensure everything is in focus.

To print your cards, you can purchase an A4 printer that can handle thick card, and won’t cost more than it needs to. Alternatively, you can purchase plain white cards and mount photos from a compact printer onto them, which is a great cost-effective way to make Christmas cards.

However, you do have the chance to get more creative than a card this Christmas. Photo gifts can be a precious keepsake for family members and loved ones, and go the extra mile to show them you care. Some popular choices of photo gifts include:

• Photo mugs: whether you’re choosing a standard mug or a unique Christmas mug, these photo gifts are a classic. 
• Photo slates and coasters: a creative, rugged way to display your photos.
• Photo blocks: a standalone alternative to a traditional canvas print.
• Photo wrapping paper: if you’re looking to go all out with your gifting, this could be the perfect way to send a truly unique gift this Christmas.

For a wider range of ways to share your photos, explore our list of photo services, where we take care of printing, developing and even more.

Shot by food photographer Paul Gregory

We hope this article has given you the inspiration to get shooting photos this Christmas. Get in touch with us on our pages on Facebook, Twitter (X) and Instagram, we’d love to see how you’re celebrating this year!

Feel free to explore our vast range of digital cameras, lenses and seasonal offers today. From all of us at Park Cameras, we wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

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By Thom Pyle on 18/12/2024