Get Organized Now for Christmas - Day 16 - More Christmas Photos

Use these tips to capture great photos of Christmas, Hanukkah, or the mid-winter holiday of your preference.

Whether you are photographing the symbolic subjects of the holidays or your friends and family, get creative. This means paying special attention to how you organize the various elements in each photo. There are two main concepts to keep in mind when composing the scene artistically:

(1.) Off-center your main subject.
Instead of placing your main subject in the center of the scene - with a lot of dead space around it - move your camera until this subject is off to the side. This works especially well if you can balance your main subject with something in the background, on the other side of the picture. For example, if you are photographing a beautiful candle, try placing it on the right with the Christmas tree (or an equivalent supporting element) blurred softly in the background on the left. This will result in a photo that both records the candle in all its beauty and does so in an artistic, creative way.

(2.) Move in close.
Moving in close is the one thing that will make the biggest difference in the success of your picture-taking. The simple fact is the audiences are always more impressed when the subject is huge and impossible to miss. Therefore, you want your subject to fill the frame. Say you are photographing the candle mentioned above, but don't have a Christmas tree (or its equivalent supporting element) in the background. In this case, you might want to instead move in as close as you can. Causing the entire frame to be filled with your subject will inevitably result in a photo that has true impact on your viewer.